Winters Coming , I hope

[4x4forks 258]

Spending a few hours making the Husky linkage fit the Gutbrod and made it hydraulic lift.  Stripped the ram, Ex forklift tilt ram , And extended the stroke.

Took quite a time to figure out the stroke position but very happy with the amount of lift .

[the showman 4,074]

Brilliant job and quick too.

[4x4forks 258]

It will take longer to get the hose made 

[Stormin 4,458]

You could fit a set of detachable forks on the blade. 

[4x4forks 258]

I was thinking front mounted plough as well

[Stormin 4,458]

Possibility!  

[4x4forks 258]

This is my lad several years ago on the old wheel horse.  Will it snow this year?????   

[Stormin 4,458]

Built a snowplough/dozer blade about 5 years ago. Not had any snow as such since.

[the showman 4,074]

I've got 4 blade's and it hasn't snowed since I've had them 

[4x4forks 258]

At this rate if it dose snow we won,t need the council we will have an army of small volunteers.

I went and cleared the local primary school of snow when they called for help to re open it after a bit of snow. Lots of parents turned up with brooms and shovels. I turned up with a Kawasaki quad with a blade on. It didn,t take very long to clear and the kid thought it was great as they had great walls of snow for ages afterwards.

[Ian 2,417]

I think you might have enough lift there

If it snows this way this winter all I can do is try and clear it with Why Not... Not ideal but doing lot's of donuts might move the white stuff about a bit

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

Have to ask - Hydraulics are good , but would an air ram and 12v car compressor pump also work ?

As i have a couple of 12" movement 300psi air rams and wondered if a 250psi air compressor ( tyre pump ) would work as a cheapo alternative ? .

[Stormin 4,458]

Possible maybe. But I'd think it would be very slow.

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

8 minutes ago, Stormin said:

Possible maybe. But I'd think it would be very slow.

Tried to lift a Fiat Panda 4x4 many years ago with one of the rams and a 12v compressor , it could lift the body weight to the top of the suspension travel but not the wheels off the ground but the little rams ( 2" x 12" ) only took around 30 seconds to compress and lift .

I was thinking of a 12v winch and post setup , but looking at the WH i like the ram idea , just do not have any hydraulics .

Just wondered if anyone had any experiance of this sort of air fed setup .

[ranger 373]

32 minutes ago, Mister Mad Mower said:

Have to ask - Hydraulics are good , but would an air ram and 12v car compressor pump also work ?

As i have a couple of 12" movement 300psi air rams and wondered if a 250psi air compressor ( tyre pump ) would work as a cheapo alternative ? .

How about mounting a power steering pump to a bracket on the plough / attachmatic thingy, connected to the ram via a relief valve and a valve / tap to dump oil back. You can raise the plough by operating the pto, and lower by dumping the oil back to tank. Just mount the plough, slip on a belt and away you go.

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

1 minute ago, ranger said:

How about mounting a power steering pump to a bracket on the plough / attachmatic thingy, connected to the ram via a relief valve and a valve / tap to dump oil back. You can raise the plough by operating the pto, and lower by dumping the oil back to tank. Just mount the plough, slip on a belt and away you go.

Sory should have said , i am currently looking at ways to mount a blade onto my Wolseley rough cutter .The Wolseley has a power take off but it is used to drive the wheels so i was thinking of the air ram and 12v so as to use a battery to power it and was wondering if anyone has used an air ram on prior experiments / machines .

I do have a spare 12v electric power steering pump off a vauxhall Zafira but they drag around 40 amps so a little battery wouldnt last too long .

I was origonaly thinking of a small post with a 12v winch to raise and lower , but after looking at the WH i thought of using one of the rams to move the wheel height adjustment mechanism up and down ( lift and lower the blade ) .

Or a direct coupling to the blade from the deck brackets as in the articles images which would be easier all round .

[ranger 373]

Using compressed air to do the job I think you would need something along the lines of a side brush lift cylinder from a truck mount road sweeper. These are a larger diameter to give more surface area for the air to act upon. They generally are positioned to lift with no mechanical advantage/disadvantage ie directly above the weight being lifted.

If you could get your hands on one, an air over oil hydraulic bottle jack would work, but that would be slow. Something else to consider, how about an airbag suspension unit from a truck or Range Rover or similar, if you can fit suitable linkage in.

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

Like the airbag idea just it would take a lot longer to fill if i used a simple 12v tyre pump compressor

 

[ranger 373]

1 minute ago, Mister Mad Mower said:

Like the airbag idea just it would take a lot longer to fill if i used a simple 12v tyre pump compressor

 

I Would imagine on a certain auction site, you could probably pick up a 12v air suspension compressor at a reasonable price, and it would be the right tool for the job.

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

Just now, ranger said:

I Would imagine on a certain auction site, you could probably pick up a 12v air suspension compressor at a reasonable price, and it would be the right tool for the job.

I shall take a look at them , but i suspect the current draw will too big for what i have in mind .

[4x4forks 258]

I may be incorrect but you are talking about 250, 300psi . Hydaulics are working at around 2500 psi and a non compressable medium. if you are using electrics then how about a cheep winch. I used one on a quad bike and it worked great.

[Mister Mad Mower 64]

23 hours ago, 4x4forks said:

I may be incorrect but you are talking about 250, 300psi . Hydaulics are working at around 2500 psi and a non compressable medium. if you are using electrics then how about a cheep winch. I used one on a quad bike and it worked great.

The post and winch was my initial idea , but after seeing the WH with the hydraulic set up it got me wondering about using an air fed system , only because i have a couple of air rams an old mate gave me many years ago ( left over from robot building ) .

I realise the limitations of compressed air , but they are light weight and less messy then hydraulics .

And if i use a 12v battery i can run a hazard light and LED headlights as well , so i was thinkiing of keeping it simple and compact as the post would be sticking up at the front but a ram could be low mounted to push up and out at an angle to lift the blade .

Especially as i will be fitting it to a 1970's self propelled rough cut mower i am currently fitting a blade ( Half a 47kg gas bottle ) to with the outlook to using the mower as a snow mover as my house has a slight hill on the rear access route to get to the main rd .And with the winter outlook steering towards another 2010 amount of snow we were faced with 8" to 10" of compacted snow in the village that quickly froze solid seeing myself driving around in the Volvo 850 pulling people out where their cars were unable to simply drive away from the curb .Though i do drop the tyre pressures down to 20psi and i do have a 230v winch that fits to the tow bar and is powerd from a 1200w inverter making it easy for me to help out .

But the others in my neighbourhood quickly get stuck on the little hill , So my intentions are to keep it clear this time so that i can get in and out without the traffic jams as others sit wheel spinning away .

And maybe ( depending upon how well it works out ) clearing the footpaths around the local OAP bungalows , as most of the residents were unable to get to the shops back in 2010 as the snow was just too deep for zingerframes ! .

I could get around 4" of lift if i built the blade to sit on the ground with the wheel adjuster at it's lowest setting and simply raise the deck , but i think the extra weight maybe a bit too much for the linkage mechanism .

I think i will just go ahead and build it , if it works it will be a bonus lol .....