looking for thoughts/ideas for a hydraulic power unit/generator build

[7lakes]

First off, I am the kind of person that wants to minimize gas engines around the house for the sake of upkeep.
Secondly, I could make all of these PTO driven from my BX25d, but I don't want to put needless hours on my tractor.

I want to take a riding lawn mower and remove the mower deck and install a generator and a hydraulic pump. Then add the hydraulic tank and levers and such. Then, I want to make quick connects for the hydraulics.

I don't want this to actually do anything, but serve as a mobile generator and mobile hydraulic power unit for things like a log splitter, saw mill, etc. I could drive up to the saw mill, quick connect to the saw mill and off we go. I could get a more powerful engine this way and it will be easier to upkeep the engine and I could garage the engine. This way tools stay where I want them, but the engine is taken care of.

I am wanting to add the generator as well for mobile welding, flood lights, water pumps etc.

I am looking for advice, thoughts and other uses prior to starting my design process.

thanks

 

[muddstopper]

Doing the generator is easy enough or doing the hydraulics is easy enough, doing both with a vertical shaft mower engine might take a little thinking. If you could score a horizonal shaft engine, then you could mount the generator head on the tail shaft of the engine and the hydraulic pump on the flywheel end of the engine and keep everything simple. With a vertical shaft engine, I think you are going to end up either pulling the genset or the hydraulic pump, and maybe both, off of pulleys and belts.

 

[7lakes]

I haven't heard of attaching to the tail shaft of an engine. How is that done? I looked for google images of that.

 

[farm boy00]

Like the idea. But I think your going to want a horizontal engine and extend the front frame out to fit everything properly. With a horizontal engine you could drive one off on side and the other on the other side but still have the mower function fine.

I would use a little older wheel horse. Simple hoods, lots of space under the hood usually, horizontal engines, good power usually, good turning. And with mine if not careful you could pop wheelies in high gear.

 

[7lakes]

I will have to look for one. Good thinking.

My next question. If I had a generator and hydraulic pump, can they both be hooked to the same pulley or would they need seperate pulleys with some kindof engaging system. I don't plan on using both at the same time.

 

[farm boy00]

I will have to look for one. Good thinking.

My next question. If I had a generator and hydraulic pump, can they both be hooked to the same pulley or would they need seperate pulleys with some kindof engaging system. I don't plan on using both at the same time.

I think you need 2 pullers but you could do one like this



Then could do 2 different Engadget systems like a mower deck where you pull a lever and it activated what you want. Then another for the other piece

 

[MossRoad]

Take a look at my Power Trac PT425 tractor. Its a hydraulically articulated mini front-end loader. Its powered by a 25HP Kohler engine. There is a two section pump on the drive shaft side. One section powers the main PTO for hydraulically powered implements (mowers, trenchers, brush cutters, stump grinders, etc....) and the other section powers the steering and FEL arms lift, curl and dump. On the other side of the engine, where the cooling fan is located, the fan shroud has been cut and a PTO shaft (you can get these from Kohler) is mounted. That powers the variable volume tram pump to drive the four wheel motors.

So, its a horizontal shaft motor with a shaft sticking out of each side and you can power anything you'd like. You have to get standard pump mounts that meet up with the engine and various lovejoy connectors to adapt shaft sizes, but it very doable.

One thing, though.... unless you have some sort of clutch, the generator will always be turning and the hydraulic pumps will always be turning. This creates a lot of heat, even if there is no load. And you'll be running it at 3600RPM to keep air moving over the engine or it may overheat, so it will suck a lot of gas. Mine consumes a little over a gallon per hour.

Interesting project, but I'd keep a generator separate from any other piece of equipment, because it seems that any time I need a generator, its because of a natural disaster (wind, rain, snow, etc...) and I don't want anything else tied up to run the generator.

I understand your quest to reduce the amount of engines to maintain, as I did the same thing. I'm down to three engines; a tractor, a generator and a log splitter.... just the things you want to combine! :laughing:

 

[Sawyer Rob]

First off, I am the kind of person that wants to minimize gas engines around the house for the sake of upkeep. Secondly, I could make all of these PTO driven from my BX25d, but I don't want to put needless hours on my tractor.
thanks

How many hours will you be running a generator OR log splitter???

I run both of mine off the pto of my tractor and it just doesn't add up to very many per year!

It's just so much more efficient to run them off the pto too...

Who are you saving the BX for?? It's yours, use it, run it, and enjoy it! IF it's any good, the motor will last waaay longer than you will ever need to use it!

SR

 

[7lakes]

well, part of the issue is that I want to use the tractor while I use the log splitter.

 

[7lakes]

I am looking into two electrically activated clutches like for electrically activated lawn mower blades