Lifted Hydro Drive??? (not garden tractor stuff)

[kentuckydiesel]

Who here has set up a hydro drive on a lifted cart? Not talking the belt driven hydro axles out of a lawn mower, but something one off using an engine driven hydraulic pump, valving, and a hydraulic motor?

Was just thinking, I've got a ton of hydraulic parts laying around. Why not?

Thanks,
Phillip

[DOOmsman]

You could make a lot of power,
but wouldn't the engine be revving most of the time?

[pachanga90]

The only downfalls are high RPM,and low speed.There aren't many high-speed hydraulic-drives out there.If you set up something with a Hydraulic-Motor,you could make power and speed,but controlling it needs to be handled properly or it will get dangerous quick.You would need a control-stick or pedal,that would return to Nuetral very easily,but also not be erratic.I would probably run a hand-throttle that could be set,like a lawn-mower or construction-equipment.Slight hydraulic-control fluctuations could make it very jerky.It could be very cool if done correctly,System Pressure would be the key(getting it just right could be frustrating).Do your homework and give it a try.

[Slamminsam]

Cherry tree shaking machines have those hydraulic drive systems. very efficient for going from one tree to another 12' away. they run theirs so that when you take your foot off the pedal, they stop. and yes, are jerky. My nephew has been toying with th idea of doing one in an old box Bronco with a JD diesel for Moab.
try it out, let us know how it goes. where there's a will, there's a way.

[ORTitan]

It sure can be done. Most turf equipment is Hydrostatic drive. Have your seen the sweepers that are used on road construction. The ones that look like a small grader? Many of those used a hydraulic motor attached to rear differential where the drive shaft would normally go.

The biggest hurdle will be that hydraulic motors designed to be used as wheel motors are low RPM output, usually under 250 rpm. So you would need high flow high torque motors and a gear train to step up the output speed entertaining.

If you were just looking to get to 12mph that could be done easy.

The smoothness of operation is not a difficult problem. What some folks have experienced as harsh or jerky is likely from unmaintained equipment.

[nobuckbuild]

i actually saw a cart with this setup a few years ago , the guy who did it loved his cart but could not make it around his property with the hills he had to climb so he took a vertical vtwin from a hydro tractor with a bad rear end and and put a hydraulic pump on it and hooked it to a hydro drive motor motor from a forklift with a 1:1 chain drive to the rear differential and he used the gas pedal to control the hyrdraulic drive and he was able to control the engine speed with the old throttle mounted next to the shifter yeah it wasn't fast he could only get to about 12 mph but at just above idle is all the faster the engine needed to run and it would go strait up anything unstoppable.

[pachanga90]

The "Jerky-ness" I was refering to,would be from trying to use a larger hydraulic motor -vs- a HydroStatic drive-unit.Hydro-statics have built-in cushion-valves to slow/smooth the response,thus making the transition smooth.Hydraulic motors are meant to spin,period,so any proportioning will need to be controlled and possibly restricted to make the power-transfer easily/comfortably controllable.I've worked on Hydraulics on everything from log-splitters to Auto-Transporters and Cranes for 20yrs+,I've seen alot of different stuff.There are alot of ways to do it,come up with a plan,then do the research to get the correct parts the first time,then you can fine-tune it from there.Simple things such as hose-sizing can make big differences on how a system functions.Hope this helps,Good Luck!!!