Garage exhaust fan idea

[Scooby074]

Park the tractor outdoors?

or

Install a "barn fan" in a window (if you have any). I dont worry about exhaust, but I do get a lot of welding fumes and smoke, plus I paint, A barn fan works fine to get the fumes out.

 

[CurlyDave]

I would look at attic fans. You will find some that mount horizontally, and have set of louvers which automatically open and close.

The advantage of an attic fan over the HF ventilator is that the attic fan is designed for many years of duty being on for months at a time during the warm part of the year. The HF ventilator is designed for intermittent use, and is probably not as robust as an attic fan.

 

[mikehaugen]

I think your idea would work. I don't know your engine size, so lets use 160ci. Even at 2000 rpm (way faster than you would be running) that is 160,000 ci per minute which is only 92 cfm. The airflow from that blower, especially concentrated at the exhaust pipe gives you a large margin of safety. Unless my math is way off :laughing:

I would still seal the ceiling and install co detectors as mentioned.

 

[Teikas Dad]

OK, went to HF yesterday, got the fan and 8" vent hose, (the ones I listed in the OP) then stopped at HD and got a 8" to 6" round reducer along with a 6" to 4" reducer. Put the two of them together and attached 4" dryer vent hose to them. Attached the 8" end of the reducer to the fan and the 8" vent hose to the exhaust side. I added an aluminum coupler to the end of the 4" dryer vent hose. I took two flat magnets, one on the inside and the other on the outside of the aluminum coupler at the end of the hose to hold the coupler in place over the exhaust pipe. Hooked everything up in line and the magnets worked great to hold the aluminum hose coupler on the exhaust pipe. I had enough length between the dryer vent hose and the HF exhaust hose to reach the garage door. Opened the garage door, turned on the fan and fired up the tractor. The usual cloud of white smoke (I gotta get around to the injector shim adjustment one of these days!) that choked me out of the garage was nowhere near the tractor. It all went downstream and right out the garage door. I let the tractor run for a minute or so with the fan running. The magnet/aluminum coupler worked out perfect. The thickness of the magnet held the coupler off the exhaust pipe about 3/8" and the coupler didn't even start to get warm. I took the coupler off the exhaust pipe, shut down the fan and drove the tractor out of the garage.

All totaled it was probably $100 worth of parts and pieces, but it seems to work really well. I had a 25% off coupon for HF for the fan along with a 20% off coupon I used on the hose so I saved a few bucks there.

Next time I'm out in the barn I'll take some photos and post them.