Dystred Tracks

Hi scotia,
We had one only here in Melbourne Australia and it was high maintainance. The treads were taken off after a couple of years and retro fitted with the standard wheels and tyres with the chains normally seen on quarry machines.
I think there were others in OZ but I was not involved with them at the Dealer.
We had one bloke who went to a Cat School on them and he traveled about the country and Pacific Islands for a while with his big box full of kit to repair the carcases and chains. The kit soon stayed in storage and was still there when I retired in 2004.
There were some nasty smelling glues and compounds in that kit.
I think that the side walls were vulnerable was the main problem if I recall.
Also that the chains wore and became loose on the carcase allowing rocks in to do their worst.
Cheers,
Eddie B.

There was a loader in a local Quarry that had them on. Only lasted a year or so. Sidewall damage killed the tires, so they changed them out.-glen

We had some here aswell but like Eddie says for a short time.
Later Bob

We had some here aswell but like Eddie says for a short time.
Later Bob

We had some here aswell but like Eddie says for a short time.
Later Bob

hello scotia , i have different brochure from cat named -steel shoe beadless tires,no pic that are worth posting ,

i did read some were awhile ago though the tires shortage that was on in the last few yrs that they were making a tire like inside of the Dystred tires with a capped tread tries that fits over it ,cheap to make with only replacing the tread when it was worn ,not sure how the went ,bruce oz

I remember seeing quite a few Beadless Tyre equipped loaders in NSW Australia as a kid in the late 70,s early 80,s while going to sites with my dad who worked for Bridgestone. Never saw the Dystred version which differed a bit from the beadless tyre, think there was also a Goodyear tie up in the beadless tyre era too that could have ended up in court due to patent infringements if i remember correctly.

There was 2 fleets of 992B loaders at Woodlawn and Woodsreef mines and then various 992C that i saw aswell from Leightons Contractors, Whites and Cleary Bros. I think 1 of the Leighton machines was also a 50/50 deal with regular tyres on the rear.

In 2008 i attended a training course which had a session in it dedicated to the release of the upcoming 992K/993K loaders and was hosted by Randy Aneloski from the wheel loader group, Randy has been with Cat a while and i put the question to him that inlight of the tyre shortages around that time would Caterpillar entertain looking at the beadless tyre again, the answer was met with about 10 seconds of silence, then a chuckle and wry grin came over his face and he responded that Caterpillar would not be looking at doing the beadless tyre again, he then went on to say how the hell do you know about those things, your to young!!! I think him and i may have been the only ones in the room that even knew what beadless tyres were!!!

I recall seeing the Beadless tires advertised and touted by Cat as the answer to tire problems in rock, in the late 1960's/early 1970's. However, I never saw any actually in work, in any Western Australian mine .. surface, or underground.

I think there were two factors at play here .. the Beadless tires were a horrendous price .. and Rud chains with L-5 tires were quite a satisfactory solution, and a whole lot cheaper.

I seem to recall mention, later, when the Beadless tires never appeared .. that they had problems with the shoe bolts coming loose .. problems with rocks falling against the sidewall, and puncturing the wall .. and problems with the bars that the shoes bolted to, breaking out of the tire carcass.

The Beadless tires used a large diameter cable in the tire carcass, spiralled around and around .. instead of a radial or cross-ply weave .. very unlike a normal tire. I've seen sets of Beadless tires for sale on private websites and dealer websites, and there weren't many takers.

I never figured what happened for Beadless tires to become Dystred tires? Was there a redesign after the lawsuit? .. and if there was a redesign, what was the difference in the design?

EDIT - O.K. .. now I got it. It appears that Dystred was Petersons original idea .. and when Cat bought the idea, it was later redesigned into the Beadless design, whereby the "links" or bars were incorporated into the tire carcass.

http://www.petersonholding.com/about/bead.less_tire.htm

http://books.google.com/books?id=vv0bQHZGebcC&pg=PA238&lpg=PA238&dq=beadless+tire&source=bl&ots=H82fgqVgPk&sig=QUjN-TyuUSixuUA-SCZlFVK89J4&hl=en&ei=0olBS7COO9GGkAWupqWzCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CB8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=beadless%20tire&f=false