hydraulic/pnuematic cylinder

[Anonymous Poster]

I use a Swisher 60'' finish tow mower in addition to the 60" MMM on my BX2200. To engage/disengage the blades you pull on a rope. I'm constantly replacing the rope because it falls out of my hand and the tow mower blades chew them up before I am able to stop. I want to use a cylinder to engage/disengege the blades. I think hydraulic would be too complicated so I'm looking at pnuematic. What I need is a small 7"(approx.) cylinder but I'm unable to locate one. Does anyone know where to buy one? I checked farm stores like Rural King, they have only large hydraulic cylinders. What might be better than pnuematic, in this case, would be a electric operated cylinder operated from a simple switch on the tractor. Would one of these be strong enough? Where do you get them?

 

[ronjhall]

Jon
Check out <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.bimba.com/>Bimba Cylinder Company</A>. They have all kinds of air cylinder that should be able to work on your project. They do hold up.
I don't know how you are going to get compressed air to run it with. On a tractor, Hydraulics is the favored way to run cylinders.
There should a local distributor near your home.
]

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

JonCat:
What sort of force do you need? You may find a solenoid is available that will do the job without hydraulics or air. A pull & hold solemoid against a spring so default is disengaged might be fairly simple unless you need a lot of force.

 

[MossRoad]

Does your swisher have it's own battery for starting? If so, you could go with a 12v solenoid and relay and then all you would have to do is run two small wires up the drawbar to a switch on the tractor. You could even put a small trailer type wire disconnect near the rear of the tractor and permanetly mount a switch in a convenient location.

 

[HalseyGreen]

How about using a linear actuator. If you are not familiar with them, they are like an electric jack used on travel trailers, also used on the older satelite dishes to change the angle of reception, come in 12 volt models, so you don't have to worry about an air source and hook-up would be simple. Grainger also carries them, www.grainger.com, around $150 each, kinda pricely. Grainger also carries air cylinders 3/4" bore by 6" stroke - around $26 (I have last years Catalog), but you would need a small 12 volt compressor and tank to operate. Here another idea, I saw a atv snow plow that used what looked like a windshield wiper motor converted to work like a winch to lift the blade. Not sure of how much pull is needed, but something like that may work.

 

[beenthere]

First, are you looking to replace the rope with a wire harness? And what keeps the wire harness from falling to its fate like the rope with the blades. Seems the rope could be fastened to the tractor so you do not have to hold it, still can pull it, and solve the problem. We used to use a rope in the old days to engage/disengage all kinds of pull type equipment. And I lost some ropes too. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Second, check into Surplus Center (1-800-488-3407) for the cylinders (air and hydraulic) and linear actuator (24v). Maybe the ultimate would be a remote control with no wires connecting to the tractor. Something on the order of electric brake activation on a trailer would or could activate an electric clutch or solenoid.

 

[MossRoad]

The mower is towed by a bar. Run any wires down the bar.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thank you for all the help so far. Here is the web page for the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.swisherinc.com/t60.html>Swisher T-60</A>. It does have electric start. And the frame on this thing is large enough so you can easily mount a small air tank for a pnuematic actuator. But the electric solenoid looks the easiest way to go. And MossRoad came up with a great idea to use a trailer type wire disconnect at the rear of the tractor to a permanent switch. And thanks HalseyGreen for the suggestion of Grainger. The 6'' stroke pnuematic cylinder is about the size I need and the $26 is great. I'll look into Grainger more, maybe I'll find an electric solenoid that I can use instead. I might even run the wires up to the dashboard and put the key switch for the electric start there! One more thing...this model comes in two versions. 13hp Tecumseh with red paint or a 12.5 hp Briggs and Stratton with a dark green paint job. I have the 12.5hp B+S...it went good with the Sears Garden Tractor I sold when I bought The Bota.

 

[DDT]

Can you tie the rope to the seat with some slack in the line for turning?

 

[PaulT]

What about using an electric clutch in the pulley system, like a lawn or garden tractor. My little JD LX172 has one. Just flip the switch and the clutch engages the drive shaft from the engine with the freewheeling pulley. I noticed replacement clutches in the Surplus Equipment (?) catalog I received the other day, less than $100, although I can't remember how much less. You have the added benefit of knowing you are using something exactly for what it was intended for, so it will likely be reliable.