Possible Solution For Tracked Equiptment

[thebigo]

My tracks on my 4200 xl are carbon 4 steel, if that helps any, I would like to know as well what the best metal would be for tracks. A lot of the euro Models have either brass or aluminium tracks? Not sure what grade of aluminuim though?

[Tommydude88]

Originally Posted by thebigo

My tracks on my 4200 xl are carbon 4 steel, if that helps any, I would like to know as well what the best metal would be for tracks. A lot of the euro Models have either brass or aluminium tracks? Not sure what grade of aluminuim though?

hi have got the 4200 xl my self and am a earthmoving business owner operator I take great pride in excavators and when it comes to scale models the 4200xl is pretty close but it needs a few mods, the steel tracks are great you want to try to keep the weight to the ground, alloy tracks are prob gona be a lot lighter therefor you will not get the traction when digging, I have also replaced the slew motor to a 60rpm motor rather than a 30rpm the digger originally did about 5rpm slewing now does 10rpm where as a 30ton excavator does about 12rpm. so the scaling is closer but you do lose out on a bit of slew power but you can move a **** of a lot more dirt when u slew faster. as far as the tracks go I think the 4200xl needs track chains with holes in the sides and the grousers need the 2 holes in the top because just not enough dirt escapes and it locks up the tracks and you do in the final drive motors all the time, I think ive gone through 4 motors already.

[Rimrock]

Originally Posted by Tommydude88

hi have got the 4200 xl my self and am a earthmoving business owner operator I take great pride in excavators and when it comes to scale models the 4200xl is pretty close but it needs a few mods, the steel tracks are great you want to try to keep the weight to the ground, alloy tracks are prob gona be a lot lighter therefor you will not get the traction when digging, I have also replaced the slew motor to a 60rpm motor rather than a 30rpm the digger originally did about 5rpm slewing now does 10rpm where as a 30ton excavator does about 12rpm. so the scaling is closer but you do lose out on a bit of slew power but you can move a **** of a lot more dirt when u slew faster. as far as the tracks go I think the 4200xl needs track chains with holes in the sides and the grousers need the 2 holes in the top because just not enough dirt escapes and it locks up the tracks and you do in the final drive motors all the time, I think ive gone through 4 motors already.

This is an old thread and I guess the track project was put on the shelf. Anyway these days scratch builders have several relative low priced mass-produced track pads of around 2 inch wide to choose from, both from Germany and Asia, plastic, steel, Alu-zink castings, so hardly no point in putting down effort in fabricate it by oneself. Unless one needs everything 100% through to scale...Naturally in the 1:1 world the dimensions are different for a 30 tonn and a 60 tonn machine, even though track pads can be the same width.
The 4200xl is a quite basic machine, where one has kept the level of detailing on a minimum to keep cost down. I think they just want to keep it this way, as a cheap 'starter machine'. They actually haven't any real competition in this price range, so they don't care too much about developing the machine. There should have been added a spring on the idler in order for the tracks not to jam that often, and track engines are under-powered. But hey, one can't expect the same as from machines costing 3 times more.