Advice on building hydraulic gauge wheel on a Landpride RBT heavy duty rear blade?

[BGigHarbor]

I am jealous on your find again.

I might have to buy one new....I am hoping EA will come out with a new rear blade that has hydraulic angle and can use the gauge wheels from their landscape rake to save me a few bucks but I need something by spring so......

 

[Piston]

I am jealous on your find again.

Don't be....

I haven't had an immediate "need" for a rear blade, but I've known for a long time I'd want one. If I needed a blade then I would have had no choice but to buy a new one, or go without...and when you need it, you need it, going without isn't really an option.

Since I didn't need one, I've "kept my eyes open" over the last year or so for a good used one to pop up, and then it finally did. It's not like I just started looking for a rear blade and all of a sudden I came across a good deal

 

[Piston]

Building hydraulic gauge wheel on a Landpride RBT heavy duty rear blad

Here is where I'm at so far...



..which is pretty similar to Landprides gauge wheel option on the RBT 45 series, like this one.


The "geometry" seems a bit difficult for someone like myself to figure out...or rather, make it work, to the point where I can completely raise and "store" the gauge wheel up out of the way, so I'm thinking about making it so I can easily disconnect the cylinder, fold it back, and then fold the gauge wheel back in case I need to.
This is roughly what it would look like with the cylinder retracted.


Then if I wanted to get it up out of the way, for instance if I was working in the woods and the additional length was an issue, I could disconnect the cylinder on one end and fold it back. I'd have to make sure I had enough clearance for the 90 degree fittings not to bottom out on the blade frame.



I'm thinking I could either make a bracket to fix it in this position, or, if I wanted it to be more "compact", and not stick way up in the air, I could flip the gauge wheel around, and remove one of the bracket pins, and fold the rest of the assembly up and back over itself.


I'm not sure how viable these ideas are, do you guys have any thoughts as to if this would work or not? Or am I 'over designing' an otherwise simple thing?

 

[Piston]

Here is a similar design with the pivot point changed, gauge wheel mounting pivot bracket hightened, and longer, 24" stroke cylinder as suggested.




Also, I am going to be purchasing an offset cylinder to replace the manual adjustment for the boom. The manual adjuster is pretty heavy duty, and I am thinking about using it for the gauge wheel boom, instead of a length of steel tubing. What are your thoughts on this?

You can see it in this pic:


By using the offset adjuster (whatever it's called) I could make the length of the gauge wheel boom adjustable, so it could either be short, or long. Also, by simply pulling the pin in the adjuster, I could rotate it 180 degrees which would make it simple to flip the actual wheel assembly over in the "storage" position.

Can you see any disadvantages to this?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Also, I am going to be purchasing an offset cylinder to replace the manual adjustment for the boom. The manual adjuster is pretty heavy duty, and I am thinking about using it for the gauge wheel boom, instead of a length of steel tubing. What are your thoughts on this?

By using the offset adjuster (whatever it's called) I could make the length of the gauge wheel boom adjustable, so it could either be short, or long. Also, by simply pulling the pin in the adjuster, I could rotate it 180 degrees which would make it simple to flip the actual wheel assembly over in the "storage" position.

Can you see any disadvantages to this?

Not saying that this won't work, in fact it seems like a good idea,:thumbsup: but I just went out and looked at mine and while it works for the sideways motion, it seems to me to be a bit on the lighter side to end up working long term for the gauge wheel boom. Might be fine because of it being round, no way would I be using 1/4" wall square tubing though. But that is just me. I truly have no idea of what kind of stresses are put on the system due to the Gauge wheel. :confused3: Might be worth trying it, wouldn't be that hard to replace if the need came up.
Oh, it has a 27"-42" working length.

 

[JoeL4330]

Here are some pix of my tailwheel:

 

[JoeL4330]

 

[Piston]

Not saying that this won't work, in fact it seems like a good idea,:thumbsup: but I just went out and looked at mine and while it works for the sideways motion, it seems to me to be a bit on the lighter side to end up working long term for the gauge wheel boom. Might be fine because of it being round, no way would I be using 1/4" wall square tubing though. But that is just me. I truly have no idea of what kind of stresses are put on the system due to the Gauge wheel. :confused3: Might be worth trying it, wouldn't be that hard to replace if the need came up.
Oh, it has a 27"-42" working length.

Brian,
You have no idea how helpful that is for me! Now I don't have to try to explain to my wife what I want her to measure for me :laughing:


Joel,
Thank you very much! Those are extremely helpful measurements for me as well. I really appreciate you taking the time to take and post them. I'm designing this gauge wheel way too far away from where the blade is now so I don't have the option to go measure some things myself, although I did take quite a few measurements before I left, but there is always something to be missed.

Thanks a lot guys, that is very helpful. I'll work on the design some more and post any progress I make.

 

[Piston]

it seems to me to be a bit on the lighter side to end up working long term for the gauge wheel boom. Might be fine because of it being round, no way would I be using 1/4" wall square tubing though.

I'll check with a welder friend of mine to see what his opinion is on the strength of that manual offset assembly. I believe it's a 3" diameter and as you mentioned, 1/4" thick.

 

[Piston]

I just ordered a 5" wide by 15" diameter tail wheel assembly for the gauge wheel project. According to the nice lady I spoke with on the phone, it is rated for 1200lbs, so should be plenty heavy duty enough for my rear blade, which will weigh about 1,000lbs, but considering the wheel will never take more than half the weight, I should be good.

5X8X15" TAIL WHEEL ASSEMBLY- H.D. FORK 1 1/2" YOKE

I received the tail wheel assembly the other day and wanted to mention something about the company I ordered from, High Grade Manufacturing. The customer service lady was incredibly helpful.
At first, I had a bit of an issue with the website giving me different quotes for shipping charges, I emailed them and got a reply back the next business day (I emailed on a weekend) and she apologized for the discrepancy in shipping charges and said she would pass it on to the web developer.

I explained to her what I'm doing with the wheel assembly, (i.e. building a gauge wheel) and she wrote back giving me all the exact measurements I would need in order to make a pipe assembly for the gauge wheel yolk to be mounted to. Both outside/inside diameters as well as lengths. She also said that because of what I told her (when I explained what I was doing) she upgraded the frame assembly that holds the wheel to a heavier duty model free of charge, this was AFTER I already ordered, and paid for, my wheel assembly.

The wheel itself was pretty expensive for me, however, it was a third of the price, if not more, than Land Pride wanted for a similar wheel. Actually, if I remember correctly, Land Pride wanted an astonishing $700 for the wheel assembly alone, so much more than a third difference! This wheel was $130 not including shipping (an additional $35 I believe), and on top of that, I believe it's just as good as the Landpride one would be.

If I need another wheel assembly in the future, I will certainly buy from them again, I probably won't even shop around to look for something different. I'd definitely recommend them if your looking for a replacement or trying to build something similar as I am. :thumbsup: