Mike B

Looks great Patrick, I have a couple questions, what thickness of belting did you use, and how did you lace the belts, connecting end to end. I have a couple of French tracks we are rebuilding; one set we are rebuilding just like the factory (major pain in the ass) the other set we want to do just what you have done. Again looks great.

The Weasel has been driven only a few hours since we received it, and only at lower speeds. We have repaired sections of the French track already, oddly some of it appeared in better condition than other parts of the track. I posted some pictures in the track section of the forum showing us remanufacturing the French track chain link system. This summer the entire track will be removed and rebuilt with the new chain link parts we are currently fabricating. I thought about changing to standard Weasel track pads but what would be the challenge in that. It came with the French looks like we are staying with the French.

Our local Elks lodge had a car this last weekend, the turnout was great over 1500 people attended. All proceeds generated went to a local veteran's group. Because of the veteran connection and being an Elk myself we were asked to bring any year military vehicles, etc. About 30 Military vehicles were in attendance, we brought the M29C Weasel and our 1942 Ford GPW script jeep. We let the kiddies sit in everything for pictures, we even had helmets on hand. Lots of fun............

It would seem there are several versions of the French track. On ours everything is brass, the only thing that is not is the 40-pitch double roller chain and the shoes themself. The grousers are solid brass, there's probably several hundred pounds of brass. Building all new chain links is turning into a project.

The M 29 Weasel track saga continues, The French track that came on our weasel is not in horrible condition, but there are some sections that have given up. We have examined the entire track and decided to repair what we have for now. Attached are a couple pictures of us manufacturing the chain anchors that attach the track pads to one and another. Building out of brass like the originals. We CNC machined the side the chassis bolt headsets into then we set up 3 manual milling machines, one to slit for the center chain link, one to mill the edge and the other to drill for the chain link pin. the French track used regular 40 pitch double roller chain so that part was easy. We are going to attempt to build a form so we can pour Polysolfide into it with a retaining fixture to hold the chain sections in their correct locations and recast the pad. I am not totally sure of the Polysulfide idea yet; we are still in the research stage there.

What thickness belting are you using? Rubber /PVC.

Hi Patrick, mine are indeed French tracks made by Consolidated Industries. I confirmed from an old article a buddy of mine had on the Consolidted's tracks. Surprisingly the center road rubber sections are in somewhat fair condition, far better than the outside molded rubber /chain pads which is odd as the center sections use the molded /chain design as well, almost looks like they are newer, go figure. I am considering going to heavy belting on both out-board runners, Shear and punch plates to attach the belting to the shoes and retain the existing center road sections. Looking forward to how you do your tracks. We have an Almond processing plant here in California and have access to 3/16" through 3/4" thick conveyor belting on rolls and have the machine to cut length wise into strips, so other than the million bolts it should be straight forward I think/hope.

Hi All, New to the forum. I just purchased a M-29 and trying to identify the tracks on it. I have seen a lot of Weasel tracks but so far nothing like these. Anyone out there ever seen this type of track? Oddly the Cassel nuts that retain the pads are metric and even odder 11 mmx 1.5. The segmented rubber pads have 2 sections of double row 40 pitch chain molded into the rubber and all the ears that the double row attaches to is brass and the track guide ears are entirely made of brass. any ideas?