Re: front mounted snow blower Q\'s
Well you asked for some progress photo's and here they are.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/19089
I decided to go with a chain drive as it was the most foolproof method of power transmission. I didn't want to reengineer this thing due to belt slippage issues. The jack shaft arrangement has turn out to be obscenly complex. This is due to the small scale of my tractor. This results in the front axle being well below the pto input of the blower and the resulting short shaft angles adding up for some wicked U-joint angles. I'm having to use double u-joints to make up for the difference. With a double U-joint I'll have around 10 degrees of deflection is the grey line for a 1200rpm shaft. A carden joint would have fewer bearings, but they are very expensive. So far I've found most of the expensive parts on ebay so my total outlay in parts is around $200. After much head scratching I finally figured out how to lift the blower. I'll be using the 3pt hitch arms and a rocker assembly. I'll post some more pics of it later when they become available.
Well you asked for some progress photo's and here they are.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/19089
I decided to go with a chain drive as it was the most foolproof method of power transmission. I didn't want to reengineer this thing due to belt slippage issues. The jack shaft arrangement has turn out to be obscenly complex. This is due to the small scale of my tractor. This results in the front axle being well below the pto input of the blower and the resulting short shaft angles adding up for some wicked U-joint angles. I'm having to use double u-joints to make up for the difference. With a double U-joint I'll have around 10 degrees of deflection is the grey line for a 1200rpm shaft. A carden joint would have fewer bearings, but they are very expensive. So far I've found most of the expensive parts on ebay so my total outlay in parts is around $200. After much head scratching I finally figured out how to lift the blower. I'll be using the 3pt hitch arms and a rocker assembly. I'll post some more pics of it later when they become available.