TractorNH
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2018
- Messages
- 641
- Location
- Southern NH
- Tractor
- Mahindra 2655 HST Cab, Deere 350C Dozer, Case 580CK TLB
I had a sander for my yard plow truck but when I got the new tractor I started looking at other options since the ultimate goal was to replace the plow truck with the tractor. The only decent options I could find for SAND was an expensive PTO operated sander...most spreaders could only do salt. There were several reasons I didn't like this option besides the price but these are the biggest ones
The 3 point sanders are PTO operated and my use requires me to turn it on and off frequently since I only sand icy areas of a long driveway and a couple parking areas, not a large parking lot or other continuous use. The PTO also doesn't stop immediately when you shut it off, it continues to spin so without some sort of hydraulic or electric gate to stop the sand it would also continue to spread sand.
The second negative of the 3 point spreader is ease of connection. To use it I have to remove my 3 point snow blower which involves disconnecting the PTO and 4 hydraulic remotes and then connecting the PTO shaft of the sander after getting it hooked up. To use the QA mount I disconnect the two hydraulic lines for my plow, drop the plow, grab the sander with the QA, and connect two hydraulic lines for the sander and I'm ready to roll.
Anyway, I have now finished and tested my QA mounted tailgate sander project. The sander is an older Fisher Speedcast that was given to me several years ago and as mentioned above was occasionally used in the back of our plow truck when needed. I have modified it with a hydraulic motor and I operate it using the 3rd function on my tractor. It works as I had hoped.
This truss frame would bolt into the bed of the truck and the sander would hang on it (pics from the internet).
I used a 1/4" thick QA plate for this build. To support the weight of the QA plate and provide better stability for the sander when not attached to the tractor I decided to build legs off the QA plate and fully suspend the sander off the ground. The attachment method of the sander itself is similar to the way the sander originally mounted to the truss frame in the bed of the truck. The sander hangs on a rail and two pins keep it from swinging or bouncing up and falling off the plate.
This is the sander as it sits on the QA frame I built.
The sander frame has tabs that lock over a piece of 2 square tube. There is a pin on each side that locks it to the QA plate so it can't swing away or lift off the square tube.
The sander was originally belt driven from an electric motor as shown in this pic:
I changed the motor to a Chief 3.6 cu in hydraulic motor (model 273050) I bought from Surplus Center for about $150.
I then bought dual belt pulleys also from Surplus Center. The one on the sander shaft is 4.75 OD and the one on the motor is 3.15 OD. The best option for an idler pulley I could use that was wide enough to carry both belts at once is a Gates number 36173 which I believe is actually an idler pulley used on some Peterbuilt engines.
The original electric motor turned the sander shaft at 400 rpms. I was aiming for close to the same with the hydraulic drive setup. I calculated it based on the published hydraulic flow of my Mahindra 2655 to try to get close. The Surplus Center website has several handy calculation tools to do a lot of the math needed. I am happy that since I have now tested it I can report that it turns at 390 rpms at 2000 engine RPM's on my Mahindra 2655.
An issue I ran into frequently when using the sander on the truck was that the sand would get stuck and wouldn't collapse all the way down in the hopper so it could be spread. I solved this by adding 3 additional chain agitators to the shaft. They are two piece 3/4" shaft collars with short pieces of chain welded to them. You can see two of them in this pic though one is still just barely in the sand.
I like having the sander on the QA. A couple advantages I noticed right away are the ability to shake the sander if the sand gets hung up inside and the ability to tilt it back to see how much is still in it without getting out of the tractor to look. Unlike the electric version, I also have the ability to spin the sander in reverse which also helps to break the sand free and get it flowing again if it gets hung up in the hopper.
Total money invested in the modification is about $425 which includes the QA plate, hydraulic motor, hoses, pulleys, belts, and other misc parts I bought. The sander was given to me and the steel for the QA support frame I built was from scrap. I probably have about 16 hours into it as well.
Hope you found this interesting and to anyone looking to build their own I am posting this here so you can steal any of the ideas I used to build mine.
Key parts of this build that I had to buy:
QA Plate (eBay) = $90
Hydraulic Motor (Surplus Center) = $150
Pulleys (Surplus Center) = $65
Idler Pulley (Amazon) = $34
Belts (Amazon) = $22
5' Hydraulic Hoses (Amazon) = $32
Misc Fittings
Total Build Cost = $425
The 3 point sanders are PTO operated and my use requires me to turn it on and off frequently since I only sand icy areas of a long driveway and a couple parking areas, not a large parking lot or other continuous use. The PTO also doesn't stop immediately when you shut it off, it continues to spin so without some sort of hydraulic or electric gate to stop the sand it would also continue to spread sand.
The second negative of the 3 point spreader is ease of connection. To use it I have to remove my 3 point snow blower which involves disconnecting the PTO and 4 hydraulic remotes and then connecting the PTO shaft of the sander after getting it hooked up. To use the QA mount I disconnect the two hydraulic lines for my plow, drop the plow, grab the sander with the QA, and connect two hydraulic lines for the sander and I'm ready to roll.
Anyway, I have now finished and tested my QA mounted tailgate sander project. The sander is an older Fisher Speedcast that was given to me several years ago and as mentioned above was occasionally used in the back of our plow truck when needed. I have modified it with a hydraulic motor and I operate it using the 3rd function on my tractor. It works as I had hoped.
This truss frame would bolt into the bed of the truck and the sander would hang on it (pics from the internet).
I used a 1/4" thick QA plate for this build. To support the weight of the QA plate and provide better stability for the sander when not attached to the tractor I decided to build legs off the QA plate and fully suspend the sander off the ground. The attachment method of the sander itself is similar to the way the sander originally mounted to the truss frame in the bed of the truck. The sander hangs on a rail and two pins keep it from swinging or bouncing up and falling off the plate.
This is the sander as it sits on the QA frame I built.
The sander frame has tabs that lock over a piece of 2 square tube. There is a pin on each side that locks it to the QA plate so it can't swing away or lift off the square tube.
The sander was originally belt driven from an electric motor as shown in this pic:
I changed the motor to a Chief 3.6 cu in hydraulic motor (model 273050) I bought from Surplus Center for about $150.
I then bought dual belt pulleys also from Surplus Center. The one on the sander shaft is 4.75 OD and the one on the motor is 3.15 OD. The best option for an idler pulley I could use that was wide enough to carry both belts at once is a Gates number 36173 which I believe is actually an idler pulley used on some Peterbuilt engines.
The original electric motor turned the sander shaft at 400 rpms. I was aiming for close to the same with the hydraulic drive setup. I calculated it based on the published hydraulic flow of my Mahindra 2655 to try to get close. The Surplus Center website has several handy calculation tools to do a lot of the math needed. I am happy that since I have now tested it I can report that it turns at 390 rpms at 2000 engine RPM's on my Mahindra 2655.
An issue I ran into frequently when using the sander on the truck was that the sand would get stuck and wouldn't collapse all the way down in the hopper so it could be spread. I solved this by adding 3 additional chain agitators to the shaft. They are two piece 3/4" shaft collars with short pieces of chain welded to them. You can see two of them in this pic though one is still just barely in the sand.
I like having the sander on the QA. A couple advantages I noticed right away are the ability to shake the sander if the sand gets hung up inside and the ability to tilt it back to see how much is still in it without getting out of the tractor to look. Unlike the electric version, I also have the ability to spin the sander in reverse which also helps to break the sand free and get it flowing again if it gets hung up in the hopper.
Total money invested in the modification is about $425 which includes the QA plate, hydraulic motor, hoses, pulleys, belts, and other misc parts I bought. The sander was given to me and the steel for the QA support frame I built was from scrap. I probably have about 16 hours into it as well.
Hope you found this interesting and to anyone looking to build their own I am posting this here so you can steal any of the ideas I used to build mine.
Key parts of this build that I had to buy:
QA Plate (eBay) = $90
Hydraulic Motor (Surplus Center) = $150
Pulleys (Surplus Center) = $65
Idler Pulley (Amazon) = $34
Belts (Amazon) = $22
5' Hydraulic Hoses (Amazon) = $32
Misc Fittings
Total Build Cost = $425
