PowerWagon* Easy to Make?

[Iplayfarmer]

If you didn't turn it 180, you'd have 5 reverse gears, and 1 forward gear.

I've got a few old MTD mowers. They simply have a shuttle shift where you can reverse in as many gears as you can go forward in. It seems like one of those would be a great option for this type of application.

 

[srjones]

I see a slight issue with that jack as a dump hoist.

Add this to the fact that with the fairly short lift capability it would have to be fairly near the hinge of the dump box (think of the weight hanging out past the jack...) and I suspect it would have a hard time moving the box empty.

It did indeed look like a great idea at first glance tho...

I see your point, but I'm guessing that you're assuming that the hinge/fulcrum would be located on one side, like a dump truck?

However, I'm assuming that the hinge/fulcrum was located in the center of the load, essentially balanced. It would take only a trivial amount of force to dump the load. Once the load shifts, the sissor jack would no longer be pushing, but rather pulling to keep the load from dumping too fast. (See attached drawing).

The other thing about this, is that you could remove the sissor jack part, and just use it as strait linear actuator.

 

[srjones]

I've got a few old MTD mowers. They simply have a shuttle shift where you can reverse in as many gears as you can go forward in. It seems like one of those would be a great option for this type of application.

That seems like a really good option too, especially given that sometimes the 1 reverse gear may go too fast for walking comfort (or safety)

 

[Defective]

Ah ha...

Yes, on an essentially balanced setup, there shouldn't be much issue with decreased capacity.

It might be interesting to find out for sure if the jack will pull down if reversed.

 

[cleatus]

There is no way that could lower if it didn't spin the threaded rod, hence it would pull in reverse if it was attached to bottom of bed. Also if part of bed over hung pivot 500pound of lift would dump more than most people would be willing to try to move around with on such narrow wheel width.