One of the cooler new product debuts we saw at the Bauma show in Munich a few weeks back was Bobcat’s new Quad Tracks, a bolt-on kit that turns your Bobcat skid steer into an almost compact track loader with four independent track pods.
I say almost because while the Quad Tracks do give your skid steer almost all of the hallmark benefits of the CTL—they do so only to a certain degree. And that’s by design. Check out the video for all the details.
Not quite CTL, not quite skid steer
Obviously, the Quad Tracks aren’t designed to give you a complete CTL replacement. Instead, they’re intended to give skid steer owners a middle-ground solution that performs right in the middle of a skid steer and a CTL.
In other words, it’s still a skid steer, but with greater traction, more ground contact, smoother ride, improved pushing power and a lighter footprint.
To drive this point home a bit further, you can really think of the quad tracks as a type of attachment for your skid steer. Bobcat engineered these to be installed in as little as two hours so that you can quickly swap between tires and tracks as needed.
For instance, Bobcat has heard from a lot of ag customers that are very happy with their skid steer, but have also found a lot of situations where switching to the tracks just make sense such as soft underfoot conditions like dozing in the mud.
Now rather than going and renting or buying a CTL, you can swap in the tracks when you need them.
How they are built
Let’s talk about how these things work for a bit because designing the individual track pods that combine to make the Quad Tracks was an engineering feat.
Bobcat had to ensure that attachments had enough room to clear the front pods and ensure that the pods allowed enough clearance to the middle of the machine and to the fender.
There’s quite a bit going on in a small amount of space.
To make it happen, there are essentially three key components at the heart of each pod: a half sprocket and two quarter sprockets.
Unlike a CTL, there’s no tensioner in this design. That’s handled by the half sprocket. During the install, once the half sprocket is down, you can put the track on and then rotate the half sprocket 180 degrees upward before installing the quarter sprockets.
In each pod there are four rollers implemented in a cantilevered design. The track design is not just a straight rubber truck but is instead fully embedded.
These tracks are made for walkin’
Another important design element of the Quad Tracks is that each pod oscillates. Bobcat says it works similar to a tandem axle trailer.
Whenever you encounter a rough patch, in a skid steer, your tires are prone to bouncing. But because the Quad Track pods can oscillate, they’re able to maintain a single point of contact throughout the process of passing through that rough terrain.
And because there are four pods, the Quad Track doesn’t allow any of the pods to come off the ground. Because there are always four points of contact, not only does the machine not bounce, but it doesn’t tip forward like a CTL does in certain rough conditions.
For instance, if you push down on the front of the bucket in a CTL, your tracks lift. But on a skid steer equipped with Quad Track, the back of each pod simply oscillates forward, keeping the machine on the ground.
Compatibility and maintenance
The Quad Tracks are currently undergoing product development and Bobcat will release more information around its availability at a later date. In terms of compatibility, the kit is able to mounted on all new R-Series skid steers in addition to four M-Series models:
S630
S650
S750
S770
As far as clean out and regular maintenance goes, Bobcat says they did a lot of testing to ensure that mud and dirt break away and don’t pack up the pods and you shouldn’t have trouble with too much buildup even with the tight space.
Because the system still uses rollers, idlers, sprockets and tracks, it’s pretty similar to a CTL in terms of maintenance. Really, the only major difference between maintenancing these pods and a larger CTL track is just that: the CTL tracks are larger. If you have any issues with a pod, you simply have a smaller component to replace.
