Remember our post about the Nissan Winter Warriors concept trucks from the other day? Well, it just so happens we were able to get a closer look at those snow tracks during the Chicago Auto Show and learn how they work.
Read more: Nissan Winter Warriors concepts — Crossovers with tank tracks
These snow tracks are made by a company called American Track Truck Inc. in Michigan. It should be noted that these Nissan trucks required a little bit of modification to the suspension and wheel wells to fit them. You can see where space was made to clear the big tracks. They’re 48-by-30-by-15 inches, much bigger than the standard tires. But that size is why they work so well on snow. Even though they can be used year-round on all types of terrain, they’re most at home on snow, and the reason is surface area.
Surface area
The contact patch of these snow tracks, or the part of them that’s actually touching the ground, is 48 inches long by 15 inches wide. That’s 720 square inches per track, for a total of 2,880 square inches of contact with the ground That’s way, way more than standard tires. In fact, since these Nissan crossovers each weigh between 3,550 and 4,450 pounds, that means there is at most 1.5 pounds of truck for every square inch of snow under the track! It’s no wonder these Nissans seem to just float right over all the white stuff. It would be nearly impossible to get stuck, especially when moving at a decent speed.
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What are they made of?
The framework of these tracks is built of T-1 steel, so they’re very strong but pretty heavy as well. Since the design minimizes drag and resistance and puts nearly all the power straight to the ground, it doesn’t take much if any extra horsepower to use the snow tracks. (The engines and transmissions of the three Nissan Winter Warriors trucks are unmodified.) Other than that they are exactly what they look like, which is the idler wheels, slides, bearings and tracks straight off of a snowmobile. So if you ran into a snag, you’d have to bring your truck to the snowmobile shop. But on the bright side, you’d never have to worry about flat tires again.
