PTO to Skidsteer Snowblower Conversion

[dozer]

Dozer, I am not trying to burst your bubble, please take any comments that I make as a concerned fellow gearhead that has seen more than his fair share of machinery fail over the years (and then have to pick-up the pieces and try to get it working again).
One other thing that I noticed, I would be careful connecting the motor to the drive shaft with a keyed coupler. If there is even the slightest amount of run-out in that shaft you could take the bearings out of the motor, or even worse, break the motor off of it's mounts (I cringe to think about the amount of carnage that could create). I notice that the original blower had a U-joint locacted in the same position between the shaft and the gearbox. Is there any way that you could work that back into your design?
Other than that, it looks really good!! The adjustable feet are a great feature, especially if you are going to be blowing out a gravel driveway. I bet you can't wait to sink it into a snow drift!! Keep the progress reports coming!!

I could put the U-Joint back on I believe. I will test fit it and see if it works.
Thanks for the heads up. I will also be putting in a shear pin instead of the keyed connector. If you noticed the pic only had the keyed connection on one side. The other side is drilled through for a small bolt. If I hit something that serious I don't want to damage that motor. Too expensive to not sacrifice a .14 cent bolt.
THanks for the help. I want to make sure I get this right the first time.
Dozer

 

[dozer]

I could put the U-Joint back on I believe. I will test fit it and see if it works.
Thanks for the heads up. I will also be putting in a shear pin instead of the keyed connector. If you noticed the pic only had the keyed connection on one side. The other side is drilled through for a small bolt. If I hit something that serious I don't want to damage that motor. Too expensive to not sacrifice a .14 cent bolt.
THanks for the help. I want to make sure I get this right the first time.
Dozer

Oh and on the hoses comment I did have an idea for that.
While I will lose some flow with the 90 degree elbows I am using 1" Elbows and 1" High Pressure Hose going to 1" High Flow couplers. So even if I see a 20% loss in flow that is still 26 GPM @ 3200 PSI producing 57 HP on a 30hp snowblower. Actually I will have to idle down to about 2200 RPM anyway so I should only be producing about 36 HP figuring a 80% efficiency.

 

[dozer]

Oh and on the hoses comment I did have an idea for that.
While I will lose some flow with the 90 degree elbows I am using 1" Elbows and 1" High Pressure Hose going to 1" High Flow couplers. So even if I see a 20% loss in flow that is still 26 GPM @ 3200 PSI producing 57 HP on a 30hp snowblower. Actually I will have to idle down to about 2200 RPM anyway so I should only be producing about 36 HP figuring a 80% efficiency.

Almost the final update. I was waiting to get a good video of it in action but I was only given one more opportunity and I didn't have the camcorder with.
It works pretty darn good. It doesn't throw it 50ft but I never wanted it to so that works well. It throws heavy wet snow about 15 ft past the edge of the blower which is perfect for my use (Driveways)
I didn't even mess around with the turning mechanism. I just use the rope and pulley system that was there. One less motor and set of hydros to worry about.
I painted it but a day of working with it showed me it will need to be blasted and repainted this summer

 

[leaddog]

Almost the final update. I was waiting to get a good video of it in action but I was only given one more opportunity and I didn't have the camcorder with.
It works pretty darn good. It doesn't throw it 50ft but I never wanted it to so that works well. It throws heavy wet snow about 15 ft past the edge of the blower which is perfect for my use (Driveways)
I didn't even mess around with the turning mechanism. I just use the rope and pulley system that was there. One less motor and set of hydros to worry about.
I painted it but a day of working with it showed me it will need to be blasted and repainted this summer

Looks good. I was wondering how it turned out leaddog