building small track

[woodsrider823]

Hey I am building a small mx track at my house. I live on alot of land there is this one field that i am going to base it in. It is a good sized field with a lower flat a hill then a higher flat and it is surrounded by woods on 3 sides. I have started building some whoops and things with my tractor. I am thinking about using alot of the field and then having a loop go off in the woods. Just wondering if anyone has had expirence building a track or just peices of one. I am thinking about renting a small backhoe in addition to my tractor. ANy suggestions on building the track or what machinery im gunna need? The track is just going to be small relativly low budget personal track. Any suggestions or tips would be helpful thanks

 

[theshark]

the kid i bought my kx off of built a pretty sweet track oh his land, one peice of equipment you might want to look into renting is a skid steer.
http://www.bobcat.com/products/ctl/index.html

they prefer using the one with the tracks, cause then you make the jumps and what not with the boom, but you can also use the tracks and drive over it to shape it and whatnot.

hope that helps

 

[HajiWasAPunk]

I just built a track this weekend. We were fortunate enough to have dirt brought in and dumped in several spots and then had a pretty big front loader (the bucket would hold about 7 yards of dirt). Some type of loader is imperative imo, for building the jumps (though I've heard other say they can do it with a dozer). Also, if the loader is heavy like ours, you can roll it over everything to pack it in good (doesn't have tracks on it, but it packs fine just because of the weight). Let me know if you need anyother tips etc.

 

[woodsrider823]

setup

Did you base your track on anything or just draw it and then build it? howd you decide on how you wanted to set it up? what types of obsticles do you have in it ? thanks

 

[HajiWasAPunk]

we didn't set it up to match anything specific per se, I took classes as a couple of the local tracks (Dade City and Bartow) just to get a feel for what they were like. Then I took a copy of the survey and laid out what we had in mind. Basically the idea is to use as much of the land as possible (ie making turns that loop back into the middle of another turn) while still leaving enough separation between lanes to allow for water drainage (and safety). Check out the track designs on the dirtwurx site (http://www.dirtwurx.com/main.cfm?pg=SX_schedule). Keep in mind that these tracks are made and torn down in a week so you probably don't want any lanes touching the way some of theres do, they don't have to worry about there track lasting for long.

We ran out of dirt before we ran out of ideas for obstacles but what we built was 4 nice berms (3-4 feet high) on all but one of the turns, a 5 foot high single and a 7 foot high (20 feet long) step down table top. Then the rest of the dirt was spreak on the riding area. We used up about 1700 yards of dirt to do this, we've got about 150 left.

I purposely made the turns about 25 feet deep so riders can pick multiple lines through them (the rest of the track is about 12-16 feet wide).

 

[pyrofreak]

For dirt a good place to go is your town highway department. When they clean the ditches and things like that, they need places to dump all the extra dirt. And its usually of the "clean fill" quality.

 

[mxer842]

In regards to the building berms, since I am usually the only person riding my personal track I found that the track would develop one rut throughout the whole course and through the corners, so every few weeks I take the loader out there and smooth the single berm that was been created and spread this dirt all over the corner, this helps to make the corners very loamy as well as helping multiple lines to develop throughout the corner and the course. Also, after I have done this for the past few years, each time I do this I end up with more sand in the corner, by now each corner has a solid 8 inches of sand.

 

[OleDrewBudd]

I'm in the process right now of building a track, what is slowing me down is all the saplings and middle sized trees that I have to remove in my woods... I'm keeping my track mostly in the woods b/c the soil is to die for... extremely loamy, soft and has sand content b/c the creek bed floods every season, I'm getting my dirt from the swells that I have to dig b/c of drainage...

This is my biggest complaint w/ all home built tracks and one that I struggle with in building my own, b/c of some big trees that i Have...

BUILD YOUR TRACK AS WIDE AS POSSIBLE!...

single line tracks simply suck and it's a sure way to loose interest... I would rather have half the obstacles and have multiple lines and have fun with the buds on the weekends instead of one line and sever table tops etc....

peace

ps. just MO meant no offense to any1...

 

[High Lord Gomer]

When you remove the trees, make sure you dig around them, cut the roots, then pull the trees over. if you just cut them off as close to the ground as possible, when you ride you will displace dirt and the stumps will start sticking up.

I duct tape one end of a long string (I have also used fishing line in the past) to a large bolt. I then throw the bolt over the highest branch on the tree that I can. I then tie the string to one end of a really heavy 100' rope that I have. I use the string to pull the rope up and over the branch then tie a slip knot (like a noose) and pull it tight such that it is around the trunk of tree but kept high up in the tree by the branch I threw it over. I then tie the other end of the rope to the truck and pull it over after I have cut as much of the roots as possible.

It's a whole lot more work that merely cutting them off at ground level, but if you've ever ridden trails with little stumps sticking up, you'll take the time to do it right.

 

[tnrider]

i just drop the front-end-loader on my kubota and push for anything smaller than 3" in diameter. then go through with rippers on box blade and finally use the PTO attach tiller to churn it into a nice mulch. :laugh:

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Bastage! I'm envious!

 

[sixds]

can some of you post pictures of your home made track?