keep at it!! its nice to see you finding ideas to work!! I'm one of those who you describe as to not running in the ideal conditions

from having experience in 1:1 machines and owning them keeping wear and breakages down to a minimum is always of interest. I always try to keep dirt and such out of the tracks but not always possible. avoiding sharp turns with tracks and piling dirt up from digging helps. these machines are not bad but like everything can use some modifications. I particularly like the idea of your scraper for the teeth. on my dozer ive had good results with having the teeth tapered to form more of a point on the sprocket teeth. (tapered on the side profile) it pushes more of the dirt that gets packed into links out instead of just packing it in more. keep doing what you are doing and sharing, its appreciated!!!