PTO Grass Vacuum

[oldbones]

AgentBlue-
Thanks for the idea. I've been thinking about making a leaf blower to put on the old 17hp Simplicity garden tractor. My farm tractors are too large to use on the lawn. I only use it for spraying the lawn, now.
That "fan" would be about perfect. Gotta look around and see if I can find one. Second choice would be an impeller off of a snowblower, modify it, and mount it.

 

[SPYDERLK]

what part of you do you disagree with?

I guess you mean the hi tension forces conveying torque to small driven pulleys or sprockets or gears when doing speed increases. With V pulleys yould need to be careful with small sizes to prevent slippage. 2 stage as you mention. Neglecting inefficiency tho its still just a 2HP input at lo speed and converting to 2HP[-] output at hi speed.
larry

 

[Baby Grand]

I guess you mean the hi tension forces conveying torque to small driven pulleys or sprockets or gears when doing speed increases. With V pulleys yould need to be careful with small sizes to prevent slippage. 2 stage as you mention. Neglecting inefficiency tho its still just a 2HP input at lo speed and converting to 2HP[-] output at hi speed.
larry

Yup. Torque converts. HP doesn't.

 

[Agent Blue]

Oldbones;
I am just trying to make use of the resources I have. That is why they put the pto shaft in the back and middle position. I like the factory units they came up with but who has 3k to put in a couple mechanical items connected by steel tubing ? If I can get the RPM needed it should work well. I just raked the large hosta bed and my back reminded me to get this vacuum operational. Besides..... I love visiting the scrap yard to see what project is there in pieces waiting to be brought to life. ( stump grinder on the horizon )

By the way I will be passing through your state in a couple weeks enroute to Kansas for the Summer Nationals Drag Racing Series. Lots of fast iron and unbelievable engineering.

 

[oldbones]

Agent Blue-
Yeah, I'm notorious about keeping stuff, thinking "I could use that somewhere, some day, for something". Example, the 4x8 cylinder I used- I took it off an old 3 bottom plow I have. In that instance, the $30 I paid for the 2x8 would have been cheaper than the repairs/rebuilding, but.......... Usually pays off, but got to keep "stuff" packed away in sheds for neatness. Can't stand junk laying all over.
Most attachments I've made are from 80% "recycled" iron. I can usually make stuff for 1/2 price or less, and enjoy building it.

 

[Agent Blue]

Tested today. Creates quite a wind storm at 3375 rpm. On to building a platform for containers and a mmm transition to 8" flex pipe. No extra engine to maintain.

 

[boggen]

*looks jealous* :thumbsup:

 

[jenkinsph]

Tested today. Creates quite a wind storm at 3375 rpm. On to building a platform for containers and a mmm transition to 8" flex pipe. No extra engine to maintain.

Looks good:thumbsup:

I might consider using two belts on the low speed side since the torque is higher there and you are already good to go with that.

Can you take a picture from the front side showing the impeller you are using?

 

[Agent Blue]

I am using Gates hi - torque belts and I thought about double belting the drive side but here is the problem. The PTO engages the mid and rear pto at the same time via an elecrtic clutch. To swing the heavy impeller into action I didn't want to put too much strain on the rear pto shaft assembly. I hear other JD models have problems as it appears the internal gearing isn't as heavy duty as one thinks. The minor slipage on start up might not be a bad thing. Also as far as pine needles... they are pretty lite in weight and should have no problem shooting through the flex pipes.
The fan is pretty aggresive measures 12.5 inches in diameter, 4" wide paddles , four of them, tapered in the center to 2".
I was not expecting this to work as well as it does. I may have to demo it to the neighbor when complete as he didn't think it would be effective without a direct drive engine.

 

[Mike Fortner]

I was thinking about building a PTO driven vacumn to clean drainage ditches when I was informed about this thread. I was thinking about something a little larger and heavier, 24" to 30" diameter 6" to 8" deep with at least a 10 gauge housing and 1/4" impeller blades. Maybe even a fly wheel. The Idea was to break up any small sticks or whatever that might clog up system.
After seeing some of the concerns in this thread with a smaller version , maybe I'm over reaching a bit? The concern that really caught me was the mention of damageing PTO gears. I am sure I could overcome that with a shear pin , but if the PTO is really that weak I wouldn't want to chance the strain on it. I was thinking if the PTO would run my 5' bust hog it would surely run an impeller? Even a big one?
Okay now let me know how flawed my idea is . PLEASE!