Protecting the grass

[badranman]

Does anyone here have a way to protect a customers grass when you're driving on it, a way that actually works? My tracks are 12" wide so using a 2x12 doesn't really do much good. The reason I ask is I was talking to a landscaper who said a large local company uses old conveyer belt about 17" wide. Anybody think this would work? I can get 2 pieces 3/8" by 24 foot x 17" for $140.
Does that price seem about right? Am i just wastin' ma time? :beatsme

 

[Bob Horrell]

I get all the conveyor belt I want from a local sand and gravel yard for nothing. I just have to stretch it out, cut it, and load it myself. They have to pay a hazardous waste fee to dispose of it so you are really doing them a favor if you take it off their hands. I even got some brand new stuff that was sized wrong and they couldn't use it. I have lined my trailer bed with it and it really reduces wear and tear on it. You want to get the thinnest stuff you can get because it is heavy and the thin stuff works just as well as the thicker stuff. I cut it into 16ft. lengths. Any longer and it is too heavy to handle easily. My bobcat with steel tracks on it and my heavy combo bucket weighs around 10K lbs. and the conveyor belt spreads out the weight just fine. If you are doing a job that lasts several days, you will want to move it over one width each day because the lawn will die from lack of sun with the conveyor belt on it too long.

 

[badranman]

How wide do you cut it? I take it this still leaves slight impressions in the ground, it just doesn't tear it up?

 

[Bob Horrell]

You only need it wide enough to make sure you don't drive off of it. Leave it wide if you are going to be making any turns. You don't have that much ground pressure with the excavator (probably around 4lbs/sqin). A little kid has around the same ground pressure in his footprint and an adult has 7 - 8 lbs/sqin.The problem is the segments in the tracks grab the grass and tend to tear it up. The rubber conveyor belt prevents that from happening more than it reduces the ground pressure. Let me know if you have any more questions.
One thing that works pretty well is not watering the grass for a couple of days before you cross it. That way the soil isn't that wet and you probably won't even leave any impressions.

 

[Steve Frazier]

Very interesting. I'd have thought the tracks would bunch up the belt when turning and tear it up.

 

[Bob Horrell]

The belts are pretty slick and stiff and the tracks just seem to slide around on them. They also tend to stick to the grass better than the tracks stick to them. I haven't used rubber tracks on them and these may not slide around as well.