Old Toro Reelmaster Project

[J_J]

Robert128,

You mentioned a tree shear. Here is a home made tree shear that I made, and the next one is by Power-Trac. I also have a hyd chainsaw that could be mounted on a boom.

Rest assured that the small line from the hyd motors is a hyd case drain, and can not be restricted in any way. It would be the same size if it had to do with the speed of the motor. I have case drains on my hyd wheel motors, and the drains are conected to a manifold, which is a common collection point. and then on to tank.

 

[Robert128]

That is awesome J-J - How thick of a branch can you cut. How many control levers does it take.

 

[J_J]

Just one DA control valve. Will cut about 4 in. I can turn it side ways and cut level with the ground. I can also put it into the ground and cut roots, if I can see them. Here is a picture of it in a tree.

The lift arms uses one valve, and tilt another, and a third valve for the shear.

 

[Sportsman762]

Toro actually makes mowing decks for machines like this look at Toro 4700D and 4500D machines and machine they call the side winder (forget the number). We have a 4700D at work great machine. However rotary mowers take a lot more horse power than a reel roughly 20x the amount (if i remember right). You might run out of horsepower for this plan especially if you are mowing tall grass. If you look at the reel equivilent of the 4700 it has a smaller engine. Good luck.

 

[Robert128]

Just finished the mount for the motor
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=159013&stc=1&d=1269048143:confused2:

 

[dodge85rc]

Looks good!

 

[J_J]

Just finished the mount for the motor
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=159013&stc=1&d=1269048143:confused2:

How did you couple the motor and spindle. Is there something to lock down the hyd motor to keep it from turning? Are you planning to cut off part of the deck housing to bring the blades closer so as to overlap?

As far as the HP to turn the pump, and then on to the blades, if the mass of all the reels is about equal to the mass of the blades on the decks, then you should be close in power application. If you are short on HP, then just drop one of the decks.

One other option might be to use light weight blades, not as thick and not as wide.

 

[Robert128]

I used the mounting block off of the reel mower. I welded to a piece of 2.5" metal conduit. Then I welded a threaded 2.5' sleeve to the spindle. I did not have anything to get it dead on straight so Made a rig on my wood lathe to spin it and tap it into place until it did not wobble - Not high tech but it worked. I welded the spline sleeve coupler directly to the spindle shaft. Spun it the same way.
So I can unscrew the whole top part if I have to get to the spindle Shaft.
I put some wheels on it and a mount (Very rough) and ran it today. into some fairly thick grass. It cut it but I had to throttle the machine up to get enough power to the blade. I still have a blade speed issue to work out. - I have not run the line from the second pump yet. And the other 4 motors I have wired up out of the way - They just spin. I am wondering if when the deck is cutting into the higher grass, If the other motors speed up because they are not under load. That could explain the loss of power.
I still need to work out how to run the line from the second pump.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=159127&stc=1&d=1269131532

 

[ray66v]

I believe I read somewhere, there is an adjustment to slow the drop rate. Keep in mind that the reels tend to plant rather firmly on the ground, so the "landing gear" will need to be stout.

 

[J_J]

Robert128,

Does one lever control all the hyd motors? Do you plan to run all five hyd motors?