Aerator lift using winch

[RBLapham]

I'm 70 years old and am tired of having to get off my tractor and raise the plug tines onto the wheels every time I get to a sidewalk or drive and if you need to back up. I received a Warn 1700 winch for Christmas and today the weather was 60 degrees so I went and played with the Brinly 40 inch aerator I have been using for over 10 years. I chose the Warn 1700 as it had the fastest line speed at 7 ft a minute. In the pictures you will see the power cables are a little short but work. Before spring I will add cable under the tractor and probably a plug by the hitch. The remote is great, power in and out. I may add 2 switches and a relay so I can just press up and release and it will go all the way up and stop when it reaches a switch, same for down. I left out the construction details as the pictures should be good enough if you want do build one.
I also built a weight box on the aerator which is bolted to the aerator. It is wood construction and water tight with a hinged top and has baffles to keep the water from sloshing around. Just add or remove water for the weight needed. Full it is about 30 gal, over 200 pounds.
Click for video [video]http://home.roadrunner.com/~rblapham/Aerator.wmv[/video]

 

[SHORT KID]

Looks good I like the weight box idea also. How many times a year do you use the aerator ?

 

[RBLapham]

Looks good I like the weight box idea also. How many times a year do you use the aerator ?

I use it twice a year - spring and fall. I do my 1 acre a couple small neighbors yards and my son' yard. Now that I have it powered up/down I may try doing more yards for profit. Used to do yards for $30 when I was in atlanta - made more than enough to pay for it in one weekend Here is a picture of the inside of the weight box. Water is in it, about as full as I ever needed it here in Ohio, in the clay of Atlanta might fill it up

 

[Steave]

I like your weight box. As you said it makes it easy to adjust the weight needed.

During the winter I guess you store it where it don't freeze or simply empty the water till you use it again.
:thumbsup:

The lift idea got me thinking again to do something on my lawn sweeper similar to this. When full I need to travel a good distance before dumping. It's just putting extra wear on the brushes by traveling with it engaging the ground. I can dump without having to get off the mower but can't raise the brushes up and down.

 

[Steave]

I've decided since small adjustments are needed besides being able to lift I'm going to go with a 12 V linear actuator. That'll make small adjustments easier and I can just mount it inline with the lever.

The less expensive ones (< $100) are not water proof but just install with quick release pins and put it in the shop when not in use.

The water proof ones like on electric gates and such are a bit more $$.

 

[RBLapham]

I always dump the water out at the end of a day of use so no freezing Just tip it backwards to empty, was going to put a drain on it, but too easy to just tip.
I thought about using a actuator also, but so many to choose from it was impossible to figure out which one I needed. The winch can be moved for other purposes very easily another reason I chose it. A bit more than I wanted to spend at $100, there were several at $50 but liked the Warn.
Good luck on the lawn sweeper - I have the big guy - Cyclone rake.

 

[kevin37b]

Nice project , gives me some ideas . Thank's for posting .

 

[RBLapham]

OK spring has arrived, time to aerate. Updated the setup with the winch. Added a plug to connect the power to the tractor and quick disconnect -- see picture. I also added a limit switch using a switch I had laying around. I ordered a limit switch for $7 which has a spring actuator and is water proof and should last longer. I also moved the winch cable down to about half way on the lift handle for quicker movement. In the updated video at the end see holding the "Up" button and the limit switch stops it. May also add a "Down" limit switch later. Aerated 4 yards so far and worked great.
Video was taken with water in the weight box. [video]http://home.roadrunner.com/~rblapham/Aerator.wmv[/video]

 

[RBLapham]

By the way I used 12 gauge 3 wire stranded extension cord (about 6 ft) to wire from the tractor battery to the plug at back of tractor (used 2 of the 3 wires). Original winch cable is 12 gauge and with the light load in this application it is plenty big enough. The wire and switch for the limit doesn’t need to be very big, I think I am using a 5 amp switch and 16 gauge stranded wire which is plenty as the switch like the remote just operates a relay in the winch not the full power. The 3 wires of the remote are a 1) common and 2) up and 3) down – easy to figure out which is which. I hooked the up limit switch in series with the up wire to the remote.

 

[brucewj]

Neat idea and execution.