Byron Posted April 28, 2021 Author Share Posted April 28, 2021 Thank you Guys, this is what i needed when I was fitting them. Hans Louis on FB can source them I believe. I have also seen the other company sell these tracks on the Facebook page and on Milweb. I am led to believe there were two guys doing the weasel Staman tracks, then they parted ways and one of the guys is still doing them but nothing to do with Staman. If I find the guy I will post his details on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Posted April 28, 2021 Author Share Posted April 28, 2021 On Face book 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted April 28, 2021 Share Posted April 28, 2021 Just a quick question? What is the price difference between the LAR tracks that are available locally in the US of A as opposed to the Rubber Staaman track kit that has to be imported from Europe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
04mustang Posted April 28, 2021 Share Posted April 28, 2021 @OZM29C the rubber tracks are around 6000 usd plus shipping. Where as the LAR tracks are 14000usd unless they went up again in the last 6 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Dodge Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 I do not know cost of rubber track. The rubber tracks look like they require a lot of small modifications on bogeys, sprokets and idlers. The LAR tracks are a straight bolt on and are metal grousers with replacable rubber pads. Of course both have freight cost. @04mustang Where did you get the 6K from and was that the kit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M29 Posted April 29, 2021 Share Posted April 29, 2021 I went through my old emails hoping to find a printed document showing the cost from Staman. The date I was talking to them was in 2014. I vividly remember Joop Staman quoting me loosely around 7000.00 USD for a set of the tracks as a kit. At the time Staman was the only one making that style of track that I could locate. As it goes though there were pros and cons about these tracks. Great road ability was one of the pros. There was some discussion of the tracks jumping off in soft ground conditions. I do not know that but remember reading about it. The width was a little over 15" which I was not excited about especially going on an M29C model weasel. I looked into a freight company and the shipping was going to be around 700 to 1000.00 to the US. I figured I would have at that time about 8000.00 per set delivered to me. The LAR track at that time was around 9 maybe 10K. All my years of owning a weasel and having track problems from pads breaking to jumping off at the most god awful time and place, enforced in my mind that I wanted a bulletproof track one that parts would be available for if needed engineered for the weasel and tested. I asked others that bought them and they were all impressed. Rick Wark could not say enough good about them . I wish I bought the LAR track then but when I was ready to buy all of them at that price were sold out. So two years later LAR tracks were available again on preorder basis but at 12K and reported maybe to never be made again. I ended up going with the LAR. I justified the purchase since I have two weasels I figured I could buy one set and swap them from one to the other depending on use conditions. I will say the LAR track although expensive is really an awesome track. Just my thoughts remembering back to that time. Dan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 Like Dan @M29 I opted to pay extra for the LAR track. I wanted piece of mind when operating my weasel, particularly in water. The LAR track is a very robust design (as tested by Rick Wark) and was based on the Ambiliary track. The EPF (Expedition Polaris Francais) Weasels that came out of Antarctica (photos below) were fitted with these tracks and you can see the similarity between the LAR and Ambiliary track. I do understand that people on a restoration Budget look at options to repair tracks but in my case I just opted for new. BTW this is not a post to put down the Staaman track kit. I think that each track repair kit has both pros and cons. More importantly, the weasel community is very fortunate that these track kits are available which was not the case when I started my weasel restoration 22 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Dodge Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 @OZM29CWhat era are those tracks? Did they have rubber pads for hard surface? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1944GPW Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 (edited) G'day Will, Perhaps I can answer a bit here. According to this page the Expéditions Polaires Françaises set up their first base in Antarctica in 1950:https://www.institut-polaire.fr/ipev-en/support-for-science/antarctica/dumont-durville/ These Ambilary-style french tracks did not have rubber grouser pads. The antarctic terrain can consist of extremely hard ice and was very punishing on Weasel tracks. Instead of pads they had ice grousers hacksawed (from personal observation) from pieces of stainless steel angle, with three teeth each. They were bolted to the outside edge of the grouser. On the last photo above, you can see two of them still on that track. I don't know whether they were fitted to all grousers (I don't think they were) or just every nth one, but every grouser had four holes drilled for fitting them. IIRC only two bolts held the toothed piece on. EDIT you can see the two bolts at bottom centre of the photo. Regards, Steve Brisbane, Oz Edited May 3, 2021 by 1944GPW alien invasion 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Dodge Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 @OZM29CWhat era are those tracks? Did they have rubber pads for hard surface? Thanks for the history information. Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted May 3, 2021 Share Posted May 3, 2021 19 hours ago, Will Dodge said: @OZM29CWhat era are those tracks? Did they have rubber pads for hard surface? Thanks for the history information. Wow! 1950's and no rubber pads etc for hard surfaces. Only Ice grousers as highlighted by Steve above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Dodge Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M29 Posted May 4, 2021 Share Posted May 4, 2021 The Ambillary track design is the predecessor to the LAR track FYI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lore16 Posted August 12, 2021 Share Posted August 12, 2021 Hello everybody! I'm from Germany and I also own a Weasel M29 10XXX We have also had the "Staman rubber chains" for about 2 years. After we installed it, there are problems with the front axle for the second time. The originally "thinner" axle was exchanged for a reinforced, thicker hollow axle with greater wall thickness when the chain was changed from the original to rubber. This first built-in axle was bent on the right side (motor) after about 5 hours of driving! When removing and changing this axle, the "carrier arm" also located at the front right was renewed because it was also a bit bent! Now we have made a test drive with the new reinforced axle (light terrain with a little mud, approx. 3 km) and the new axle is bent again! This time stronger on the left side, but also a bit on the right side! What are we doing wrong? An operator error? In this thread I read to fill out the axis with solid material? Do you relate to the original Weasel tracks? Our "new" interchangeable axle made from a replica was already significantly larger in wall thickness! (When buying the rubber track, we were advised to use these reinforced axles from reproduction, as the rubber tracks are more stressed than the original chains! The curvature of the axle towards the rear of the vehicle always begins roughly in the flange, or when the axle emerges from the bottle from the frame! On the front you can always see a gap between the "carrier arm" and the flange, which then gets bigger and bigger at the front! It would be great to have help from you guys. We haven't had the weasel for a very long time and have little experience, and the scene in Germany is very small. can it also be a problem with the frame of the weasel? But was everything correct with the newly installed axle and was everything in order immediately after the measurement? What are we doing wrong? Can someone give us some advice? Are we thinking about making a completely new (massive) axle? We are grateful for any help. Greetings from the Rhineland Roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZM29C Posted August 13, 2021 Share Posted August 13, 2021 @lore16What type of steel did you use to manufacture your replacement axle? https://atlassteels.com.au/stainless-and-engineering-steel-bar-and-wire/alloy-steel-bar/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 What is the rubber track size/where did you get them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronny68 Posted July 11, 2022 Share Posted July 11, 2022 On 8/12/2021 at 12:30 PM, lore16 said: Hello everybody! I'm from Germany and I also own a Weasel M29 10XXX We have also had the "Staman rubber chains" for about 2 years. After we installed it, there are problems with the front axle for the second time. The originally "thinner" axle was exchanged for a reinforced, thicker hollow axle with greater wall thickness when the chain was changed from the original to rubber. This first built-in axle was bent on the right side (motor) after about 5 hours of driving! When removing and changing this axle, the "carrier arm" also located at the front right was renewed because it was also a bit bent! Now we have made a test drive with the new reinforced axle (light terrain with a little mud, approx. 3 km) and the new axle is bent again! This time stronger on the left side, but also a bit on the right side! What are we doing wrong? An operator error? In this thread I read to fill out the axis with solid material? Do you relate to the original Weasel tracks? Our "new" interchangeable axle made from a replica was already significantly larger in wall thickness! (When buying the rubber track, we were advised to use these reinforced axles from reproduction, as the rubber tracks are more stressed than the original chains! The curvature of the axle towards the rear of the vehicle always begins roughly in the flange, or when the axle emerges from the bottle from the frame! On the front you can always see a gap between the "carrier arm" and the flange, which then gets bigger and bigger at the front! It would be great to have help from you guys. We haven't had the weasel for a very long time and have little experience, and the scene in Germany is very small. can it also be a problem with the frame of the weasel? But was everything correct with the newly installed axle and was everything in order immediately after the measurement? What are we doing wrong? Can someone give us some advice? Are we thinking about making a completely new (massive) axle? We are grateful for any help. Greetings from the Rhineland Roland Did you ever got an answer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronny68 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 Very useful info! Thanks 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Ongaro Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 Are the rubber tracks themselves from a different application for example mini excavator, or are they purpose made for this Weasel kit? thanks, Ernie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Byron Posted February 15, 2023 Author Share Posted February 15, 2023 On 8/12/2021 at 11:30 AM, lore16 said: Hello everybody! I'm from Germany and I also own a Weasel M29 10XXX We have also had the "Staman rubber chains" for about 2 years. After we installed it, there are problems with the front axle for the second time. The originally "thinner" axle was exchanged for a reinforced, thicker hollow axle with greater wall thickness when the chain was changed from the original to rubber. This first built-in axle was bent on the right side (motor) after about 5 hours of driving! When removing and changing this axle, the "carrier arm" also located at the front right was renewed because it was also a bit bent! Now we have made a test drive with the new reinforced axle (light terrain with a little mud, approx. 3 km) and the new axle is bent again! This time stronger on the left side, but also a bit on the right side! What are we doing wrong? An operator error? In this thread I read to fill out the axis with solid material? Do you relate to the original Weasel tracks? Our "new" interchangeable axle made from a replica was already significantly larger in wall thickness! (When buying the rubber track, we were advised to use these reinforced axles from reproduction, as the rubber tracks are more stressed than the original chains! The curvature of the axle towards the rear of the vehicle always begins roughly in the flange, or when the axle emerges from the bottle from the frame! On the front you can always see a gap between the "carrier arm" and the flange, which then gets bigger and bigger at the front! It would be great to have help from you guys. We haven't had the weasel for a very long time and have little experience, and the scene in Germany is very small. can it also be a problem with the frame of the weasel? But was everything correct with the newly installed axle and was everything in order immediately after the measurement? What are we doing wrong? Can someone give us some advice? Are we thinking about making a completely new (massive) axle? We are grateful for any help. Greetings from the Rhineland Roland Hi Roland, im sorry I am late to the party with your message. I pressed a solid steel bar through the axel, not only did this tell me the front axel was already straight but it has also not given me any issues after nearly 300 miles. it was just regular steel bar, not any sort of special steel. I hope this helps and good luck Byron Kay, England Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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