Track Studs

[ueyteuor]

Hi. I'm wondering if anyone can help me out with track studs. What are the best studs, or the best method? I see on ebay there are a bunch of studs outt here for sale, but which are the best? Anyone have any experience with them?

 

[Rockmeister]

My experience has been the following:

Use only the Woodys Signature Series Stainless Steel Studs. The gold series will break off.
Use a length that provides for 1/4" penetration. (1/4" above the lug height.)
Use Round Plastic backers.
Do NOT stud the outer edges of your track.
Don't over stud, I use about 100 on a 136" track.

Using the above, have never broken one, never tore a track, never tossed one into a heat exchanger, and they just plain work!
Safe control, braking, and great acceleration!

PS I beat the heck out of my studs! lol

 

[Groomerdriver]

My experience has been the following:

Use only the Woodys Signature Series Stainless Steel Studs. The gold series will break off.
Use a length that provides for 1/4" penetration. (1/4" above the lug height.)
Use Round Plastic backers.
Do NOT stud the outer edges of your track.
Don't over stud, I use about 100 on a 136" track.

Using the above, have never broken one, never tore a track, never tossed one into a heat exchanger, and they just plain work!
Safe control, braking, and great acceleration!

PS I beat the heck out of my studs! lol

X2

Especially on the Woody's Signature Series. I have over 7000 miles on my sled and they are in great shape! Also, the Rock didn't mention the use of "Tall Nuts" or "Big Nuts" but with the long studs needed on the Ripsaws used by Yamaha, you want to have the support that the Tall/Big Nuts offer.

Food for thought..and some discussion -- these 4S's have so much low end torque, that next time I stud a track, I'm going to run two studs right next to each other (double backers??). I think the track will offer better support with 2 studs next to each other. I'm running 144 across the entire track. I will NEVER again stud the outer belts. But, I have tore out a couple in the middle, and thinking about the torque generated by the 4S motor, a double backer setup might be better (?).

 

[Rockmeister]

Heyya Groomer!

Haven't tried the Tall nuts, not personally convinced they are a real good idea.

1) They cost more.
(Only good if they have a positive benefit.)
2) With less "give" think they may add to the risk of a track tear out.
(definitely a negative to me)


This is the theory I have gone by:
Studding adds a great advantage, over doing it takes the advantages themselves away and adds major disadvantages.

I will definitely ride marginal conditions, Want to sled and sometimes that is all there is.
Especially in late spring (like now), many corners are icy.

These are my stud trail riding requirements:
Want the studs to grip in an icy corner so I MAKE the corner, every single one.
Want the sled to be able to slow down on an icy corner.
(Tracks without studs are the exact same "rubber on ice" physics of a car on ice, not much stopping ability.)

Studs must NOT damage my sled and keep me from riding!!!
IE: No tear-outs, no thrown studs, no replacements, no heat exchanger damage.
(I believe that the "stiffer" you try to make the studs and the less "give" the studs have, the greater the penetration, the greater your risk of a tear-out, thrown stud, sled damage etc. This is the opposite of my requirements, so I allow quite a bit of "give" and minimize penetration to 1/4")

Reasonable traction on acceleration. Sled stays under my control.
(Can easily beat any stud-less sled I have run on any hard pack surface including groomed trails now.)
With my sled, like to be able to toss the rear end around a little bit, makes cornering much easier, while maintaining sled well under control.
(Over-studding makes cornering much tougher. Over-studding also causes less penetration of any one stud, thereby requiring more stud length to achieve the same penetration, longer stud lengths give the studs more leverage against the track causing greater risk of a tear-out. More studs also weigh more and have greater risk of failure, IE If you double the number of studs, you double the things that can go wrong.)
Studs help me keep sled under control in many emergency situations/maneuvers.

By keeping the amount of "give" up, minimizing the penetration, keeping the stud count down, and maximizing the number of scratch lines, have found a great balance of NO problems and great traction.

Ignore the manufacturers suggested number of studs, remember, they SELL studs, they WANT you to buy twice as many as you need.

BTW, Found all this out kinda by accident, over many years.
I had always used what the manufacturers suggested.
Years ago, had some studs that kept breaking off, as I lost studs, I GAINED traction!
The more I lost, the better the sled did!
(Totally lucked out and no studs ever went into someone following me or into my exchanger.)
That taught me to ignore the manufacturers recommendations about stud numbers.

Was stuck on a mountain for an entire day, had to climbs ROCKS with my sled to get out. Yes Rocks, BIG ones!
Talk about a real life stud test!!!
Had 1/4" penetration, bent some studs, did not break any and did NOT have a single tear-out.
(DID tear some paddles off the track though.)
This taught me about minimizing penetration depth and possible tear-outs.
The backers were also plastic.

Had another sled with aluminum AND plastic backers. (Was a mix of about everything. No money makes things "unique". lol)
MANY of the aluminum backers ripped the track at the edge of the backer, especially the ones with the square aluminum backers.
You could move the plastic backed studs a bit more by hand and no track rips.
That taught me not to use metal backers and allow some give.

Had used Stainless Steel studs many times, just so they didn't rust.
Ended up buying my current sled that was already studded.
It had the gold series NON Stainless studs.
As the regular Gold studs broke off, I replaced them with the Stainless ones of the same make (Woodys) and of the same length.
Never broke or lost a single Stainless one, kept on breaking and loosing the Gold Series ones on the same track under the same conditions.
That taught me about using the Woodys Signature Series Stainless Studs, they simply do NOT break!

Many other manufacturers MAY make Stainless studs of the same quality, I honestly don't know.
I DO know Woodys Stainless ones are tough, so I use them.
(The Gold series are junk! Same manufacturer, Go figure...)

I'm sure I still have lots to learn about them yet, this is what I have learned so far by real life experience.

Hope this helps!

 

[Groomerdriver]

Makes lots of sense to me!!!

 

[King44]

Did your studs ever come in contact with your heat sheild or exhaust?

 

[Rockmeister]

They haven't on mine.
Have the stock tunnel protectors on it.
Probably due to the 1/4" penetration, the studs can't reach the major parts.

 

[buddah]

Makes lots of sense to me!!!

No, no, NO..........GD!!! For goodness sake, don't humor him....

 

[Rockmeister]

Hahhahhahaa!!
You ready to ride Budda???