BHD
Veteran Member
Yes I do,
I would move the pulley to the side and trailer mount it, rather than use a double reduction system, IF it was me, or at least chain drive the first reduction if your going to go double reduction,
No I am not an engineer, and I may be full of *****, but I have built and modified and reconstructions and farmed since the mid 1970's, and have replaced many chain drives as part of maintenance on combines and farm machinery, and have learned that chains if over worked stretch a lot and wear fast, and V belts really have problems if over loaded, If working in there work range they will last for many many many years, and need little attention,
and IF I remember the chart correctly about 6 to 7 Hp is all the "B" belt could transfer and it may have been less than that, your small pulley is part of the problem, as there is only so much surface area, "grip area" and then the speed has a heat effect on things as well,
I know if you change this over you want to do it one time and as right as one can do it, the first time, In my past experience I have found in many instances, is to learn from what other manufactures have done to make there machines work, and some one posted the PDF of the wood machine, and it may be heavier and made for more HP, but I would copy there drive system, as my guess is they have tested and tried a number of methods to make it reliable and cost effective,
This is my opinion, but if I was doing this for me I would go with a double belt system and use the 18" and the 3" and most likely the spring loaded idler, as it it will give and absorb sock better than the slider system on the tighing of the belts, (my old combine has a idler tighter on most of the drives that can have shock loads, I would think that John Deere knows some thing, the cylinder, the feeder house, and some of the other drives, drives that do not have shock loads are many times just a tightener),
you do what you want to do, I have given you what I think I would do if given the same situation, and if I understand correctly what you want to accomplish,
GOOD luck on the project,
on the double pulleys, by the time one goes through the cost of single pulleys and if they are not transmitting enough power, and are burning or slipping excessive, and you go back in and rebuild it next year, by the time it is rebuilt the second time it will cost you as much or more than the first time, I would go double the cost, and the other thing I have found trying to cut corners in a rebuild or reconstruction usually does not pay,
(I rebuilt a trencher and modified it so I could use it, and figured it was on a 30 hp tractor so IF I follow the 30 hp rating on the PTO, and the gear box I will be fine, so I bought a PTO shaft rated for 30 hp, and had to replace U joints in it about ever 10 Min's and that was with greasing it ever few Min's as well in heavy digging, finally bought a 70 hp rated unit and have never changed a U joint in it since, on the gear box, (still going) but was looking at it some time ago, and noticed some odd stuff on it handing out of a few places, it was plastic plugs that had been placed in threaded holes to keep them clean, they had melted and started drip out and was hanging down under the machine, It had severely over heated, no I need a heaver gear box for it, (now if I had it on a 30 hp tractor I probably would not have the problem, but since the tractor I have is more than double that, I can over load it very easily, and yes it has shear pins, (wood ones at that), and have not sheared them, under normal operations, but I have over loaded the drive on the system, with the more HP tractor. and I thought I had it heavy enough. just my experiences.
I would move the pulley to the side and trailer mount it, rather than use a double reduction system, IF it was me, or at least chain drive the first reduction if your going to go double reduction,
No I am not an engineer, and I may be full of *****, but I have built and modified and reconstructions and farmed since the mid 1970's, and have replaced many chain drives as part of maintenance on combines and farm machinery, and have learned that chains if over worked stretch a lot and wear fast, and V belts really have problems if over loaded, If working in there work range they will last for many many many years, and need little attention,
and IF I remember the chart correctly about 6 to 7 Hp is all the "B" belt could transfer and it may have been less than that, your small pulley is part of the problem, as there is only so much surface area, "grip area" and then the speed has a heat effect on things as well,
I know if you change this over you want to do it one time and as right as one can do it, the first time, In my past experience I have found in many instances, is to learn from what other manufactures have done to make there machines work, and some one posted the PDF of the wood machine, and it may be heavier and made for more HP, but I would copy there drive system, as my guess is they have tested and tried a number of methods to make it reliable and cost effective,
This is my opinion, but if I was doing this for me I would go with a double belt system and use the 18" and the 3" and most likely the spring loaded idler, as it it will give and absorb sock better than the slider system on the tighing of the belts, (my old combine has a idler tighter on most of the drives that can have shock loads, I would think that John Deere knows some thing, the cylinder, the feeder house, and some of the other drives, drives that do not have shock loads are many times just a tightener),
you do what you want to do, I have given you what I think I would do if given the same situation, and if I understand correctly what you want to accomplish,
GOOD luck on the project,
on the double pulleys, by the time one goes through the cost of single pulleys and if they are not transmitting enough power, and are burning or slipping excessive, and you go back in and rebuild it next year, by the time it is rebuilt the second time it will cost you as much or more than the first time, I would go double the cost, and the other thing I have found trying to cut corners in a rebuild or reconstruction usually does not pay,
(I rebuilt a trencher and modified it so I could use it, and figured it was on a 30 hp tractor so IF I follow the 30 hp rating on the PTO, and the gear box I will be fine, so I bought a PTO shaft rated for 30 hp, and had to replace U joints in it about ever 10 Min's and that was with greasing it ever few Min's as well in heavy digging, finally bought a 70 hp rated unit and have never changed a U joint in it since, on the gear box, (still going) but was looking at it some time ago, and noticed some odd stuff on it handing out of a few places, it was plastic plugs that had been placed in threaded holes to keep them clean, they had melted and started drip out and was hanging down under the machine, It had severely over heated, no I need a heaver gear box for it, (now if I had it on a 30 hp tractor I probably would not have the problem, but since the tractor I have is more than double that, I can over load it very easily, and yes it has shear pins, (wood ones at that), and have not sheared them, under normal operations, but I have over loaded the drive on the system, with the more HP tractor. and I thought I had it heavy enough. just my experiences.
