need help with drive shaft and mounting options for pto blower

[ampsucker]

working on a customization project.

i came across a good size industrial blower fan rated for about 20 horsepower. my diy mind said this would make a great lawn blower and also a good pto leaf and grass bagger with the right set up.

my two main options are:

1. mount the blower fan to 3pt hitch and then rig up the pto pulley. this option gives me the choice of running the fan by itself to blow powdery snow, windrow leaves and grass clippings etc. but would be tight fit when pulling the trailer for catching the leaves and grass. that puts all the weight (about 150 lbs give or take) on the back of the tractor. possibly a good thing in some cases, not so good in others. it would also result in a fairly short pto driveshaft.

2. mount the blower to the front of the trailer and run the pto driveshaft like a manure spreader. my question here is if i'll get into problems on tight turns and what other issues i might have with the movement in the second dimension (ie, not just up and down like a 3pt hitch, but also left and right as the trailer turns.) this option would mean i can't run the unit as a standalone blower but i could still rig up the hoses i need to suck leaves out of flower beds and mulch and collect leaves and grass from the rest of the 4 acres i keep mowed.

anybody with experience running these types of setups care to help out a newbie? so far i have several 3pt implements but none are powered and the whole drive shaft issue has me a bit baffled.

amp

 

[zzvyb6]

I have such a setup based on an old Woods leaf collector. I finally arrived at using a small (5.5 hp) gas engine with a shredding impeller to suck the leafs from a wand or mower deck chute. The problem will be that leaves and grass don't pack well by themselves. The shredder chops them into much smaller particles and the load gets compressed. This makes dumping them easy, too. And, the shredded clippings don't blow away once on the ground.

If you really want to just move the stuff to the side without collecting it, use castered wheels on the trailer and sway control chains to keep the trailer axis parallel to the tractor's at all times. This make turning a bit awkward but that depends on your particular arrangement. Big blowers are cool if you want to burn the leaves in place, especially if you want to burn down your neighbor's house, pine trees, and hay fields in addition to your own. Midnight is the best time to do it.

My Woods trailer sucker hooks up to my 72" mid mower, my 48" F525 Tripod and also to my F935 deck. Your need a big hose (12") with these mowers because a lot of crap is collected quickly. You can rig up a neat collector from large traffic cones if you have a few mowers to attach to. Yeah, its a separate gas engine. I recommend hearing protection for this operation, too. 2 loud motors can drive you deaf.

The landscape company servicing the place I work at tried a pto blower 1 season. Then they switched to mower deck baggers. As far as snow is concerned, a plow is a better solution IMHO. You need concentrated windage, even for powder. Find an old TracVac or BillyGoat impeller and punch it onto a TSC B&S motor. Make a eccentric cage for it and a chute from sheet metal (old, dead road signs are good base material). Buy some hose and get out of the way....

 

[Sherweld]

Based on some experience with golf course equipment, I would suggest hooking it to the PTO (hoping the blower rotation direction matches the PTO) even if you have to add some standoff structure to allow a slightly longer PTO shaft. It seems that equipment mounted "tag-along" seem to mess up the PTO shaft by turning too sharp (without a high angle driveline [read expensive]) or backing up to get out of a tight spot and again turning too sharp. It's operator error in almost all cases. But then that doesn't repair or replace the PTO shaft ....

Also consider adding some castering wheels to support the blower during use (also helpful when tucking it away in the storage corner)

In the process just now of modding a semi-retired JD rotary mower with a forward driveline and hydraulic lift arms (but a toasted mowing deck) to mount a blower in place of the deck, and free up the tractor for other duties. This will give the operator a clear view and hopefully less problems. If I do a blower for my personal tractor, front mounted would be my first choice.

 

[ampsucker]

Thanks for the feedback.

Not really wanting to add an engine just to power the blower. I'm trying to get away from more engines to maintain! But, I do understand why it's easier that way for some folks.

I hadn't considered a front mount. That may be something to roll around in the ol' noggin for a bit and see what the pros and cons are. Immediately, I see more tubing being necessary and the big drawback is that I need the mid-pto to power the mower, so it's not possible as far as I know to run them both from the same pto. I need to be able to mulch up leaves and use the suction from the mower deck to get things started into the tube.

But this blower is a beast and I think it would handle the air flow ok. I'm waiting to learn more about it. I contacted the manufacturer, Chicago Blower Company, and it is a 15" industrial fan. They are looking up the s/n to tell me the design specs (max rpm, rated capacity, etc.). Should hear back next week. I can always adjust speeds with a pully system, and a belt would also act as a slip clutch.

As far as castor wheels, that is a great idea if the blower is mounted close to the ground. Unfortunately, that wouldn't allow clearance for the trailer tongue to hitch to the tractor unless I mount a new hitch to the back of the blower itself. It would definitely be strong enough to tow a trailer loaded with leaves or grass clippings. The housing on this thing looks like 1/4" plate!

My original thought was to mount it up high on the 3pt so I could tuck the driveshaft in under the unit and then hitch the trailer up at the usual spot. Should the rpms work out that I don't need a pulley (unlikely, but possible since I doubt seriously this thing will need to operated any where near maximum capacity), I could direct attach the shaft with a pto adaptor and then mount the blower centered on the pto and just weld a hitch on the back for a trailer. Simple.

If I need to do some type of fancy directional manipulation or speed changes, then the other option is to run the pto shaft over the unit and mount it low on the 3pt, then castors would definitely be needed.

As you can see, I have some drawing board work to do. This is probably going to be a Fall project, hopefully before the leaves start to! But, I want to get the design in my head and start getting parts over the next month or two.

amp