Swival head for a clam, pulp loader

[joes_427_vette]

Thinking about constructing a pulp trailer with a loading boom. Anyone know where a hydraulic swival could be purchased to operate a clam ? I have seen a unit made in Canada that is pretty compact. A new one may be quite costly depending on size and capacity.

 

[Taylortractornut]

I have a friend that built a whole grapple for his homebuilt knuckle boom he put on his work barge. He made the swivel out of a set of tapered roller bearings off 2 truck hubs and mounted a hydraulic motor to the die with a sprocket on the clamp frame. he then cut the center out of a sprock and mouned it the the eye that the shaft wit hthe bearings mounted on the boom. I have a pic on my old computer Ill see if my wife can retriece it on a memory card.
He made the grapple with one cylinder that opened and closed the jaws without a linkage or a flow divider. he used a set of stops. His head wasnt a 360 continuos rotation. He added a couple feet of hoses for both functions in a plastic coil that held them out of the way and let it go 360 each way. They tore out old docks and used it to handle Schedule 40 and 80 6 and 8 inch pipes 25 feet long.

 

[sizzami]

I built a loader for my splitter using a steering cylinder and # 40 chain for the head swivel, mount the cylinder horizontal wrap chain around bushing and hook to ends of the ram twists 180+ degrees allowing you to grab wood at any orientation I could take pic if you want

 

[Ductape]

I built a loader for my splitter using a steering cylinder and # 40 chain for the head swivel, mount the cylinder horizontal wrap chain around bushing and hook to ends of the ram twists 180+ degrees allowing you to grab wood at any orientation I could take pic if you want

Please do ! It may give me some ideas as well.

 

[J_J]

Thinking about constructing a pulp trailer with a loading boom. Anyone know where a hydraulic swival could be purchased to operate a clam ? I have seen a unit made in Canada that is pretty compact. A new one may be quite costly depending on size and capacity.

Scroll down.


Skid Steer Grapples

 

[joes_427_vette]

Thanks for the info. The Hawk series looks great but weighs almost 1100 #. A few more responses on the home built models will probably be the winner.

 

[sizzami]

heres my loader

 

[Ductape]

Slick !!

 

[joes_427_vette]

That looks simple yet effective. Sizzami; did you build this?

 

[Brad_Blazer]

That looks simple yet effective. Sizzami; did you build this?

See post #3 - yeah he did. Nice job!

I wonder how it would work to put a hydraulic motor on a hollow shaft gear box? Might want a slip clutch on the output to protect the gears.
https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2009041919183679&item=13-1441&catname=powerTrans

 

[joes_427_vette]

Brad;
I thought maybe it was built in a hydraulic shop. I'm not that much up on hydraulics to figure how much torque it would take to turn once it is loaded or how many gpm the motor would take.
Sizzami;
would you mind sharing the details of the construction ? Also if its not too much trouble some close up pictures of the motor mount and turning system. How may gpm pump does it take to operate ? This looks very cost effective and dependable. Thanks jr

 

[sizzami]

8.5 horse 13gpm the swivel for main boom is hydraulic motor on chain, one word of warning if you do it this way buy a hydraulic wheel motor w/ dynamic brake mine has no brake and unit needs to be pretty level to work well I will try to get a couple of pics for you

 

[sizzami]

pics are coming broke the camera dropped it ran over it tomorrow hopefully