Many of you have likely seen old tractors with track conversions that used rubber or steel tracks that looped around the rear driving wheels and the front wheels to give farmers and other workers better traction in soft and mucky surfaces. Apparently there was a company in England known as Howard that built something called the Rotopad. The Rotopad is the most complex “tire” ever created using various chains, pulleys, and a series of metal pads. It is absolutely insane and brilliant at the same time. What looks at first like it is going to be awkward and clunky but when you see it work the thing is smooth as silk. It is also pretty wild to watch the pads and chains do their thing.
In this video the Rotopads are on a 1950s Fordson Tractor that is equipped with an equally awesome trencher. While we do not get to see the trencher go to work we do get to see the Rotopads do their thing and they work like a charm. We don’t know how but they do.
There’s virtually no information available regarding these Howard Rotopads and we wish that their was. Like the old Hornsby Steam Crawler (which was also an English invention) it looks clunky and but it seems to function perfectly. We have never seen another machine with them on it and despite our best efforts we’re still kind of at a loss about their history, development, and availability these days. This thing may be the last example left!
I saw a similar system on a tractor a few years ago in Pomeroy WA. It had several times the number of pads and may have been a newer version.
It’s like they are designed for weight distribution, rather than traction. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you use a traditional track set up. Weird, but cool.
I would think that they were a good idea on paper, but a real-world nightmare. In anything but the most ideal conditions, the wear and tear on the chains and pivot points would have ate those things like a grizzly on a cheeseburger.