Project "Snow Drift"

[71_Bronco 1,072]

What about the belts themselves? They look to be the cloth-covered belts. Would straight rubber be better? More grippy? I think I remember a couple threads discussing the pros / cons of the cloth on certain belts on our WH tractors.

 

Perhaps a little cleaning of the pulleys may help too. The pulley on the right looks like it may have dirt / rust on the groove where the belt sits. I would think that would result in lower contact area? 

 

Out of curiosity, what kind of snow were you driving on? Light powdery kind? Packable snow-man kind? Wet slushy? I'm sure that will have an effect on the traction.

[ebinmaine 67,628]

2 minutes ago, 71_Bronco said:

What about the belts themselves? They look to be the cloth-covered belts. Would straight rubber be better? More grippy? I think I remember a couple threads discussing the pros / cons of the cloth on certain belts on our WH tractors

 

You know I looked at that picture yesterday and I was trying to think what... something didn't look quite right to me.

 

Not likely to be the solution but you are absolutely correct. Unless you need clutching action in a belt you shouldn't use cloth sided 

[Oldskool 6,644]

16 minutes ago, 71_Bronco said:

What about the belts themselves? They look to be the cloth-covered belts. Would straight rubber be better? More grippy? I think I remember a couple threads discussing the pros / cons of the cloth on certain belts on our WH tractors.

 

Perhaps a little cleaning of the pulleys may help too. The pulley on the right looks like it may have dirt / rust on the groove where the belt sits. I would think that would result in lower contact area? 

 

Out of curiosity, what kind of snow were you driving on? Light powdery kind? Packable snow-man kind? Wet slushy? I'm sure that will have an effect on the traction.

Good point on the belt. I never gave that much thought. I will check around for availability on the rubber and or cogged.

 

The snow was borderline on slush and snowman snow. 

[Oldskool 6,644]

27 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Not likely to be the solution but you are absolutely correct. Unless you need clutching action in a belt you shouldn't use cloth sided 

Never gave it any thought. I'm so used to getting those for riding mowers.

[Oldskool 6,644]

Is there a differant way to measure the length of a cogged belt vs non cogged?

[Oldskool 6,644]

Looking at the belt routing this morning with fresh eyes. To make the 3 main pulleys have 180* belt contact and spring loaded tensioner

I will have

 

3 main pulleys

2 tensioners

5 fixed mounted idlers

That seems like an excessive amount of pulleys. Alot of power loss I suspect.

 

Maybe time to go another route

[ebinmaine 67,628]

I do agree that's about a stack and a half of pulleys but I'm not sure how much loss you're going to experience there. 

 

In particular I'm not sure how much it matters given consideration that the much much larger Fordson had comparable power to what you do right now. 

[Oldskool 6,644]

Disregard the belt. This is where I'm at, at the moment for routing. The red arrow indicates where the spring tensioner will be. Does it make a difference in size for that pulley? I think I have a 1.5" flat I can use there.

[Pullstart 62,912]

The larger the pulley at the red arrow, the more contact patch on the drive and driven pulley...  I think.

[Oldskool 6,644]

7 minutes ago, pullstart said:

The larger the pulley at the red arrow, the more contact patch on the drive and driven pulley...  I think.

The arrow points to the slack side. So does that make any difference on idler pulley size?

[Pullstart 62,912]

9 minutes ago, Oldskool said:

The arrow points to the slack side. So does that make any difference on idler pulley size?

I wouldn’t think that matters.  The drive pulley is pulling the belt across the driven one.  Can’t push rope @prondzy I love that phrase!  The more contact patch they both have, the better.

[Oldskool 6,644]

Just now, pullstart said:

Can’t push rope @prondzy I love that phrase!  The more contact patch they both have, the better.

Lmao, that is a good one. I'm trying for 180* of contact for the drive and driven pulleys.

[Oldskool 6,644]

Here is where I am at now. I still have to finish the tensioners. Before I order belts is there anything I should change?

[Stormin 9,981]

Looks ok to me.

[Tractorhead 9,064]

Springloaded tensioner will be better.

They should be preload with a springforce and so automatically release or span by loaded and moving belts to prevent slip.

 

[Oldskool 6,644]

Just now, Tractorhead said:

Springloaded tensioner will be better.

They should be preload with a springforce and so automatically release or span by loaded and moving belts to prevent slip.

 

If you look at the pics again you will notice there are proposed tensioners. 1 on each side. Top pic is middle bottom. Bottom pic top right. Both on the slack side. They aren't finished yet.

[Tractorhead 9,064]

6 hours ago, Oldskool said:

If you look at the pics again you will notice there are proposed tensioners. 1 on each side. Top pic is middle bottom. Bottom pic top right. Both on the slack side. They aren't finished yet.

 

I see it, just my head didn‘t image it.

 

 

[wallfish 17,012]

IMO that idler pulley setup next to the jack shaft in the middle would have been enough and the swap to rubber side belts. The small contact area on the jack shaft pulleys appear like the slip problem area but what you're doing now will certainly be good to go now. Nice work!

 

Ah Man! You scratched the paint LoL

Just an observation from the little bit of area on the pic but it does appear like the rear is digging in more than the front. The paint looks like it was removed deeper down more on the aft end.

 

 

 

[19richie66 17,508]

An idler for a chevy LS is spring loaded and plentiful at salvage yards. I have one somewhere off a truck. Plenty of tension and simple mounting. Kinda like this

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by 19richie66

[Oldskool 6,644]

35 minutes ago, wallfish said:

IMO that idler pulley setup next to the jack shaft in the middle would have been enough and the swap to rubber side belts. The small contact area on the jack shaft pulleys appear like the slip problem area but what you're doing now will certainly be good to go now. Nice work!

 

Ah Man! You scratched the paint LoL

Just an observation from the little bit of area on the pic but it does appear like the rear is digging in more than the front. The paint looks like it was removed deeper down more on the aft end.

 

 

 

I think what you might be seeing in the gravel stuck to the blades. I will check that out thou. The belts will be here today so maybe another trial today as well.

[Oldskool 6,644]

22 minutes ago, 19richie66 said:

An idler for a chevy LS is spring loaded and plentiful at salvage yards. I have one somewhere off a truck. Plenty of tension and simple mounting. Kinda like this

 

That's a good thought. I will gather up a couple of those I assume it mounts with 1 bolt and may sit in a groove of sorts?  If I have slippage problems again I think I will have to go with chain. 

[19richie66 17,508]

One center bolt and then two holes in a flat plate for the “nubs” to sit in. You could drill a series of holes and clock the tensioner for more tension

[ebinmaine 67,628]

20 minutes ago, Oldskool said:

That's a good thought.. 

 

One of the things I really enjoy about watching a ground up build like this one is to see ideas like this tensioner that others have put in play. A fantastic thought and I don't think I would have ever come up with it. 

[Oldskool 6,644]

4 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

 

One of the things I really enjoy about watching a ground up build like this one is to see ideas like this tensioner that others have put in play. A fantastic thought and I don't think I would have ever come up with 

Agreed. I have seen alot of interesting things made,used,and repurposed in builds. I try to keep a mental library of such things.

[ebinmaine 67,628]

5 minutes ago, Oldskool said:

Agreed. I have seen alot of interesting things made,used,and repurposed in builds. I try to keep a mental library of such things.

You might be ahead of me there. I just try to keep mental....