fabbing a pto splitter for a pickup truck?

[svejkovat]

I don't know if I posted this here. I searched my posts and nothing came up. I posted in a couple of other fourms to little enthusiasm. I guess I'd still like to hear the pros and cons.

I don't happen to own a tractor. I have a knockabout utility pickup for rough stuff. '94 Chevy 4.3ltr fuel inj v-6 2wd Work Truck in excellent tune. I love to DIY. I don't use more than a half dozen cords of wood a year, but I'm gettin too old to maul it and I just like the idea of building a log splitter for a project. I know fully well that I could invest a grand in delivered wood and it would do me for a couple years. Not the point. While I was looking across the net for wood splitter plans it occurred to me that I have a perfectly good platform, with bed, with V6 engine, and a wide open space where there is presently an idler in the space where the air conditioning pump would have been, and good beefy receiver hitch on the back.

This is pretty efficient little fuel injected 4.3ltr and I doubt that an hour or so at high idle is going to use monstrously more fuel than an air cooled singler cylinder. That's one of the little drawbacks I'm willing to accept.

If the serpentine belt is insufficient for a 2500psi load of fluid at 16gpm then I could just add a separate timing belt to the pump. That actually might be preferable since I could just loosen and remove the belt when not splitting wood and thereby do without a 12vdc clutch. In fact an electromagnetic clutch to handle this load would probably be 500 to 1000 bucks on it's own anyway, so lets just say I'd plan on the timing belt. Outboard of the serpentine.. five minutes remove or replace tops. Keep it under the seat.

It would take very little, it seems, to drop this pump...

...into the empty air conditioning compressor slot under the hood.
and order these two while I'm at it...

...and head down to Harbor Steel to get a length of 6X6 box channel and a few other odds/ends. Drop by Muskegon Rubber and grab some hoses and fittings. Cut, weld, and then fill that box channel with fluid. Plumb the pump to quick couplers under the rear bumper. And.... I don't know, split wood... eh? If the box channel turns out to be not such a good idea for a combo reservoir/main beam, then I could just go more conventional with the I-beam and separate reservoir. Saw a splitter online that used two 2x6 box channels paralleled and the wedge guide was simply an I-beam sliding in between them. Very elegant. And the two box channels can be used for reservoir.

Don't even need to make it into a trailer. Just tote it in the bed and slide it out when needed. Insert one end into the hitch receiver and have two fold out feet at the other end for tripod stability. Plug in the hydraulics, Crank up the engine and start working.

Or..... I could go a little easier on myself and just use the 20 percent off of any single item until november coupon I have from the back of Car and Driver magazine and buy this for 400 dollars

Unknown valve and cylinder, but we're only talking half dozen cords a year. I don't know. That's a lot of welded steel, hoses, fittings, etc, for just 140 bucks beyond the pump and cylinder from SurplusCenter. But it's still a bit of a compromise to the diy adventure. Why not just build it all?




Anyone ever done something like this?

I know. I'm insane. But has anyone else ever looked at their old work truck and fancied anything similar?

 

[Diamondpilot]

Your idea will not work. The problem is the pump. 2 reason, the pumps you are posting are set up to run off small gas engines at 3,600 rpm's. Second once you unplug the hoses from the pump with no reservoir it will dead head the pump and blow it up if you use the truck for any other reason than splitting. The only way around this is to put the reservoir and the valve permanently on the truck and allow the fluid to circulate all the time. This will lead to problems with overheating the hydro fluid.

Just keep it simple and buy one of the 6.5 HP Chinese engines for $120 at Harbor Freight and make your splitter. Also I would not use box tubing. Use a H beam or if not available use a I beam and then a 5 gallon tank for the hydro reservoir. After all is said and done you can buy a log splitter at Harbor Freight, TSC, or Lowes for about the same money. You would have $200 in the pump, $200 in the cylinder, $60 in the valve, $120 in the engine, $100 in the hoses and fittings, and probably $200 in steel. As you can see you are at about $900 and have not painted it yet. Sorry for the bad news!

- Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

 

[Diamondpilot]

Don't get me wrong, it can be done. I did not want to sound like a jerk. The reality is you can buy one for the same price or cheaper that works right and will hold its value for resale. I built my own 3 point splitter for my tractor and it cost me just as much as a store bought unit but the problem was I did not like any store bought units so that is why I built. I also made an adapter to use my splitter as a shop press that you can see in one of the pictures. My splitter goes horizontal and vertical also.

Chris

 

[bobodu]

I went through all the ideas when I built my dump truck....ended up putting a small Honda where the extra fuel tank was.
I agree on spending the extra $130 for the HF engine. The alternative would be an expensive clutch....

 

[Iplayfarmer]

If you use the extra timing belt and be sure to completely disconnect it when you are not plugged into the splitter, you'll elminate the dead-headed pump problem.

When you're estimating project costs based on prices from online vendors, remember that you have to include shipping. Hydraulic components tend to be heavy, and shipping can get pricey. Even with shipping, though, Surplus Center can often beat local prices for hoses. It's worth looking into.

Take a close look at that HF splitter. I'm not sure it comes with a pump.

This project is doable. You're just going to have to consider the concerns that have been brought up by other posters and be sure you are creative about working around them.

 

[6sunset6]

Of course you can. If you are just interested in splitting wood there are other machines that are just as cheap or cheaper ( I mean economical) and would probably be more efficient. But that is not the question.
The challange of what you want to do is interesting and possible I think.
A couple of points. All engines run CCW looking at the crank shaft from the radiator. Right? Most pumps coupled to engines and motors couple face to face. Therefore the hyd pump runs CW looking at the shaft . It is possible to reverse direction of hyd pumps , I have done it. I am not sure the two stage spitter pumps can be reversed. IF they can then the mounting is ok , similar to an alternator . IF not then you will have to mount the pump towards the front, i.e 180 d turned around. The pump speed is easy, you have so much hp in the truck engine , use a pulley on the pump 1/3 the diameter of the pulley on the engine 1200 engine rpm will give you 3600 pump rpm. I have pulley driven pumps both ways. There is some question about what is called overhanging load, that is the force on the shaft by the belt and no outboard bearing. I built one like this with a 2:1 pulley set up, electric motor 1800 rpm to pump 3600 rpm. I cannot remember if I did anything about the over hang, it was a long time ago and my brother has it now.
Remember to NEVER run the pump unless the spitter is plugged in. Deadheading will kill the pump as others have said. I guess I would put some kind of on board tank, couple of gallons under the hood so the pump is always charged , then you can put a relief valve on the pump out put and relieve it back to the on board tank. In case you forget to take the belt off the pump if you forget to plug in the splitter. There are splitters that use the axle tube for a reservoir. My splitter has a 2-3 gal tank and it works fine.

 

[svejkovat]

The HF splitter has no pump or reservoir. It is made to run on the tractor's hydraulics. There's room enough certainly for mounting the pump 180 rotated as you suggested if the pump cannot be run reversed. An extra two gallon antifreeze reservoir on the firewall would work for the contingency you suggested. I believe the Barnes pumps are rated for axial (overhang) loads for belting use. They specify roller bearings where the nobrand has ball bearings. There is an advantage as well of using timing belts since less axial loading is required for an application compared to v or serpentine.

The whole exersize at first glance seems unnecessarily complicated. But after all is done, and the pto splitter is just propped up in the corner of the garage and simply waiting for a belt to be slipped on a pump and the hoses to be plugged in, I believe it would be a fairly neat solution all in all.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

The HF splitter has no pump or reservoir. It is made to run on the tractor's hydraulics. There's room enough certainly for mounting the pump 180 rotated as you suggested if the pump cannot be run reversed. An extra two gallon antifreeze reservoir on the firewall would work for the contingency you suggested. I believe the Barnes pumps are rated for axial (overhang) loads for belting use. They specify roller bearings where the nobrand has ball bearings. There is an advantage as well of using timing belts since less axial loading is required for an application compared to v or serpentine.

The whole exersize at first glance seems unnecessarily complicated. But after all is done, and the pto splitter is just propped up in the corner of the garage and simply waiting for a belt to be slipped on a pump and the hoses to be plugged in, I believe it would be a fairly neat solution all in all.

I think this is one of those projects that someone should do and post a lot of detail about the pros and cons as the build happens.

I nominate you. We could all learn a lot from it.

 

[Diamondpilot]

The HF splitter has no pump or reservoir. It is made to run on the tractor's hydraulics. There's room enough certainly for mounting the pump 180 rotated as you suggested if the pump cannot be run reversed. An extra two gallon antifreeze reservoir on the firewall would work for the contingency you suggested. I believe the Barnes pumps are rated for axial (overhang) loads for belting use. They specify roller bearings where the nobrand has ball bearings. There is an advantage as well of using timing belts since less axial loading is required for an application compared to v or serpentine.

The whole exersize at first glance seems unnecessarily complicated. But after all is done, and the pto splitter is just propped up in the corner of the garage and simply waiting for a belt to be slipped on a pump and the hoses to be plugged in, I believe it would be a fairly neat solution all in all.

I do agree with you that it would be neat, but that is about it. In the end it will cost more than a store bought splitter and never work as good or be as convenient. A conventional splitter will hold 100% of its value if taken care of and keep in a garage since they go up in cost every year. When I started looking at them in 2003 they were $850, now they are $1100.

Chris

 

[J_J]

Those two stage pumps, all turn CW. The pressure of 2500 psi is only when you are pumping 4 GPM , and 650 psi when pumping 16 GPM.

At 2500 psi, you have a 15 ton splitter, and at 650, about half that.