DIY Electric chute rotator

[Bedlam]

this is the point when I start to want to ask Bill two things.
One is he trying to do it on a budget?
Two can he do some fabricating etc .

i think if you could tell us bill how your set with these two questions we will have a better grasp on what way to direct you
Thanks

BTW dave good job looks good.

 

[PILOON]

Making a sprocket to match the teeth on the shute would be easy as those teeth are big and coarse.
I'd consider 2 'washers', say 3" in diameter with a spacer to keep them apart.
Drill holes thru the 'washers' (discs) and simply use 1/4" bolts as your teeth.
Trick would be to space evenly, but that could be layed out using a compass for even angles and wherever you get the proper spacing is where you drill holes to accept the bolts!

Another method (that I use) is to wrap a sprocket chain around the base of the shute leaving you only to get a sprocker to match your wheelchair motor shaft.
Downside is the sprocket/chain gets ice builup.

But then again the 12 volt winch could be treated the same way.
Not to forget that they are rated at 2000#, so ice buildup is not a problem.

Not that I have done it, but the a ATV winch with a dozen or so coils of cable wrapped around along with 2-3 turns around the snow shute would work real well.
You would cut a length of winch cable long enough to make desired turns around both winch drum and a couple of turns around the shute base.
You would then re-clamp the cable on the winch exactly centered and add desired no of turns on it to allow at least one complete rotation of the snow shute. (might be 6-8 turns both rt and lt)
Then do 2 turns around the shute and clamp the overlapping ends to the shute.(a small cable clamp could accomplish that task)
Lokking at your photo, I'd mount the winch vertically approximately where the decal/label is on the backside of the blower looking from the tractor side.
That way you still keep the factory crank as well!

The beauty of the winch is that all the switching and wireing is done for you.
You simply need to provide +12volts and a ground!
Don'y forget to fuse the + side!

Good luck.

 

[Roger2561]

Hi,
My Erskine front mount snow blower has an electric linear actuator (motor) to rotate the shute as well as one for the up/down motion of the deflector. I control them by heavy duty toggle switches mounted on the dash of my JD4500; easy to reach. Although the motor for up/down deflector works great, controlling the rotation has drawbacks. If too much snow/slush builds up, the motor will operate but the linear motion of the "piston" will not extend, thus, the shute will not rotate. I have many hydraulics option to which I can run hydraulics. All I'm having trouble figuring out is the size (mainly length of the shaft) of the hydraulic cylinder to fit in the confined space. As soon as I figurre out how to attach a pic to this, I'll show you the setup I have now. Perhaps someone can offer me assistance with hydraulic cylinder sizing; how they are measured for length, travel of piston, etc... Thanks, all. Happy New Year. Roger

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Making a sprocket to match the teeth on the shute would be easy as those teeth are big and coarse.

Well, From my shopping of Pronovost blowers, I believe all a person would need to do is to have the factory sprocket pictured pressed flat. To make SURE it stays engaged, what I'd do is weld a steel ring of 1/4" round stock around the top & bottom of the sprocket...essentially making a sandwich...which keeps the teeth of the driven sprocket perfectly engaged with the chute sprocket.

All I'm having trouble figuring out is the size (mainly length of the shaft) of the hydraulic cylinder to fit in the confined space.

Why a hydraulic cylinder?

 

[pat32rf]

Been following the posts of all the systems that worked good. I've tried two systems so far that have worked, but not great for one reason or another.
My 5' blower came with a cable crank setup.
Last winter I tried a power seat motor and gear. Direct drive from the motor worm gear to the old handle shaft. Worked in the shop but once the ice built up it tended to stop, then I broke off the toggle switch handle when I caught it with my coat sleeve..
This winter I replaced the seat motor with a small 12v starter motor from a 4cylinder car. First I had to rebuild the motor so the field coil leads were available. After that I used a set of winch relays to control direction. In this case I attached the motor shaft to the old crank with a coupling. I also added a 12v battery to the blower with a hot lead from the tractor to keep it charged. This system gave me a "chute spin time" of slightly under one second, "lock to lock". After redesigning my cable attachment (heavier) the old battery that I used packed in. When I had it tested I was told that it had shorted internally, probably from the vibration. A new Optima battery would be about $180.
Last summer I took 3 old vehicles from the back 40 to the scrap yard. They all had WW motors......
I have a set of rear remotes on the tractor and an old salt spreader with hydraulic motor SOMEWHERE in the quanset hut.....
Why don't I have time in the summer to do these projects????????

 

[Wyld Bill]

First of all thanks for all the replies, advice, etc.

Yes I am capable of fabricating something. I worked in a metal fab shop in high school & have always build my own stuff. One of my last hobbies was four wheelin. I built a unstoppable Suzuki Samurai out of stuff from junkyards etc.

Money,..ah,..don't want to spend too much,..I just bought the tractor last year, had the tires loaded this summer, bought a engine heater last week & the I bought the blower this winter. Gotta lay low for a while (married).

One thing I should mention is how easy this chute spins. It is a great design. Even covered with snow & slush a toddler could spin the crank. So I can't really see where I'd NEED a bunch of power to rotate it.

I was thinking about it today & I think a very important thing to me is how fast the chute will rotate. If it rotates too slow or fast it's not going to work good for me & I will have wasted my time & some money.

So,..a full swing lock to lock seems to be about 330 degrees.
That is equal to 3-1/2 rotations of the crank handle.
A good full rotation duration is 2 to 5 seconds.
So,..a speed on the rotation crank shaft of 1 to 2 R.P.S. (revelutions per second) would be good.

Does anybody know the RPS on : a small winch, most electric window motors, windshield wiper motors, wheel chair motors????

Now,..I'm not an engineer or anything so I need so opinions on this...

If one of those small winches rotated at say,..2 RPS,...and winch drum is say 2" OD, and the chute crank shaft 1" OD.
IF that was the specs & I hooked the winch to the shaft via a chain, belt, or the cable wrap method,...does that mean that the chute crank would be turning at 1 RPS???

 

[PILOON]

ai don't recall rpm's on winch, but it would be slowish, however you could build up the drum size to attain what you want.
I seem to recall that the drum is about 1" or empty so and maybe 3" when full of cable.That is if you go cable route.
Another option to consider is driving your shute crank handle shaft on a 1 to 1 basis.
An idea for that approach might be to cut a pully or sprocket in half (after boring the center to match the winch drum size) and attaching to the winch drum by either welding or bolting to one flange.
You would then mate a similar pully or sprocket to the snow shut crank stub shaft.
That would want the winch to be mounted horizontally parallel to the hand crank shaft.
This approach would also retain the hand crank functionality.

While I don't actually know the specific RPS of the winches I'd suspect that it would be real close.
At worst you might need to increase or decrease one of the sprockets by 1/2" or 1".
Heck you could use bicycle sprockets and chain for that matter.
I don't suggest V belts as when wet they'd want to slip, and worst when icy.

My first install was with a wheelchair motor (using sprocket/chain) that was 24 volts, but I ran it succesfully on 12 VDC until the permanant magnets for some reason came loose and the motor refused to spin. It is now repaired but I don't trust the epoxy adhesive I used to be permanant enough to risk it again.
I did have an alternative geared motor that is now in use otherwise I'd for sure use the ATV winch that I purchased from Cosco.
What I have learned is that you really want lots of torque as ice is hard to break free.
Sure a window or wiper motor will do as long as there is no snow or ice, but guess what? you are blowing snow! and snow freezes and becomes ice, and the colder the harder it gets!
You do need torque!--and lots of it.
Even now I occasionally blow 25 amp fuses trying to break the ice loose.
One trick I have adopted is to liberally squirt oil all over the chaindrive and shute guides. Helps a lot.
The chain links do get iced up easily and that is one reason that I'd prefer the winch/cable setup.

 

[KubotaSam]

I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of the ATV winch I ordered last week. I took PILOON's advice in another post. I can't see how you could go wrong with the winch - cable combination. My Kubota B222A Blower uses the a hand crank and cable assembly now. It seems a no-brainer to adapt a winch to do the turning.
I found it on ebay from Northern Tool for $44.00 delivered. I think 3 or 4 turns around the winch drum and a turnbuckle to keep the cable tight will do the job.
As far as speed of turning , how fast does anybody need it to turn? Any faster than 5 or 6 seconds from side to side would be way to fast to control the position you want the chute to point.

 

[Cord]

I made this modification several years ago and I'm very tickled with the results. Yea, the installation is a bit different from yours, but the theory is the same. Basically, my blower had a gear drive to rotate the chute. It took the gear off the shaft, bored it out and mounted it directly on a gear motor. The motor was a take off from a Gehl chopper with electric chute rotation. I found the speed to be too fast so a little research showed that the manufacturer made the gear motor in different speeds. I also found that Grainer carried these motors. Made a stop to my local store and found that they were able to order the gears I needed. To determine the correct speed, count how many turns it takes from lock to lock. Then figure out how fast you want it to rotate. My chute takes 5 seconds from full left to full right. Even geared down, the chute rotation is really quick. Frankly I like it! But wouldn't go any faster. Any faster and it'll get hard to pin point the exact spot. The nice thing about the electric rotation is that you'll find yourself adjusting it more often. The motor I used appears to be no longer carried by Grainger. The closest is a Grainger ILPK9. Power Transmission > Gearmotors > Gearmotors > Gearmotor,6 RPM,500 Torque,12 VDC,TENV : Grainger Industrial Supply There are different motors with different speeds available.

 

[Wyld Bill]

ai don't recall rpm's on winch, but it would be slowish, however you could build up the drum size to attain what you want.
I seem to recall that the drum is about 1" or empty so and maybe 3" when full of cable.That is if you go cable route.
Another option to consider is driving your shute crank handle shaft on a 1 to 1 basis.
An idea for that approach might be to cut a pully or sprocket in half (after boring the center to match the winch drum size) and attaching to the winch drum by either welding or bolting to one flange.
You would then mate a similar pully or sprocket to the snow shut crank stub shaft.
That would want the winch to be mounted horizontally parallel to the hand crank shaft.
This approach would also retain the hand crank functionality.

I've been thinking about this some more & I am thinkingthe same thing.
I found the specs onthe cheap 2000# China winches on-line some where. I have to see if I can find it again. It didn't have the spool RPS but it did have a chart for FPM of the cable. I think I remember seeing that the drum diameter is 1-1/2". I think the diameter of the chute crank shaft is 1".
I think mounting the winch parralell to the crank shaft would be the way to go. Maybe on a hinge with a spring pushing the winch away from the crank shaft for tension on the chain or belt.

While I don't actually know the specific RPS of the winches I'd suspect that it would be real close.
At worst you might need to increase or decrease one of the sprockets by 1/2" or 1".
Heck you could use bicycle sprockets and chain for that matter.
I don't suggest V belts as when wet they'd want to slip, and worst when icy.

My first install was with a wheelchair motor (using sprocket/chain) that was 24 volts, but I ran it succesfully on 12 VDC until the permanant magnets for some reason came loose and the motor refused to spin. It is now repaired but I don't trust the epoxy adhesive I used to be permanant enough to risk it again.
I did have an alternative geared motor that is now in use otherwise I'd for sure use the ATV winch that I purchased from Cosco.
What I have learned is that you really want lots of torque as ice is hard to break free.
Sure a window or wiper motor will do as long as there is no snow or ice, but guess what? you are blowing snow! and snow freezes and becomes ice, and the colder the harder it gets!
You do need torque!--and lots of it.
Even now I occasionally blow 25 amp fuses trying to break the ice loose.
One trick I have adopted is to liberally squirt oil all over the chaindrive and shute guides. Helps a lot.
The chain links do get iced up easily and that is one reason that I'd prefer the winch/cable setup.

Yeah I SHOULD be able to adjust sprocket sizes to get the desired speed. Like you said a belt may not be the way to go as it may slip once it gets wet to be stiff in really cold temps.
I still don't think I'll have a lot of troulbe with the chute getting stuck because of the design where the chute rides on small blocks of HDPE.
If I go with a short chain & sprockets I know where I can get teh parts for cheap as there is a motorcycle junk yard 10 minutes from my house. They have cardboard boxes FULL of every size sprockets known to man for cheap. I could fab up a sheet metal cover to protect the winch & chain from snow/ice build up.

Thanks for info & advice!

Ok an update. There are like 50 brands of small 12volt 2000# winches out there from $40 to $189. They all are teh same winch from China I think with just different labels on them.
The specs on all of them are:
10.5 FPM cable speed unloaded down to 4.2 FPM full loaded. 153:1 ratio. The drum is 1.25" diameter X 2.86" wide.

So,...engineers out there what is that for a RPS on the winch drum???