Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
After twelve years and eight different machines I have arrived at what I consider the ultimate machine for a smaller track.
With an arsenal of attachments (bucket, custom built ripper with a ring roller, dozer blade, and laser level when needed) I can completely prep my 5/8 mile long track in two hours and that includes rebuilding broke down bowl turns and jump faces.
There is a four second shot of it at the 1:42 minute mark of this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWZwreR-eA8
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
There are good suggestions in this thread. My track is about 1/2 mile, the best equipment I used was a CAT 257D loader. It is not meant for hauling dirt, but for maintenance and finishing unbeaten.
I'm looking for a used track loader now.
That's how we lost Earl Canard. treys dad.
Get the right equipment. I've had many close calls with compact tractors.
I build jumps a tractor width and and half at least and pack the face with the wider rear tires backing up the face. You cant pack a narrow jump because when you try the middle one rear is off the edge hence the one and a half tractor width.
A 6 foot tiller is great for maintenance as long as the ground isnt packed and dry. A turning plow takes care of that and a hydraulic toplink lets me backup those steep jump faces without the implement digging in.
Tires filled with liquid are a must also.
Just like in Big Fix Alaska!
Plus,a tractor you can drive to the beer store after you've had a 12 pack and not get arrested, around here anyways.
I recently purchased a Mahindra 4540 for my own personal backyard track and farm use and I couldn't be happier. It is more cost efficient to rent equipment to build large scale obstacles and then maintain with a personal machine.
Luckily my soil is very sandy with a few spots of clay close to the surface. The tractor has a floating bucket so I can back drag things super smooth. I also can hook up a variety of implements like a disc or ripper but I just mainly use a box blade and a ghetto drag I made from a series of telephone poles. With my soil type it's also pretty easy to move dirt with this size tractor and make decent obstacles.
Hope this helps!
Pit Row
If money were no object and I were buying a machine for myself to run...sure...I would buy a CAT or something with a suspension for comfort, AC, fancy cab, etc. Get ready to drop $100K. But for value and reliability, or the best productivity for the money if I were running a business and employees were running the machine...I would buy a TAK every time. Everything about the machine is built heavy, toough, simple. Also, Tak TL150 = Mustang MTL25 = GEHL CT80. MTL 25s and GELH CT80s tend to sell for about 10% less....but same machine, just nameplated.
That said, there are a few downsides to the TL150. It is a big machine. BIG. You will need commercial drivers license to move it around. It is also a bit of fuel hog. A 100+ HP Engine will do that. Finally, it's Aux hydraulics are not as strong as some other mfgs. It rides rough. But for pure dirt moving speed and power, it is hard to beat.
There is one reliability issue with the TAK TL150. The Saur-Sundstrand main pumps have a poor control servo design. If you buy a machine that was run by employees /. operators who slammed the thing full power one way then the other, the servo seal / piston end wears the sleeve, which eventually causes control problems after about 2500 hours. The service shop will tell you that you need to buy a whole new pump body x 2 at $3500 a pop. But all you really have to do is take it to a good machine shop, sleeve it with cast iron, remachine to the proper fit, then re-hone it (the unworn area of the original sleeve will tell you what the ID needs to be), and put in new seals, and it is good for another 3000 hours. After I did this fix, and returned it to the service shop to put it all back together and test run it, they said it ran better than new. ZERO servo piston leakage, and the main pump itself bypassed less than .25 GPM at 5000 psi on the bypass. That is like 1/2 of the new spec...so basically it runs like a brand new pump. My machine had 3200 hours on it at the time.
Get a big bucket. It will push an 84" into hard ground easy. A Tilt-Tach is key as well, for sculpting berms...
So for building, you need at least a track skid steer. A dozer will make it happen even faster. I still think a track skid steer will be needed to fine tune everything and neaten it up. You can do a month long rental on either for around 3k on average. For maintenance you will need a disc harrow and or a cultivator. Figure out how wide your track is and then decide how wide of implement you will need. This will tell you how big of tractor you will need. You don't want to go too big if you have a tighter track. Smaller tractors with smaller implements are much more friendly on tight corners and such. For me, a 48" harrow is all i needed but my tractor will pull a 60" no problem. The smaller the harrow, the deeper and faster it will cut but obviously, in smaller sections. If its a home track you may do fine with a 24-35hp tractor. Mine has zero issues with what i do and when its prepped, the dirt is EPIC to ride on.
A little tip: I stopped by a construction site and asked if they needed to get rid of their dirt. They said YES and delivered a few hundred yards of soil for free
My track took a little over 100 hours on the skid, 80 hours on the tractor and about 10 hours on a dozer. Prep takes 1 hour on the tractor if damp or 2 hours if i need to water it first.
Post a reply to: Compact Tractor Track Maintenance?