Foton 254: Anyone mod their Rad fan to a clutch type?

[D0TC0M]

The engine power rating has nothing to do with it. It's the alternator rating that counts here. It doesn't take any more engine power to spin a 14A alternator than it does a 60A alternator.

Greg I really appreciate your comments and I hate to disagree with some of your comments. Your statement is only true if both alternators are putting out the same load. As your alternator's output increases (putting out more amps) than the same amount of energy is needed from the engine to spin it harder. Laws of physics dictate power in equals power out (neglecting any losses).

In the end whether a mechanical or an electrical fan is used, assuming both fans displace the same amount of air, they both will consume the same amount of power from the engine. The alternator I have will definitely not have any problem driving it but its not free power it has to come from the engine one way or another. The only advantage energy-wise is instead of the mechanical fan being always on wasting power, the electrical fan will only be on when needed.

In this case its about 20 amps @ 13.8v which is 276 watts. I agree its unnoticeable but my main goal was to recoup that wasted energy used to spin the mechanical fan by replacing it with an electrical fan that will practically never be on. Net gain +276w but more noticeably there will be much less fan noise with no fan spinning at 2300RPM for nothing.

Then if you install a correctly sized DC/AC invertor, your alternator won't even break into a sweat over supporting an appropriately sized electric fan plus a 1500 watt tank heater plus the rest of the tractor electrics. The starter is not included in this equation, because it's turned by the battery. After the engine is started, then the alternator takes over - replenishing the battery and running the tractor electrics.

Installing an inline tank heater on the heater hose that supplies the cab - and powering it as described above - is add the equivalent of putting a space heater inside the cab. Except this extra heat will be coming out of your vents. There's no surge when a tank heater energizes, so you could get by with a 2000w invertor for both fan and heater - and still have juice to spare. $50 bucks on eBay or Amazon.
//greg//

The 2000w inverter will require 144amps when maxed out not counting any losses in the inverter and wiring. I just have a 78 amp alternator which means at its max rating it can supply 1074 Watts at 13.8v. Driving anything over 1074 Watts and the battery no longer charges not to mention I would have to upgrade a lot of my existing wiring to handle this load and the alternator wouldn't last very long running at 100% of its capacity.

Now in your example of 1500w, thats 1.5Kw or just over 2HP. I definitely do not want to lose 2HP when I already find that 25HP isn't enough What I have been thinking for awhile now is fabricating a heat exchanger in the exhaust to recoup some of the heat in the exhaust gases. My father did something similar in his woodstove where he installed a copper coil inside the exhaust duct of his wood furnace zzand heated the water in his hot water tank. This heat exchanger could be bypassed for the summer months in need be. If I don't go through with it I will probably just install an induction heater under the oil pan in addition to my engine heater and prewarm the tractor on utility power that should help build up the engine temps faster. My driveway takes about 45 minutes to clean so its not really a lot of time for everything to heat up. I can accept the cab being luke warm but I'd like to see the engine achieve its rated temperature faster.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions guys, its very much appreciated.

DG

 

[ElectroTechnics]

I would recommend getting an electric fan and a PWM fan controller. I went on ebay and found a heavy duty 3000 CFM fan that draws 15A according to the listing ($43) and a 40A rated variable PWM fan controller ($10) The fan seems to be quite well made and the PWM controller works great.

If you get that and wire in the potentiometer to your dash you can set the fan to off or really low in the winter and on a hot summer day crank it up. When you have the fan set to low it draws a lot less amps so in the winter you wont be loosing power on both cab and radiator fans spinning, and you can stay warm! The price of the electric fan plus the controller should still be less than buying a fan clutch and fan to match it.

I am not too familiar with the rules here so I wont post the ebay links but just search these terms
New 14" Heavy Duty Radiator Electric Wide Curved Blade FAN 3000 CFM Reversible
and
9-50V DC Motor Speed Control PWM HHO RC Controller

I got one with the plastic case and the potentiometer on a wire.

Those were from US sellers so I don't know how shipping to Canada would work out, but you should be able to figure it out.

 

[D0TC0M]

Thanks for your input buddy. I was just going to get a fan and use a thermo switch to turn it on and off like I did on my Jeep TJ. My only concern with what you suggested would be if I didn't set the dial right or I forgot to change it to summer mode for the summer the engine could overheat.

 

[ElectroTechnics]

What I meant for setting the dial to summer is crank it up to full power

Anyway once I get my fan set up I will post results on how it works out on my turbo jinma post

 

[greg_g]

Always been my impression that the output of an alternator was relative to the number of windings. Was unaware that it took more "horsepower" to spin a higher output alternator. But I did in fact over-estimate the invertor size. I pulled a number that I thought might be close without actually running it past Ohm's Law.

Clearly a multi-meter will reveal the actual number. Short of that, I generally consider the output of a healthy alternator/regulator to be 14.4 vdc. If true in your case, that you should be able to spin >1100w out of it.

And the tank heater is in fact a heat exchanger, but via coolant rather than exhaust.

If it helps, I bought oil pan heaters for all my tractors from Wolverine. Take care not to over-buy though. Too much pan heater and you'll end up coking your engine oil.

//greg//

 

[succor]

Never had a problem in the winter, however in the summer, It can get too hot if I don't keep the rad clean. I did end up moving the air filter above the engine for better flow.