I bought a pair of the McLaren Magnums almost a year ago, (maybe 150 hours) and have used them in just about any situation there is. I was doing a house on a lake that was all sand lots, and knew that I wouldn't even be able to leave the street without tracks, so that was my justification to buy them. I ended up digging the entire basement, which was a huge mistake in a small machine, but the tracks allowed me to do it. It took at least 40 hours to do, but I was in a bind. I ran the machine very hard, and ended up breaking the main chain drive of the machine, did about $1800 worth of damage. I hadn't gotten the wheel spacers yet, and I thought the resistance I was feeling when I would try to drive was the tracks getting wedged in the frame, so I would power through it, I was actually grinding the broken chain in the housing, did all sorts of damage. Expensive lesson learned. The dealer said tracks allow so much more force to be exerted on the drive components that it is bound to happen, I'm not sure. Mine was from pure stupidity, so I can't totally fault the tracks, but a warning from the track manufacturer to be aware and check the chain could have saved me quite a bit of money.... I planned on selling the tracks as soon as I was done with that house, but I like them so much I'm keeping them. The machine is smoother and more stable overall, although if you spend much time on concrete or hard surfaces, the ride is really bumpy, might get old. I too have had problems with the tires spinning inside the tracks when the tires got wet from dewy grass, ice/snow, and wet mud, but admittedly the tracks are a bit loose right now, so that is probably the problem. Letting the wheels spin a little though, is kind of my own insurance policy that I won't break another chain..... I keep having to tighten the tracks up, and you have to tighten the bolts regularly, so there is more maintenance there. I've taken them off and on maybe 3 times, by myself, I would say I can do it in 45 minutes, MAYBE 30 if it is a good day. Plan on 1-1.5 hours the first time, but once you figure them out, it isn't too big of a deal. But unless I know I'm going to be spending a long time on concrete for a job, I'll just leave them on there. The one area that I was dissapointed in the tracks was in dry sand. There was a decent, maybe 20 degree slope from the backyard down to the lake at this house, very dry sand. I would always have to back the machine up the hill, using the bucket to push me backwards, while a fully tracked machine a few doors down could go up and down the same slope any way he wanted. The dry sand would go between the pads, and it would just dig itself down. When I dug the basement, I had a long, low slope ramp that I used. Also, for clearing snow, The tracks do work a little better than tires on hardpacked and icy snow, but chains are certainly much better if you don't need to worry about scarring the surface, like in a parking lot. I thought about just driving some metalworking screws into the pads to give me a little grab on the icy stuff, but never got around to experimenting with it. Hope this helps, it was a big investment for me, but I am happy I made it.
