We’ve all had moments in our life when we experience something and almost immediately say, “How come I’ve never done this before?” Or, “How did I miss that?”
That happened to us last winter when we experienced a tracked vehicle for the first time. In this case it was a Mattracks-equipped Can-Am side-by-side and ATV along with a Polaris Ranger side-by-side.
We stopped by Mattracks’ office and manufacturing facilities in Karlstad, MN, took a tour of the facility and then went for a ride. Fortunately, northern Minnesota had received some new snow the day before and there was several inches of snow in a test field near the Mattracks facility to get a good feel for how a tracked vehicle works.
We’ve wanted to visit the Mattracks facility for a while now because we know the company is well known in the industry for its track systems and has been a leader in offering rubber track conversion kits since incorporating in 1995.
We spent a few hours on the ATV and in the side-by-side, riding in the fields and got a feel for how the track system works. Of course, several rides would be a better opportunity to gauge the performance but we’re happy with the time we got.
After our powersports adventure on the ATV and side-by-side, Mattracks CEO Glen Brazier took us for a ride in his tracked pickup as we did a mini-tour of Karlstad and visited Wagon Wheel Ridge, site of the Kick’n Up Kountry Music Festival, of which Mattracks is a big sponsor. The snow was deep on parts of Wagon Wheel Ridge but the tracks allowed Brazier’s pickup to navigate it without any trouble.
The pickup ride reinforced what we saw with the ATV and side-by-side and after that day on the snow we came away with two standout reasons (among many) we were impressed with the Mattracks track conversion systems.
1 - Flotation
Okay, you’re saying right now, “That’s a no brainer. Of course, tracks offer flotation.” Yes, they do, but we’re talking flotation, not just being able to ride “through snow.” Staying on top of the snow is critical for a lot of reasons. The principle behind the Mattracks system is similar to a snowmobile track. Mountain sleds offer incredible flotation in deep powder because the footprint is fairly big. That’s what a track system does for a side-by-side or ATV. Powersports vehicle tires have a very small footprint or “patch” as just a few inches of the tire touches a surface, but that changes when you put a track system on an ATV or side-by-side.
For example, on the Can-Am Commander, equipped with Mattracks’ EZ UTV track system, on a soft surface such as snow, the front tracks have 45 inches of contact length (each side) and in the rear 52 inches on each side. So all of a sudden the footprint goes from a couple of inches times four (wheels) to 90 inches on the front and 104 on the rear. That is a big difference. It should be noted that on a hard surface the ground contact length is shorter (14 inches on the front and 21 inches on the rear). So if you were driving on pavement, the footprint would be smaller. Which on a hard surface that is good because it’s easier to steer with a smaller patch of rubber on say pavement.
While that’s impressive on a side-by-side or ATV, Mattracks’ bigger track systems, like for tractors, construction, exploration and emergency vehicles, make it even more impressive. How so? Consider this. A larger footprint spreads out the vehicle’s weight. The combination of traction and flotation allows Mattracks-equipped vehicles to travel over soft terrain with as little as 1.5 psi. Compare that to a conventional truck with tires, which exert up to 40 psi.
You’ll see in the photos with this story that the tracks do leave a trail in the snow but that’s to be expected, especially in the new snow that had recently fell and was still soft. But it’s nothing compared to a wheeled vehicle, which wouldn’t have made it as far as we did. We went anywhere we wanted to. ATVs and side-by-sides are pretty good at going over rocks and through mud and sand, but snow many times is a different story. The Mattracks track system makes snow another playground for powersports enthusiasts. Which brings us to our second standout reason.
