Wear Pads - Never had them never will

Wear Pads... Never!

Wear Pads - never had them - never will!

Examine the wear patterns and you will see that the wearing of the host bar causes the carbide to chip or fall out. This has to be true or the host bar would not be worn out until the carbide is worn out. See: Typical carbide wear patterns

Even though the wear pads are generally getting longer they are also getting thinner. By weight these longer wear pads are the same or significantly lighter. Some of the new wear pads are 1/3 the weight of the old standard pads. See: Carbide chart

Some are adding more wear pads claiming this will prolong the life of the bar. If this is the case explain the wear pattern on the Ski Doo carbide with 9 pads no more than 1 inch apart. Another way to put this is, if the original wear pads were working, as they have claimed, why do they need more? Two other examples that prove that a wear rod is only as durable as it's weakest link are the Kalamazoo Karbide and the 1981 John Deere 22 5/8" carbide photos. See: Typical carbide wear patterns

There is a trend to use carbide that is mounted very shallow in the host bar. This facilitates the undercutting of the carbide allowing it to fall out faster. Carbide that is set deeper into the host bar will stay in longer because more host bar material has to be worn away before the carbide is affected.

Keep in mind, they all had wear pads when they switched to hardsurfacing. Then, they changed to a combination of wear pads and hardsurfacing. Each time, claiming to be the leader, standard or the ultimate.

Of course, we could add carbide wear pads to our wear bars and this would add some life to them... but only on bare pavement... giving them less life on the trails.

WEAR PADS GENERATE WEAR PATTERNS... NOT PREVENT THEM!

For more information, check out:
Carbide penetration chart

1158 Power Road, Rockford, Illinois 61115
Phone: 815-654-2950
E-mail: beskegs@inwave.com