BR400 track cleat repairs

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BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby Beaverman on 18 Oct 2009, 10:23

While doing maintance on our snowmobile club's BR400+, we found a number of cracked track cleats. Has anyone had sucess welding these? A couple had been welded, or might I say, puddled something over a crack. That one has cracked next to that weld. That suggests to me the base metal must harden in the heat zone when welded. I guess my question is; has anyone develope a procedure to weld these with sucesss? Our budget is tight so hopefully someone has had some success and can help us out. Thanks
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby troutriver on 18 Oct 2009, 22:23

I have not bothered welding grousers for a while due to this same problem, I am not an expert on the subject, but the way in which the metal is heat treated does not allow for very good "patching" without alot of time and effort. Sure you can do some work if you are savvy with proper welding procedures, but it will most likely crack again next to your repair and at some point you just have to get a new grouser.. I know its tough with a tight budget...If you don't need 100% tracks in your application, I would do some checking around to ski areas,etc. You might find an old set of tracks with bad belting, or worn down grousers that would work just fine for parts in your application. Check with your Prinoth dealer as well, they may be able to help you out with finding something left over in their yard or one of their customers. Just some thoughts, good luck.
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby Canadianbombar on 19 Oct 2009, 02:13

Troutriver is 100% correct. It's simply not worth the time and effort to try a repair on grousers due to the fact the repair won't even last. In addition....your grousers are all cracked due to the operator making direction changes on hard rocky ground/pavement. You should always set yourself up to cross a road/parking lot etc (if absolutely necessary) in a straight line to avoid stressing and cracking the grousers.
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby BrettD305 on 19 Oct 2009, 11:09

I disagree. I think its worth the time and the money saved to repair cracked or broken cleats. Our welder(quite possibly the best welder/metal fabricator on earth) has had great success in repairing cleats on the cat. Dont get me wrong its not 100% success,but the majority of the repairs last all season,and the money saved is huge!
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby Canadianbombar on 19 Oct 2009, 19:36

Though you're disagreeing...you're kind of proving our point at the same time. It takes the best welder on earth to do a repair that you might get the season out of? Hmmm...isn't that the same point?
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby BrettD305 on 20 Oct 2009, 12:38

It takes our welder 20/30 mins. to repair a broken or cracked cleat,that 9 out of 10 times lasts all season.Not only does that give us time to work on more important problems, but once again the money saved is huge. Whatever works ya know.
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby Beaverman on 25 Oct 2009, 10:02

Gosh, Brett can you tell me more? I haven't quite made it into the top 5 yet as a welder but have peformed a couple "miracles" welding in my past. I sure wouldn't want your welder to give away all his secrets but if you could talk him into exlpaining how he goes about doing a repair, I would sure be greatful.

I'm sure we will have many more of these cracks in our future because our snocat leads a hard life pulling a groomer "over mountains and through the woods, to Grandma's house" so to speak. Though we don't cross any roads up here some of our trails have tight and narrow turns on them and definantly not all flat.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. It's always great to get new ideas.
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby tbuchholz on 07 Oct 2010, 02:25

We have a Br400+ at CMC and I found a number of broken or cracked cleats and we dont bother to fix them.. Justin Tate, the sales rep over at Prinoth stopped in and said they are not worth fixing because every time you weld them the metal loses its structural itegrity and will end up cracking in another spot or right next to the weld most of the time. But he is the sales rep so you never know, he might just want you to spend a couple hundred on some new cleats :lol:
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby Sg louie on 26 Mar 2014, 00:17

I welded grousers for a BR400 and I'm pretty sure ,I think in the operators manual there is a procedure how to weld them,I think I used 1/8-7018 rod and it also mentioned do not grind the weld as I did and the grouser broke at the weld,I had good success with welding grousers.
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Re: BR400 track cleat repairs

Postby PNWmech on 16 Oct 2014, 13:33

We just burn em and turn em... they are hardened heat treated steel. Some hold some don't. I have cats running welded crosslinks that have outlasted brand new ones I think the QC is a bit lax in this department. but they seem to be getting a little better
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