Front Loader from a Ford Truck

[4570Man]

I agree that the electric pump is probably not adequate. It wouldn’t be hard to just use a second motor and pump like a wood splitter uses. I don’t think the electric pumps have the duty cycle you’d want either.

 

[Doofy]

Are hydraulic pumps directional? Does it matter which way they turn?

 

[nimblemotors]

thanks for the hydraulic info! that stuff is mostly all new to me.

btw, I am clearing out a bunch of abandoned stuff from another renter, and one of the items is a big Isuzu truck that has a dump bed.
If it can't be sold complete and must be parted out, I might see about using that big cylinder and the lines and maybe the pump.
It isn't designed to dump quickly, so the pump might be too small, but this stuff will be free..

And there is also a boat trailer I might use the frame metal for my arm with suitable welding, it is also free, and also a big metal box
about the size of a truck bed of pretty thick steel that would be great to build the bucket..also free.

 

[4570Man]

That looks like a nice truck. Don’t butcher it for this project. The cylinder in my dump truck is like a 5” cylinder. It’s pretty slow. Like 30-40 second cycle time. Where are you located?

 

[Creamer]

I grew up around a couple of neighbors that had used old trucks for this. Kind of like this one. FARM SHOW - Loader Tractor Built From Military Truck
The ones I was familiar with they had done something with the transmission so that we had four gears forward (with the loader) and just one reverse. The bonus to these for making hay was that they were fast. the dual wheels could hold a lot of weight and yet they had suspension so you could cover a lot of ground quickly. They used the truck hydraulic system from the dump box hoist to power the loader. Running across a hay field at 35 mph seems like you were flying but we did it all the time. they were handy, quick, turned short with the "rear wheel Steer" and made short work of all the running around a hay field.

 

[Creamer]

Here's another more recent one.
School Bus Turned into Hay Bale Loader on South Dakota Farm - YouTube

 

[nimblemotors]

That looks like a nice truck. Don’t butcher it for this project. The cylinder in my dump truck is like a 5” cylinder. It’s pretty slow. Like 30-40 second cycle time. Where are you located?

Doesn't run, has more than 326,000 miles and has the dash torn apart, no ignition, and no title..I think best bet is try to part it out. Sacramento, CA

 

[4570Man]

No title puts a damper on the spirit. It’s worth more parted out than what it’s worth in your loader. Why not use that truck for the loader project. It’s probably equivalent to a F-450 or F-550 and seems like a more suitable loader platform.

 

[EddieWalker]

Love to see you build this just because I've never seen it done before.


I'm not sure if I'd be looking at the cylinder first. How much power will you have with that engine to run the vehicle "AND" a hydraulic pump? The pump you use is what will decide how much lift you can get out of a cylinder.

How will you power the pump?

 

[rScotty]

Are hydraulic pumps directional? Does it matter which way they turn?

Yes. Most all pumps will have a direction of rotation arrow cast right onto the body. To make sure of no mistake, the In & Out ports are often labeled. Still, it won't hurt it to spin it backwards for short periods by accident.

Old farm tractors ran their hydraulics at about 2000 psi at 7 to 15 gallons per minute flow. Modern ones and most compact Utility tractors run closer to 3000 psi and about the same flow rate range.

I'd recommend staying in the "under 2000 psi" range for pressure. That keeps things a lot safer and isplenty of pressure for big lifts. My old farm tractor runs only about 1500 psi and 7 gallons/minute to handle round bales (1500 lbs each).

Hydraulic pumps driven by the tractor's PTO shaft that ran at a rather slow PTO speed (100 to 650 RPM was the typical range) were common on old tractors and lasted forever. That's what I used and it would work for your project. But the downside to those pumps is they don't want to be run much faster than about 650 RPM and on an automotive engine that requires some special pulleys or some way to step down the automotive fan belt speed. You might use the existing power steering pump though. More about that below.

Electric hydraulic pumps won't cut it. They are even weaker and not much faster than a power steering pump. Plus they run hot in continuous use.
The basic ballpark equation which ignores all losses but is good for getting an idea of how to match HP to Fluid flow is:
HP = PSI x gallons per minute x 0.0005833

So if you want to run 1500 psi at 7 gallons per minute (about what my old farm tractor does), then that hydraulic pump is going to take 1500 x 7 x .0005833 = about 6 hp to spin it.
Hmmm.....That sounds reasonable. In fact, that's not too far off what an automotive waterpump and fan soak up when working. I'd give it a try with whatever fan belt fits the engine you have. Worse that will happen is that the belt will slip. For that matter, you could even run the whole hydraulics off of the power steering pump but they would be dead slow.
You can use your existing power steering pump and a 5 gallon fluid reservoir to try out your system. It will be slow, but will move the cylinders. All you have to do for that is have some special hydraulic hoses with the appropriate connections made up.
Luck,
rScotty