When deciding which skid steer machine is right for your application, you can choose one with skid steer rubber tracks or skid steer tires. Here are the advantages of each:

No matter what the weather, soil conditions play a large role in determining whether rubber tracks or tires will be right on your skid steer.

Applications:
Rubber tracks are ideal where ground disturbance must be kept to a minimum, such as landscaping or construction work around homes.

Tires offer more precise steering, so they excel where tight cornering is important. Also, tires usually perform better than rubber tracks in the snow, unless you choose an aggressive rubber track tread designed for use in the snow.

Flotation & Stability:
Rubber tracks distribute a machine’s weight more evenly than tires, so they offer better flotation and stability, especially on sand or mud, or any soft or wet surface.

Traction:
A skid steer outfitted with rubber tracks gets superior traction because it has more footprint making contact with the ground, enabling it to pull twice the load of a skid steer equipped with rubber tires, except in snow (see above).

Cost:
Pneumatic tires may be inexpensive compared to solid skid steer tires, but they also don’t last anywhere near as long, and they are vastly inferior for applications such as recycling facilities or factories where glass, nails, or sharp rocks will regularly puncture traditional inflated tires.

If you opt for tires over tracks on your skid steer machinery, choose “flat-proof” solid tires, which last 4x longer than pneumatic tires. Solid skid steer tires are made with dense rubber compounds for rigid tire structure and added weight, which not only makes them impossible to puncture, but improves stability in almost any terrain.

Still wondering if rubber tracks or tires would be best for your application? Give our friendly product experts a call: 1-888-612-8838.