converting pto to hyd. motor on 30' elevator

[countryboy1]

I have a 30 ft old drag elevator i use to move firewood.  Pto driven and required another tractor and dangerous.  What size hyd. motor would i need to run the elevator.  Power source (hyd) would come from 75 hp tractor that also runs the wood processor (seperate pump for processor).  Is my idea feasable?  I need the longer elevator to get over the side of 11 sides on truck.  The cost of store bought elevator is beyond $$$$$$$$$$ from any manufacturer.

Note:  Any of you within driving distace of the Ohio Paul Bunyon show in Cambridge, Oh, in oct should do it...wonderful outdoor show

[pineywoods]

Surplus center has hydraulic motor intended to act like a pto. The output shaft is a standard pto spline. Would be easy to adapt..

[Al_Smith]

Note:  Any of you within driving distace of the Ohio Paul Bunyon show in Cambridge, Oh, in oct should do it...wonderful outdoor show

What ,you have an exibition there or something ?

I usually make it for the Ohio hotsaw races .Ran once myself ,didn't do so good .

Now the subject .It might be an option to hang a horse and a half electric motor on that thing and if nothing else run it from a small generater if you were out where the hoot owls romance the chickens ,no power .

Dang bale elevators you can't find them any more .The farmers that have them haven't used them in decades and still  won't part with them .There they sit in a fence row rusting away to nothing .

[countryboy1]

No, I don t have anything to do with the Paul Bunyon show other than friends and I go every year to look.  Lot of ideas!

The elevator.  I can continue to use the pto, just want something with les pto parts and the extra tractor.  The one running the processor has plenty of hp. 

How do i size the hyd motor (hp).  Anybody have a formula?  northern toolhttps://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=position"> Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company says 1 hp electric=1 1/2 hyd., but this elevator never saw an electric.

Does anybody have a commercial one that you can look and and tell me what the hyd. motor size is and the length of the elevator?

[countryboy1]

Additional stuff i forgot to mention:  surplus center, northern and lots of other good deals on hyd motors (I just don t want to underpower it and be stuck with my purchase).  I intend to plum the hyd direct to tractor remotes with qk couplers and a flow control at the elevator with the forward reverse control.

I know from what i have read on here that a lot of you are very good in the shop.

[blackfoot griz]

countryboy1,

Most commercial conveyors have the hydraulic motor at the top/upper end--easier to pull a chain than push it. (I am assuming that your  current pto setup has a long drive shaft  running the length of the conveyor from where the pto shaft hooks up).

That said, you may want to hook it up, determine what the rpm is on the top drive sprocket. From there, you can shop for hydraulic motors based on the rmp you need. You can also alter this by using different sized sprockets.

I built a conveyor that runs off the hydraulics on the processor I built.  I had to incorporate a flow divider because this runs off the same pump that runs the live deck, log trough and conveyor. That hydraulic circuit is 15 GPM @ 1500 psi. I am guessing that is takes 2 gpm or less to run the conveyor. I would guess that your tractor hydraulics would have plenty of flow & pressure to do the job.

There are some cool calculating tools on the Forestry Forum tool box (bottom of this page) and The Surplus center has some good tools @ surpluscenter.com/techhelp.asp?

[countryboy1]

Thanks, good advice.  Thinking :P,  All of the drag or hay elevators I have seen pto or electric drive a shaft that is at the bottom of the unit.  The only ones I know of personally that drive at the top with a shaft the length of the unit are the "auger" type for small grain and corn.

My old elevator has pto and drives to a gear and sprocket set up at the bottom.  I appreciate the advice.  Keep it coming.  Nice to find some folks with similar ideas on here.

[Al_Smith]

I too have never seen a bale elevator with the power on the top side .Most either had a PTO shaft or an electric motor or in some cases a gasoline engine .The gas engine sat around idle about 11 months out of the year and never seemed to want to start for some reason .

[Clam77]

I've never seen a bale elevator powered from the top but I've seen conveyor belts ran from the top - specifically the conveyors they use on paving equipment.... whatever the machine's called that rips the old surface up... they have hydraulic motors on the top of the conveyors on them and they carry quite a bit of weight.

Griz has the right idea... see what speed range you need first and then you can go from there- shouldn't be hard to find what you need.

[Ford_man]

I had an old hay/grain elevator that was 40 ft long it had a gas engine on it when I got it , I put an electric motor (1.5 hp) on it I also made a mounting plate with a hyd motor that I found in a junk yard connected it with a chain . Worked real good but it ran the chain slower than the electric motor.

[countryboy1]

Checked out a neighbors old 40' drag elevator.  It has a 1 1/2 hp 110 volt motor on it and know it was mostly used for hay and ear corn.  Speed can be controlled by the size of the pulley.  I don t need much speed just enough to move the wood away from the woodprocessor. 

I located an old hyd motor that came from a worn out fertilizer auger and think it will work.  I have removed most of the guards that stopped grain from leaking out of the elevator (they tend to catch and break the drag chain. 

I need to think smarter as I get older. 

[sandhills]

I'm not sure where you're at but if there's any old T and L irrigation Pivots around you the hydraulic motors on them should work great.  We put one on an auger for unloading grain bins, it's too slow for that (should turn about 2X the speed) but has a lot of torque and I would think for fire wood with an elevator should be about perfect, I think it would pull it fine from the bottom.

[auger creek]

countryboy  1
           I have a 20'coal elavator that I power with a hyd. motor.The pump puts out 13gals per min. on my skidder.I have the motor mounted on the upper head sprocket shaft with a 4 to 1 chain reduction,otherwise it would run too fast. The motor came off a old highway dept. truck that spread salt on the roads.The motor turned the disk that spun the sand-salt on the road.
        Like one of the others have said,it's a lot easier to pull the load up hill than push it.
        I bought steel lines to run from the bottom end to the top and just used two short hoses to connect to the motor.
                                  Your brother in Christ  Jerry

[countryboy1]

Thanks, This elevator, like most grain drags have power at the base (pto runs from there).  I will plumb in the hyd motor from an old fertilizer auger that was worn out.  Not sure if the motor reverses but don t have any money invested if it doesn t. 

The post about a irrigation motor is good but sure are not  any in Ohio to speak of. 

Side note (over60 inches of rain in the last year and no signs of any change yet.  Normal is about 40" per year.

Sure does make it hard to get into the woods to check out timber stand and improve it. 

Thanks to all that took time to share ideas.  This is a great site!

[Al_Smith]

Yeah no kidding about the rain .There certainly has been enough of it .I think in NW Ohio we're at over 60" as of the first of Jan .