Is it possible to swail with a 400??

Anonymous Poster · Nov 26, 2002

I would like to be able to dig/grade/sculpt a swail while moving in the same direction...Is this possible on a 4xx??
Is it possible to angle "down" left or right or has someone
discovered a workaround??

Maybe I can add a tool to my shopping list to accomplish this..
Any ideas...

Bruce

MossRoad · Nov 26, 2002

Don't know of anything yet. Right now I have the ability to tip a blade in two axis; left/right(yaw) and up/down(pitch). You would need an attachment that could operate in the third plane. I think that plane is called "roll".

Or a plow might work. Just keep furrowing to one side.

I think I saw someone on TBN that added "roll" control to a box blade scraper. I'll try to look for it.

hazmat · Nov 26, 2002

Seems that someone has finally discovered a design weakness on the powertrack./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Simple fix get a three point grader blade that has "tilt" and adapt it to fit the PT.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.midwestequipment.net/rear_blades/series_22_blade_specs.htm> Midwest tilting rear blade</A>

MossRoad · Nov 26, 2002

Yeah, it can only do so much! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Good link. Thanks!

Sedgewood · Nov 27, 2002

bmkar Is it possible to angle "down" left or right or has someone
discovered a workaround??

Great minds think alike. I was just thinking about this again yesterday when hooking up the snowplow, how great it would be to get a few degrees of Quick Attach plate rotation. It would help in keeping the blade parallel to the ground when changing angles while plowing which is a bit of a pain without it. Crowning driveways with the box blade would be a lot easier too.

email your idea to Sean if you haven't already and I'll do the same.

seanb@power-trac.com

John

Charlie_Iliff · Nov 27, 2002

a few degrees of Quick Attach plate rotation.
That one poses interesting challenges. Doing it with the linkage behind the machine quick attach plate would require some head scratching that I haven't started.
One possibility that I considered is to use the stub, bearing and flange from an old trailer axle, welded to a quick attach plate, with a replica of the male quick attach in front. It would extend forward, of course, and would have significant leverage and thus load on the attach plate, and would require a clever device - hydraulic or mechanical, to control the roll. That would allow adjustment of any attachment. It'd probably break with the load of serious grading, but maybe not. It's on the list, and I have the axles, but its another that I may never get to.

hazmat · Nov 27, 2002

One possibility that I considered is to use the stub, bearing and flange from an old trailer axle, welded to a quick attach plate, with a replica of the male quick attach in front. 

Charlie, see attached for a simple way to rotate your contraption. The holes in the female plate (black) are for course adjustment. A Hyd. cylinder or turnbuckle attachet to the male plate (blue) could be used for a fine adjustment

hazmat · Nov 27, 2002

exploded view

hazmat · Nov 27, 2002

I should mention that I'm happy to lay the hole patterns etc. out on my CAD software if it'll help you guys out. Just give me the dimensions of the quick attach plates.

hazmat · Nov 27, 2002

Charlie,

It would extend forward, of course, and would have significant leverage and thus load on the attach plate

I've been thinking about this some more. Since it is not constantly rotating or rotating at a high speed, you could get away with a pipe inside a bigger pipe with a grease fitting. This may make the contraption more compact & reduce the load problems. Also if you used big diameter pipes, you need not worry about the bending moment.

I don't know how thick the quick attach plates are, but you should be able to squeeze a small hydraulic cylinder in a 3" gap. Might take some carefull engineering & some access holes in the plates to get everything bolted together. A turnbuckle might require more space as you need to get a wrench in there to rotate the thing.