Thoughts on converting lawn tractor snow blower to PT422

[washita]

I have always felt the PT was a product of evolution therefor I feel you should adhere to the K.I.S.S. theory, since I am following this thread with great interest do not let ''Analysis Paralysis'' orphan this project, of side note the machinist handbook recommends a minimum of 120degree wrap/contact of the belt to the pulley, keep up the good work

 

[KentT]

If you go direct drive, I'd make absolutely sure that the snowblower has shear pins. It doesn't take a limb or something to jam one -- a big chunk of hard, frozen slush that came off the street can do it also...

Something has to give, somewhere...

 

[J_J]

If the finish mower is a 3 cu in hyd motor, you will only have about at 616 rpm? That seems enough to through snow, and if so, how far will it throw?

Your hyd motor will develop about 119 ft lbs of torque.

How large is the rotor/blower?

 

[BobRip]

If you go direct drive, I'd make absolutely sure that the snowblower has shear pins. It doesn't take a limb or something to jam one -- a big chunk of hard, frozen slush that came off the street can do it also...

Something has to give, somewhere...

Would the PT relief valve provide this protection?

 

[MossRoad]

If you want to keep it simple, don't shorten the mount. Put the hydraulic motor on top of that mount and drive it with a belt off of the existing belt drive pulley. Do that for proof of concept first. If it works and throws snow the way you like it, then you can decide if its worth the extra work to shorten the mount and relocate the motor. :thumbsup:

 

[washita]

As BobRip noted the relief valve should protect the hydraulic motor drive-line. when I built my trencher I installed a jack-shaft (two hubs bolted together with grade #2, 1/4'' bolts) in the drive-line in addition to a relief valve set initially at 1500 psi the relief valve always opens before the shear bolts break when I stall the digging chain, I have lowered the relief valve pressure setting since the digging chain has stalled and lifted the rear of the PT on several occasions

 

[KentT]

Would the PT relief valve provide this protection?

I don't recall what implement I was using at the time, but I do recall killing the engine while using the PTO -- so I'm not sure my relief valve is operating correctly, or if it is, it didn't react fast enough to prevent killing the engine...

All I know is that the walk-behind snowblowers that I've used all had shear pins, while my tractor-mounted, belt-driven Simplicity one does not -and I've hit things several times with it that have either disengaged the over-center/idler pulley clutch or made the belt slip...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7QeVjG7big&list=UUHXWws8LtTEk-MbdDqdQt_A&index=19&feature=plcp"]42" Simplicity snowblower in use[/ame]

 

[J_J]

Would the PT relief valve provide this protection?

If you don't have to ever reverse the snow blower for a jam or something, then you can put a relief valve across the hyd motor. If you need to reverse, then put a double relief valve across the hyd motor. Then you have the motor pr etected both ways.

 

[KMA]

Quick update:

I have most of the conversion done. I still need to make one more bracket, and throw a coat of paint on the raw metal pieces. Luckily, I was able to shorten up the total length enough to have the chute direction lever reach far enough for the driver to operate. The tension sprocket used on the chain between the drive shaft and the auger was in pretty bad shape and barely moved. I was able to remove the seals, clean out the rust and repack some grease which seemed to fix it up. I think it might need servicing every year or so, or will have to be replaced with a better design.

I spun up the auger to test the coupler alignment and to make sure nothing flew off or failed catastrophically. So far so good, but the speed of the single stage auger is a bit scary looking at it from the front side. Total cost was $125.

I will hopefully have some pics posted soon. Thanks again for everyone's input.

 

[J_J]

Which motor did you use?