When you pick out a new piece of equipment you might think of a lot of things, but maybe how the tracks were made isn’t one of them. Eric Blondeau with Camso is saying maybe it should be. Camso designs tracks for many of the top equipment companies and his team takes their job very seriously.
Growers need tracks that are durable and dependable, but they don’t want to sacrifice the quality of their soil either. Camso has built a track, and a reputation, on providing both. They start with a unique process to build the tracks. None of the competition is doing anything even remotely similar.
“We always compare ourselves to what is out there, and when we do compare ourselves we see 30 to 40 percent cost per hour reduction for farmers. So really, they’re going to end up with a lot more money in their pockets in the end. How we do that? It’s through our unique process that involves making sure all the components we put in the tracks are going to stay exactly where they are supposed to.”
This year they’ve bested their toughest competitors. The new Roading track lasts 20 percent long on roads than the previous generation of Camso tracks. That’s a pretty significant increase. “The best just got better,” Camso representatives told me.
But it wouldn’t be the best without their careful attention to the impact in the field. Camso has their own team of agronomists testing for what you really want to know; will this make a difference? They study the effect of ground pressure, then the design team works carefully within those limits when they create the tracks. They even have a program, Profit from the Ground Up (PGU) that looks at the advantages of tracked systems. They estimate a track system can pay for itself in the first year.
Since every vehicle in the field makes a difference, Camso is also rolling out a new addition, the Camso Conversion Track System (CTS) for tractors. The CTS features increased mobility and flotation for better performance in soft ground conditions as well as reducing ground compaction and pressure by more than 65 percent. It represents the simplest conversion track system on the market.
Of course, Blondeau notes, its easy to make a claim, which is why the team at Farm Progress was inviting growers to bury a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Fill the bucket with water, then record the time it takes to soak into the soil. By repeating this experiment in an area of the field driven over with regular tires, untouched ground, and tracks you can get an idea of how water and nutrients are reaching the roots.
To learn more about Camso, listen to my interview with Blondeau here: Interview: Eric Blondeau, Camso
2016 Farm Progress Show Photos
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