Hydraulic powered mowing deck

[Truckerdad]

Will have to wait till I get home to get some specs.I am on the road until october 2nd. Thanks to quicksand for the formula's...I will for sure use them.
I think J.J. is right about small hydro powered L&G tractors. I may have to re-think this one. Will post back later,Thanks again to all. Oh yea,was gonna ask about how the small L&G tractor use implements like post hole diggers and snow blowers..hydraulic?

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Will have to wait till I get home to get some specs.I am on the road until october 2nd. Thanks to quicksand for the formula's...I will for sure use them.
I think J.J. is right about small hydro powered L&G tractors. I may have to re-think this one. Will post back later,Thanks again to all. Oh yea,was gonna ask about how the small L&G tractor use implements like post hole diggers and snow blowers..hydraulic?

Some of the larger lawn and garden tractors use hydraulics, but most of the smaller ones run belts to the snowblower or tiller. I haven't come accross any small L&G's that use a post hole digger.

In my experience, the smaller garden tractors usually have a lower pressure system than the 2000 PSI that is common on utility and ag tractors.

 

[J_J]

I don't believe the small L & G tractors use hyd post hole diggers of any kind, and as for as snow blowers, there is a belt configuration that powers the snow blowers.

 

[kthompson]

You may do well to try to get the specs from manuals or what ever you can for a commerical made hyd driven cutter. The ones I have seen all have used a pto powered self contain hyd system.

 

[quarencia]

Once you get specs on deck, if you repost this in the hydraulics forum, you'll probably get more help. Not saying the help you're getting here is bad, or that you'll get better help there. Just a higher concentration of hydraulic geeks over there.

Just in case anyone takes exception to the word geek, here is my definition...
Geek (noun): Any strange or eccentric person whose expertise on a given topic is so obvious and voluminous that he/she has earned the right to be called a geek.

Just in case anyone takes exception to the phrase "strange or eccentric person", here is my definition...
Strange or eccentric person (noun): Any tractor owner who loves his/her tractor so much that they can't help spending time in electronic forums reading and gushing on endlessly about them as opposed to just going outside and using them. Note: This includes me.

 

[J_J]

As a general rule, the pulley belt arrangement will transfer more HP to the deck than a hydraulic motor. What you are really after is blade tip velocity. Flat sharpened blades,
will give the most efficiency, then medium lift, then high lift. As you throw out more grass, the efficiency decreases. Cutting slower will help some.

 

[roamrdb]

if you stated what kind of tractor and size you're using, i missed it. dont know if you thought of it or not, but probably the most efficient and cheapest way to drive an aux deck would be to mount a vert shaft engine on the deck itself.used vert engines in my neck of the woods are cheap and plentiful . you could very easily set it up with a belt and a tensioner pulley. just a thought.....

 

[Robert128]

Thanks to all for the good information. I am trying to do the same thing by adding Hydraulic Decks to a Toro Reelmaster. Can the Hydraulic Motors be connected directly to the Mandrels. - or is a pulley and Belt system better?

 

[dodge85rc]

Thanks to all for the good information. I am trying to do the same thing by adding Hydraulic Decks to a Toro Reelmaster. Can the Hydraulic Motors be connected directly to the Mandrels. - or is a pulley and Belt system better?

You need to have a pulley and a belt, that way if you nail something with a blade you shouldn't blow out your hydraulic motor. First thing first, though. You are going to need to find the specs out on the pumps and the motors to be able to have a shot at making it work. Want to know why, go back through the hydraulic forum a few pages and look at some threads I started about hydraulics for a custom tractor that I am making which has a 72" toro deck I want to run hydraulically.

 

[J_J]

Thanks to all for the good information. I am trying to do the same thing by adding Hydraulic Decks to a Toro Reelmaster. Can the Hydraulic Motors be connected directly to the Mandrels. - or is a pulley and Belt system better?

Yes, you can connect the hyd motor to the deck shaft by using a coupling, and there are different types of couplers for this. Love Joy is one type.

On a hyd driven three shaft finish deck, I think they drive the center shaft with couplers, and the outside shafts with v-belts. That is not to say that you can not have three hyd motor setup on a finish mower.

You ask about better. A belt system will take up a shock load better than direct shaft hook-up. Most hyd driven single decks are driven either directly, or through a gear box driven by a hyd motor.

I believe a single straight blade connected directly to a hyd motor is the worst setup.

Just some pictures of hyd mower decks.