separate rear hitch lift

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

The whole problem as I see today is the damn gas tank. WH did not do a good job on the design and mounting. The problem is the actuator does not clear that small gap between the two sections of the tank completely. That should not be a problem if you are using the rear hitch to tow a de- thatcher or lawn roller or even a wagon while mowing and you need to adjust rear hitch height for equipment being towed. The angle may present a problem if plowing or something.

I don't plan on plowing or anything like that. When I was a kid I worked the garden everyday. My old man left a list and it had better be finish when he got home from work. I made my self a promise that I would never plant a garden weed hoe or anything else when I be came an adult. I kept that promise to myself for 57 years and do not plan on breaking it.

I just want to use the rear hitch with a rear blade to move piles of leaves after I mowed the heck out of them. I may run into problems with tree roots. The Johnnie Bucket hitch has a flow option which may allow big hits. I like your idea of springs, I will put that question to my brother , he was around heavy equipment all his working career. Usually there are a group of guys in his garage every Saturday ,some of them may have suggestions. Besides I will like telling little brother he needs to redo the welding.

[can whlvr 993]

so I made a reese receiver fit on my first horse,i did this many years ago but now this allows me to put anything behind and be able to lift,I use a chain manually but an actuator could very easy be attached,and I can remove when not needed,heres some pics

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

What Horse did you make into a baby tank bulldozer  ? I like it , but the only access to a welder is when I can talk baby brother into doing me a favor. He has been building a every day driver out of a  1953 Ford Main Liner for the last 2 1/2 years. Larry Moe and Curly have been working on the project car. LOL

[Ed Kennell 39,513]

I like it Don.   Simple, strong, functional, and easy to repair.         Could have been inspired by  .

[WNYPCRepair 1,923]

I like Don's boulder hoist in the other pictures on photobucket
 

[can whlvr 993]

thanks guys,the tractor is my bought from new 308,but has a 13 hp Honda now,the little 8 hp lasted many years but was not enough hp for the beating I gave it,but any horse could accept this type of modification,ya it helps to have a welder or 2 for fabbing up goodies for the horses

[Eric C 109]

Could you possibly get a better alignment if you mounted the actuator on the (left) outside of the seat stand? Maybe even incorporate the plow quick hitch bracketry?

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[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

Went to my brother's ( he welds ) and took another whack at the design. I finally got a coat of red paint on today but it has been rainy and extremely humid so waiting for it to dry. What do you mean by quick hitch bracketry ?  Do you have a picture? I think my current design will work but still have some concerns about the strength of the seat stand. Mr. KnowIt All ( my brother ) says not to worry , of course he has been working on a daily driver car for 2 1/2 years and has had to redone some thing 3 & 4 times, still no interior , glass or a boat load of other crap ( including the wiring) . At least I have something to laugh about.

[Eric C 109]

I copied your pic and pointed to the quick hitch on the rear.

I was thinking you could replace the flat stock of the bracket with a piece of square tube running toward the front and tie in your existing actuator bracket (by rotating it CCW 180 degrees). The actuator would be sandwiched between the seat stand and square tube.

You would also need to weld up a U shape on the left side of your sleeve hitch to catch the end of the actuator.

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[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

I will keep it in mind in case my design takes a nose dive. I think it would have been easier if I replaced the gas tank with a tank off of a D series or something. The saddle tank was a poor design as far as I am concerned.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

Well I finally finished the project . My brother and I moved the bracket holding the actuator to the outside of the seat tower on the left side which created a 1/2 inch of room so the actuator lined up with the hitch. Attached the actuator to the hitch with a grade 8 bolt which was cut to length and hole drilled in it to accept pin. Replaced the dust cover on the shiftier and scraped a boatload of dirt and grim off the trans and rear. The seat bucket/fenders needed a lot of TLC. Using raddle cans  put on three coats of primper to both sides. Applied 2 coats of enamel red to the  under side and went crazy waiting. The top side has 2 coats of primer and 4 coats of GM 81 red and 5 coats of clear coat. Installed the switch and tested. Lifted the plow without and problems. Left plow in the up position for 2 1/2 hours  and it never moved. Bottom rear of plow is 14 inches off the ground. I lowered plow to see if it would lift rear off ground . As you can see I have an easy way to put my chains on rear tires. Plan on attached snow blade on this unit 310-8 permanently and use the recently acquired C  120-A for mowing. Hope I have attached the pictures correctly.

Edited October 25, 2015 by elcamino/wheelhorse
no pictures

[WNYPCRepair 1,923]

Nice work!

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

Thanks , I though I was going to be a year older before it was finished. I did not realize all my junk in the backyard was in the photos. My wife calls it Fred Sanford's among other things. Most of time it is when are you going to clean this mess up?

[bmsgaffer 2,046]

Do you have any pics from under the fender with the new setup? Looks great!

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

If you look on page 1 starting with my entry of 18 September , you should be able to see all photos of the setup under the seat pan , the only difference is I had to move the brace for the actuator to the left  on the out side of the seat pan/fender upright and add a spacer to the right inside of the brace to weld to to seat pan /fender upright. I wanted to redo the entire back brace so it could be welded on the outside of upright on both sides, but my idiot brother ( he welds, I don't ) got pissy I  said F it weld however you want. I see it I can get a picture ,but not sure that I can.  

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Overall, has this met your expectations?  Any other design change suggestions?

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

It has met all expectations to this point. I have not had any problems with the actuator or hitch. I used it to put chains on the rear. Put a piece of 6x6 under hitch and lifted the rear off the ground and put chains on not problem. I think it would be any easy install on tractors that don't have the gas tank under the seat. In fact if I re-power the Commando 800 I'll  put one on for the rear hitch and one  for the mower.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Those 770 lb actuators are still available from 2" to 12" strokes:

http://mypushcart.mybigcommerce.com/linear-actuators/

And not a bad price!

 

Specifications:

• 12 volt DC [electrical]
• 770 lb max [static load]
• 385 lb max [dynamic load]
• [Speed]: 7mm/sec @ 50% Load - 8mm/sec @ no load
• Current: 1 [Amp Draw] @ no load
• Current: 2.5 [Amp Draw] @ 50% load
• Max Current: 4.5 [Max Amp Draw]
• [Duty Cycle]: 10%  
• IP67 Weather Rated

Your's is a 4"?  About an inch travel per second?  I'm still somewhat concerned about hitting things if I make one.  Hitting a hidden rock has got to put a serious strain on the nut and screw in them!  I'd still like to try to use some shock absorbing HEAVY spring to absorb that...

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

So far I have lucky , I only use 1 st gear when push leaves or snow with the rear blade. I have hit a few big ass rocks but everything came out find. The real test will be this spring at my son's house pushing and leveling dirt to grade his back yard.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

I'm going to try to design some big spring into using actuators.  First thought would be to fix a HD spring over the end of the shaft and a short shaft at the other end of the spring.  Would still fit the mounts but would need to allow for however long the "sprung" length would be.  Heck I'm thinking 1 or 2" of heavy duty coil would still give pretty solid movement but ease that pounding to the nut/screw.  Since you quit farming I'm not sure if you know what I mean, heck, I'm not sure how to tell you exactly where I saw it, but it was on a piece of farming equipment, that used a really stiff beefy spring, rather than a direct solid connection to transfer force but with some "give" to absorb the shocks, both pulling and pushing.  I think that would make electric actuators much more usable and forgiving of the pounding they would otherwise take.

 

Thanks Jim for the posts and all the info but please keep it up.  Great example of what makes this forum so worthwhile!

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

Thanks Dennis for the nice words.  I wonder if you could use a coil over shock like they use on go- carts. I think I saw them the Surplus Center Catalog . I know Northern sells them. It would be better to use hydraulic cylinders . Did you see the set up on Hank 01 tractor. He used a hydraulic pump and other hydraulic parts on a manual transmission tractor.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

On 2/14/2016 at 6:01 PM, elcamino/wheelhorse said:

Thanks Dennis for the nice words.  I wonder if you could use a coil over shock like they use on go- carts. I think I saw them the Surplus Center Catalog . I know Northern sells them. It would be better to use hydraulic cylinders . Did you see the set up on Hank 01 tractor. He used a hydraulic pump and other hydraulic parts on a manual transmission tractor.

Jim, I overlooked this until now...

 

Not sure I've seen the thread you are referring to...

[T-Mo-(Moderator) 4,531]

On 10/25/2015 at 2:52 PM, elcamino/wheelhorse said:

Well I finally finished the project . My brother and I moved the bracket holding the actuator to the outside of the seat tower on the left side which created a 1/2 inch of room so the actuator lined up with the hitch. Attached the actuator to the hitch with a grade 8 bolt which was cut to length and hole drilled in it to accept pin. Replaced the dust cover on the shiftier and scraped a boatload of dirt and grim off the trans and rear. The seat bucket/fenders needed a lot of TLC. Using raddle cans  put on three coats of primper to both sides. Applied 2 coats of enamel red to the  under side and went crazy waiting. The top side has 2 coats of primer and 4 coats of GM 81 red and 5 coats of clear coat. Installed the switch and tested. Lifted the plow without and problems. Left plow in the up position for 2 1/2 hours  and it never moved. Bottom rear of plow is 14 inches off the ground. I lowered plow to see if it would lift rear off ground . As you can see I have an easy way to put my chains on rear tires. Plan on attached snow blade on this unit 310-8 permanently and use the recently acquired C  120-A for mowing. Hope I have attached the pictures correctly.

 

Could you get a close up pictures of the actuator set up since you moved it?  Thanks.

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,358]

@T-Mo I try to get a some pictures tomorrow and send them. Not sure how much you will be able to see. We only moved the actuator about 1/4inch over to the left as you face the back if the tractor. 

[oliver2-44 10,016]

I've thought of doing an actuator lift like this and keeping the actuator center mounted to balance load on the seat support . Then on the clevis hitch add a vertical upright on the opposite side of the hitch (instead of on the outside of where the existing upright is.  then you could put a pin through the two identical looking uprights for the actuator rod and everything would be centered. With that said elcamino's design certainly does work.