ksJoe
Member
A background project I've tinkered with for the last couple months seems to have turned out great. I converted an old Danuser PTO driven post hole digger to be hydraulically powered. Its old enough that it was not standard 3 point mount. The guy selling it on Craigslist thought that since it was made for a specific tractor, it wasn't worth much. I got it for $60. Its been in his shed for the decades he's owned it.
Ths is what it looked like when I got it:
I wanted a hydraulic (rather than 3 point/PTO) PHD for for several reasons. The biggest is that the water table is high on my land and I think I can DIY drill some wells with a reversable hydraulic PHD.
After disconnecting the tractor-specific mounting brackets (upper left in above image), it was surprisingly close to a 3 point.
I bought a SSQA blank plate for the starting point attaching it to the tractor. On ebay I found an SSQA plate that is made for 3 point attachments. Its not a very easy 3-point, I don't think I'd like it for frequent attaching/detaching of 3pt implements, but it was very convenient for this project.
I welded up some brackets to hold a hydraulic motor that has an output shaft matching a standard tractor PTO. Note the motor sits at angle
.
Other than disconnecting the tractor-specific part, there wasn't much to do to attach it to the plate. I shortened and welded a top link shaft to set the angle. Note that when the rig is horizontal, the SSQA plate is slanted, and the angle of the motor lines up with the drive shaft to run smoothly.
It drills holes great. My tractor only puts out around 10GPM, 2000 PSI, so it doesn't have a lot of power. I can stop it easily if I try to drill too fast, but since its reversible, getting it unstuck is not a problem.
The reason I set the motor & frame is at an angle relative to the SSQA plate, is so that when I tilt it back as far as it will tilt back, the frame is almost straight up. Now, I need some heavy steel pipe, around 2.5" diameter. Once I get that, I can make extensions for the auger and drill wells. I haven't measured yet, but with how high it goes I think the extensions can be about 10-12 feet long each. Which I'm hoping will make it doable to drill some wells 30-40 feet deep.
Yesterday I drilled 4 holes with it, and so far its working great.
This was far less work than I expected it to be.
It was just:
- disconnect part of the frame
- weld bracket for the motor
- cut/weld the top link at an appropriate length
- assemble
Surpluscenter sells hydraulic motors with ag PTO style output shafts. They're available in several displacements, so you can pick one to match the flow rate of your machine and produce around 540 RPM. The motor was most of the cost of the project.
Ths is what it looked like when I got it:
I wanted a hydraulic (rather than 3 point/PTO) PHD for for several reasons. The biggest is that the water table is high on my land and I think I can DIY drill some wells with a reversable hydraulic PHD.
After disconnecting the tractor-specific mounting brackets (upper left in above image), it was surprisingly close to a 3 point.
I bought a SSQA blank plate for the starting point attaching it to the tractor. On ebay I found an SSQA plate that is made for 3 point attachments. Its not a very easy 3-point, I don't think I'd like it for frequent attaching/detaching of 3pt implements, but it was very convenient for this project.
I welded up some brackets to hold a hydraulic motor that has an output shaft matching a standard tractor PTO. Note the motor sits at angle
Other than disconnecting the tractor-specific part, there wasn't much to do to attach it to the plate. I shortened and welded a top link shaft to set the angle. Note that when the rig is horizontal, the SSQA plate is slanted, and the angle of the motor lines up with the drive shaft to run smoothly.
It drills holes great. My tractor only puts out around 10GPM, 2000 PSI, so it doesn't have a lot of power. I can stop it easily if I try to drill too fast, but since its reversible, getting it unstuck is not a problem.
The reason I set the motor & frame is at an angle relative to the SSQA plate, is so that when I tilt it back as far as it will tilt back, the frame is almost straight up. Now, I need some heavy steel pipe, around 2.5" diameter. Once I get that, I can make extensions for the auger and drill wells. I haven't measured yet, but with how high it goes I think the extensions can be about 10-12 feet long each. Which I'm hoping will make it doable to drill some wells 30-40 feet deep.
Yesterday I drilled 4 holes with it, and so far its working great.
This was far less work than I expected it to be.
It was just:
- disconnect part of the frame
- weld bracket for the motor
- cut/weld the top link at an appropriate length
- assemble
Surpluscenter sells hydraulic motors with ag PTO style output shafts. They're available in several displacements, so you can pick one to match the flow rate of your machine and produce around 540 RPM. The motor was most of the cost of the project.
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