CAT Vibratory Soil Compactor for SX Jump faces

It’s been a function of moisture. You can’t compress fluids. 

I feel like if it was hard enough to not get ruts, they would get square edges. I suck at ruts and jumps, so I’m not sure what would be worse for them 

I like where your heads at but wow this is a bad idea 

Why?

How the hell is that gonna fit in between the rhythm sections?

Too big and unmaneuverable inside a stadium.  Too many hard surfaces to cross to get it on an SX track if it would fit.

These are designed for relatively flat ground… it wouldn’t work well on a steep incline, especially on a pile of dirt that’s going to move or “give” on the opposite side. 

A few have commented that this is too big.  I agree.

But, they have smaller ones...

The only plausible excuse I can fathom for the lower quality tracks is budgets.  Don't tell me the dirt is stored outside and it was rained on.  Store it inside or cover it.  
 

Also, what's up with the have hearted attempts to cover the track when it is complete and gets rained on.

Week in and week out, we see them remove tarps and have puddles EVERYWHERE.  How about we take the 30 people standing around, doing NOTHING while practice is postponed and have them bailing water.  Don't tell me it cant be done.  I have done dozens of times on job sites.  It rains the night before, you show up and remove as much water as possible so that it can dry quicker.  I just don't get it, how can they stand around doing nothing with mini lakes everywhere.  Get rid of the water!  For the bigger spots, use your track machine to dig out a "deepest point", stick a pump in there and pump it out.  Its SO simple....

Here's what you guys are looking for. 

And yes it would help in my opinion if incorporated during their build process when the conditions are right.  It would be an added step (or 2) and potentially an additional operator/mini track loader but it would help.  Dynamic compaction makes a big difference unless the soil moisture content is too high as others have mentioned.  But at several rounds like St. Loius that did not appear to be the case. 

The tricky thing with these is when you use these up jump faces, you can quickly deform the jump faces and the peak, similar to building/rolling with a loader.  You usually have to add successive lifts to get it to the trajectory you want unless you accurately account for it before compaction. 

They are already using these . There is a thread on here showing them run one in whoops.

Sidenote on the OP's roller. Years ago when I was putting a road in. My boss was running a vibe roller compacting the base. I was on a house site and saw him go by at 20 -30+ MPH. I thought to myself, WTF is he doing, that is way  too fast.  Turns out that he had shut it off to talk to somebody and it started to roll backwards down the hill. a 1800' long road with short flat area before the retention pond at the end. He was able to get it started back up and stop it just in time before the road ended.  So many wild things happened at that job.  

I never operated the one we had. But I ran smaller smooth drum rollers. And we were doing a sewer connection on a steeper street. The smaller rollers do not have brakes, You put them into forward or reverse  and slow with lever movement . I was unloading the roller on a hill and drove off the trailer towards the patch I had to roll. And got going fast for a roller, so I threw it into reverse to slow down. Instead it started to spin and sped up. I slid into the curb and almost went over the steering wheel.  After everybody had a good laugh we finished the patch. And I learned that rollers do not like slops of any sort.  

sorry,

but I don't think there is anything that is going to compact dirt if it is too wet, especially when trying to prep for the force of a compressed suspension concentrated on the few square inches of contact area of knobby tire that is going to conform to dirt.

it might look nice and hold up a little better if the dirt is not saturated, but under most circumstances with track construction, no difference, and vibration can actually bring moisture towards the surface into dirt that is starting to dry out.

Every soil has an optimum humidity content for compaction

Need to use other compaction methods, a sheeps foot whatever. AFT, Speedway, Monster Trucks, Snowmobile racing  on and on do not get the ruts supercross does. Supercross just doesn't want to spend any money.......

I was thinking on top of the pumps and tarps they use, they should probably consider several massive fans. Anyone who’s been at a track when it’s windy knows how quickly that dries the dirt out, even it it helps 5% every bit helps compared to nothing.

I'm trying to figure out what a component operator is.

But in all seriousness, a huge contributing factor now days is their inability to use lime. Lime was added to the dirt even when it isn't a mudder as a way to firm up the soil. After Limegate, DirtWurx doesn't use it any longer. 

If you've watched them in recent years when they do track maintenence all they do is scoop loose dirt up and fill the ruts in and then quickly track it in with a10,000 pound skid.  

Seems like a 25,000 pound dozer might work better to track the faces in.  

I hope someone from Dirtwurx is watching this..........

🙏 

No need for the “vibratory soil compactor” for jump faces. It would work great for the start straights, but not for jump faces. It’s not designed for compacting inclines like a jump face. 

Rubber tire loader with a bucket of dirt will work just fine. And they (usually) already have it on site. Rutted jump faces will easily go bu-bye with a rubber tire loader.

I would think this (along with other things) is common knowledge for the track crew. But I think they’re being controlled by FELD. 

You dudes should follow @dirt_wurx

They already have methods and equipment to do what is being suggested here.

Hmmm....

So what exactly do they use to pack the whoops and rhythm sections at aft, speedway, and snowmobile events?

And I wouldn't be surprised if they use lime at monster truck show considering feld owns most of the trucks.

But way too light. Check out the goober on the roller, haha. That’s too light & long. A new d5 weighs 43k, b4 that 34k aprox. Drop the blade with 1/2 the wt of the dozer back drag it & run the tracks ovr the jump face. That’s the way to do it.  I ran hvy equipment 17 yrs at the biggest pipeline co with 16 divisions. They hv ovr 40k track hoes alone. A track hoe would work to but it has to b a big one. Just slam that bucket down repeatedly.  Or learn how to ride ruts. Pretty basic really get your wheels in a slot , how hard is that. A Midwest or northeast rider if you want to ride you ride in ruts. 

As big as dozers look. Their ground pressure is not very much. A D6 dozer (they use D4’s or D3’s??) weighs over 50,000 lbs have less than 6psi.

A dozer can compact dirt, but not as much as you’d think. Its weight is spread out for how long it is. For traction, not compaction. 

An excavator or backhoe with a compaction plate or wheel could work.

Guys, you’re all missing it.

It’s so clear to me that what you’re really asking for is…

Unleash the quads 

Instead of loamy sand soil on the jump faces perhaps a more chalky clay?

 This is what they do at Canada heights outdoors here in the uk and it works well.

 But then sx is a completely different and may make the faces too slippery??

Guess you didnt ride the footpeg deeps ruts on the jump faces and landings at canada heights at the weekend 😂 

 Sadly my days of riding have been over for a while

I can imagine the track has changed a bit now.

 But when i use to volunteer with track prep during the winter  back in the mid 00's they use to get clay from top of the hill and transport down .

 Sounds like they could do with doing it the good old ways again.

The point isn't the method, those are innumerable, the point is it can be done. Look at any modern construction site in the late fall or early spring. Soil compaction is not a new science with revolutionary methods.