The trenchless laying of collector pipes in the field of near-surface geothermal systems (agrothermics) requires the development of a functional demonstrator of a mobile laying unit. In this paper, the basics for the analysis of the controllability of a future traction management system of such machines are considered. It is shown how the interactions within the considered machine system and the interdependency between machine and soil can be approximately described using suitable models. The modeling is based on multi-body simulations for the kinematics and the chassis as well as on semi-empirical approaches for the tensile force-slip behavior of the crawler track. For describing the tool-soil interaction a mathematical- physical approach for subsoilers is used in addition. As a summary, an overall model for analyzing the influence of machine and tool parameters on traction behavior is shown. This approach can be used for the development and the analysis of a traction management system based on the active control of tool parameters.