Reproduction UC Track availability?

[tankbarrell]

Originally Posted by ajmac

No, but... let me tell you a story.... that chap I mentioned with the machine shop.
He does everything he does for the Love of it and winning VSSC races, which perhaps says something about the man I guess
He has got to a break point now where he is making money had over fist

So not just for the love of it then!

Seriously though, he sounds like a great guy, without his efforts, many people would probably not have their cars running.

[Blackpowder44 (RIP)]

A friend of mine has a WWII Jap tank which he is having restored in Poland. The Poles are having a new set of tracks made for it, maybe worth looking in that direction. I can find out the email of the restorers if anyone is interested. John.

[motto]

For the TV series 'The Pacific' which was mostly shot in Australia, three Japanese light tanks were built from the ground up. The tracks were made up of links cast off an original borrowed from the AWM Canberra. The word on set had it that the tracks alone cost $120,000 Australian for the three vehicles or $40,000 a set. At that time about 20,000 GBP.
One interesting detail is that the holes for the pins were miss- drilled by the machine shop so that when the track was assembled it was curved. The fix used was to assemble the track using under size pins allowing the track to run straight when installed over the wheels. The vehicles were a little bit prone to throwing them.
Keep an eye on the quality. It's difficult enough at home let alone, as mentioned earlier, in China.
David

[eddy8men]

hi fella's
just had a thought about the track problem not sure if it's do-able but i'm assuming the problem with old track is the pins get worn and the holes get elongated would it not sound viable to drill the links out to a larger diameter and fit new pins to suite.let me know what you think, there's some new old stock track on ebay for £3k and an axle for £1.5k which is about double what i'd expect to pay but then if you're the only guy in town with new track then you can charge what you want.
i met a great guy on saturday, a carrier owner with loads of track in his shed just goes to show it's still out there !

eddy

[Jordan Baker]

Ive been reading all these postings over the past little while and don't want to rain on anyones parade. However this has all been discoused a few times over a couple of years ago. The end result is price and figuring out the metalurgy. The design of the original track was for it to wear out and the holes became elongated. once youve removed so many links from the track it ment that the whole track is now garbage. Simply drilling out the track to fit a sleeve or new pin wont work as it will change the distance for fitting a sprocket.

Now don't get me wrong, I too would love to have proper new made tracks for my carrier. However its the flipping cost of them to be made that is so prohibitive. Also, say i find a place here to make then. At 1000 lbs for a set are you going to also now pay for shipping.

[Ron Pier]

Jordan I'm just trying to get my head round what you said about drilling out or sleeving would alter the sprocket meshing? Firstly I'm sure it would be easier said than done!!

But if you used over size pins or re sleeved the tracks for standard pins, the pin centres would remain the same with no meshing problems...I think Ron

[RichardT10829]

perhaps going the liquid cast rubber route may be an option, with the sprocket lugs being metal like a pin pushed through so to speak, along the lines of what Staman have done with the rubber sherman track it would be easier if the carriers were skid steer alone without the track warping system