Front air compressor

[Stepney 2,325]

Hello, all. Looking for some info on an implement I found in my '66 catalog. The front mounted PTO compressor. I've been wanting to rig one of these up for some time but never have figured out a reasonable way to mount it and set it up. I would use a York 210 pump with electric clutch, to render a blowoff and everything else unnecessary. What I would like to know, is how this unit was mounted, and how did it lift? I figure it was something like the front generators if I had to guess. Does anyone here have one to show?

[Lee1977 6,643]

I have only see pictures of one and it was on a John Deere. You could use an electric clutch to cycle it, The one I saw was on an older JD Like a round fender 110 and my guess was they used a bleeder valve.

[bc.gold 3,403]

Over the years have sold a few of these PTO air compressors.

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,277]

I can't say as I've ever seen one but I love the idea.

Mobile. Convenient. 

 

 

 

 

A reason to own one more Horse.

[bc.gold 3,403]

15 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

I can't say as I've ever seen one but I love the idea.

Mobile. Convenient. 

 

 

 

 

A reason to own one more Horse.

 

There's several currently listed on ebay at the moment.

 

The air pump uses leather instead of piston rings when new the hose had a screw on fitting with an inline pressure gauge.

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by bcgold

[ebinmaine 67,277]

I'm picturing using something like this that is set on a platform at the front of the tractor with a small tank beside it.

 

Pulley changed as necessary to adapt to correct speed.

 

https://www.aircompressorsdirect.com/Industrial-Air-040-0348RP/p57812.html?gclid=CjwKCAiA767jBRBqEiwAGdAOrwU2iW-6qTg1vdPBCiflE8U_qYECa_n0BFuVFuXQD7qSxhtnGqQ6DhoCa80QAvD_BwE

[Stepney 2,325]

Eric, now something like that would be awesome. Issue is, That would require the engine to be able to adjust speed via air pressure, and a relief to keep pressure from going too high. (I had  8hp Tecumseh powered air compressor that lacked all this .. and I learnt the hard way despite I guess I knew better, you can still find bits of shrapnel in my back yard..) Normal real gas power compressors have a pneumatic kick down to idle the engine. Would require a whole separate governor control. Since you couldn't really stop the pump without disengaging the clutch. Running with a York AC pump, I can average 9-10 cfm at around 130psi from what I've read. And the AC compressor has an electric clutch, simplifying things extremely. Using an electric pressure switch, I could simple have a power harness at the front of the unit to plug in, and everything else would be self contained. The pump picking in as needed like an electric unit. 

[ebinmaine 67,277]

That sounds perfect Spense.

I wonder if an electric PTO on the side of one of our engines could be activated on and off?

Some point in my recent past I have seen a contractor grade gas powered compressor at which the compressor was actually on all the time and it was a wastegate system.

If it wasn't filling the tank with air it was just pushing it back out into the atmosphere.

 

of course would something like this it would be necessary to have it compressor that is rated with a duty cycle at 100%.

I don't recall if it was a home built unit or something available for public purchase.

 

[Stepney 2,325]

There is the waste option too, which I would be fine with, but that's a lot of noise when your idling the tractor at an engine show, just pushing some steam engines along. 
I actually had ideas to use the electric PTO, and that would work the same basic way. But I worry that under heavy use, the constant on-off would kill it. They aren't exactly common anymore. 

[oliver2-44 9,691]

 

Garden Tractor Fitted With Air Compressor

 

"I bought an old electric air compressor at a yard sale, then tore it apart and mounted it on front of my 1972 Deere 112 garden tractor. It works great and I can take it anywhere on my farm where I need air," says Richard Sands, McConnelsville, Ohio. 
  The compressor was mounted on a small cart and belt-driven by an electric motor. He paid $10 for a small portable air tank and bolted it onto a metal frame on front of the tractor. He wired a pressure switch in series with the tractor's electric clutch circuit. "The switch automatically turns the compressor on whenever the air tank calls for air," says Sands. 
  The compressor is belt-driven off one side of the tractor engine, using the same pulley that originally belt-drove the tractor's belly-mounted mower deck. A modified belt guard off the mower deck protects a belt that now drives the compressor. He also installed a quick connect coupler to accept an air chuck. And just in case he accidentally runs into something, Sands used 2-in. dia. steel tubing to make a bumper that protects the compressor.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Richard Sands, 9050 South River Road, McConnelsville, Ohio 43756 (ph 740 674-6989; rnrsands@roadrunner.com).

 

Here's some ideas!

 

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by oliver2-44

[bc.gold 3,403]

These air cooled bendix westing house truck compressors have an unloader valve that disables the unit to stop pumping air once the preset air pressure has been met. You can adjust the unloader for this style of compressor to a maximum of 120/130 psi.

 

Large highway trucks being wrecked will have some nice air tanks with drain valves already installed, if your lucky the turck being wrecked will have an awesome air drier.

 

These have a pressure fed oil system and get their oil from the engine their mounted on, oil drains back via the missing sump pan, you can make a new base then drill the connecting rods for dippers.

 

I used a liquid cooled truck compressor to make up shop air for my fathers shop a small radiator was wall mounted and convection air moment kept the compressor cool.

 

I have an old Quincy 310 for my shop that came from an old grain elevator, a larger version was used on the logging yarders to operate the air controls that engaged clutches and brake frictions on the winch drums and the air horn giving signals to the lone chokerman to get clear.

 

 

Very bottom image a plumbing diagram.

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2019 by bcgold

[bc.gold 3,403]

If you ran our of air on a truck equipped with an air starter your front mounted air compressor would come in handy for sure, the truck I borrowed from a buddy had an air starter and it sounded like an elephant regurgitating it's last meal.

 

The  truck had an inline Detroit diesel, at the beginning of the road test I had fluffed a couple of shifts when the little Scottish woman doing the exam piped up saying, you have to drive the blomin thing like yer mad at it. 

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,277]

2 minutes ago, bcgold said:

truck equipped with an air starter 

Been around big trucks my entire life.

Love those old air starters.

 

LOOUUDD !!!

 

 

[Sarge 3,463]

One of my favorites was an old Brockway wrecker with an air starter on it's Detroit - that thing, if you were near it, would cause a rather bad, involuntary intestinal discharge on anyone not ready for it. The old, crusty fella that drove it all the time loved catching some poor, unsuspecting soul walking past the front of that monster.

 

Sarge