[D.Walker]

@Countymouse 2836 wrote:

I have to admit I wonder if animals have the raw power to brush hog or thresh grain unless you get alot of them together… You might want to check out the power requirements of these types of things just to see how many horses (or anything else) would be required to do the work at hand. If the answer is 100 horses, for example, you will probably end up changing things…

this may seem nieve to many of you but im trying not to go by conventional tractor driven quota’s. in many ways what im trying to do is take power from ground only, using gears and other methods to generate additional power and torque and so on. One of the new idea’s that i personally feel falls into sustainable is things like HHO generators, where you will be able to make your own fuel on the farm, im not sure its quite ready for use on its own but more as a compliment to standard fuel systems but its making a lot of head way. so for all (abstract number coming out here) say it took ‘100 horse power’ to work a thresher for arguements sake, my attitude is more i need to keep the weight down so a 2-4 pulling team can move it!! where now am i finding ways to generate the rest of the power? i think for sustainable farming/forrestry/draft working on the whole to make a real go and compete with conventional farming we all need to really think outside the box. is there a different way to do it other than what we already have? if thats the best peice of equipment to do X job how do i make it better?

i do have an idea for your bucket though, im thinking a simple counterweight system, where you could perhaps use hydraulics or pneumatics to push or pull a counter weight ballist closer or further to the bucket, the leaver effect will do the lifting and so on. again this is just thinking out loud, i haven’t thought about how to hitch a team to it, or what kinda weights and so on and so forth would be needed to make it work.

Douglas

[D.Walker]

@Countymouse 28360 wrote:

1. Something animal powered that would substitute for a chisel to allow for min-till with animals
-This is going to challenging because of high draft for tractor type chisels
2. Something animal pulled that can substitute for a brush hog
-I am not opposed to mounting a motor on this, but wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to???
3. Some type of simple reliable row marker system that would work for organic farmers
4. Small scale thresher that would be able to handle a wide variety of crops
-I expect to mount a motor on this, it would be great if it was light enough to be mobile
5. Something animal powered that would substitue for a tractor’s bucket
-Lots of room for creativity here, but would need to be relatively simple and reliable (slip scoops just don’t reach out in front!)

the chisel defo gonna be tricky, that is a big pull for any horse i would reckon, just how deep would this need to go? im thinking we might need a new idea rather than find a way to make the standard design work for drafters otherwise is gonna need to be just a big team pull to overcome that which is not viable.

the row maker shouldn’t be too difficult i dont think, more or less a raised narrow double sided plow to a certain extent, can you give me some dimensions for this one, width for the rows for crops i’d imagine you’d be looking at the same width for the gap between, and roughly how deep do you require the rows to be for a decent planting.

tractor bucket :confused: that one going to be different, can you clear up just what you want functionality wise, im assuming your looking for a degree of lift, tilt are you also from what your saying looking for telescopic abilities too? and just how much do you think you would need?

as for the rest, ive been trying to design a new gear box for the purpose of hopefully taking motors out of this completly. i have breifly spoke to JAC bout this before, i know the issues with equipment that require rotational parts is mainly maintaining a steady speed (or at least limiting the change in speed between a smaller rpm bracket) as the animal pulls. but i know basic gear boxes can be quite jerky as you shift and that can put the horses off, so again creating a smooth transaction between gears. with that in mind im thinking belt links would be too fragile for heavy farm work, and chain links can again jerky so im trying to find a way to impliment a direct cog on cog gear box but the main driving gear will be more or less cone shaped, that way the cog its driving can be moved along without lifting off, but there are still lots of flaws in my theory of this box. but if i can get it working i think that could be a big thing for maintaining speed for ground driven rotation machines. im hoping it will operate as simple as you more a bar left and right and have a basic speedo to see what speed the parts are moving at. but that i think might be a long time away, i am only still a student after all :p

[D.Walker]

the only reason im saying about the smaller blade is for the weight, have you done the whole thing of lifting a sledge hammer by the end of the grip with your arm fully extended? if you have blades extended out to the left or the right of a cart the principle would be the same, yes your spot on balance is the way to over come it but in this case when you have a small pony that doesn’t have the brute force some of your guys big drafters have that extended point of drag is gonna mount up quick.

as for your own tool bar, ill do a little bit of research on it, see exactly how much i can do with it. are you really just looking for plans so that you can build your own?

[D.Walker]

rite now its a bit of everything im looking for, ive been largly working on a new design for a lightweight hitchcart for john, but im hoping once i get back to college we can see bout getting a team together to start building it (if i finally get the finnished design on the one exploded construction diagram)

john has been giving me tons of ideas and ive been trying to rattle out basic rough designs in my head but the main trailer attachment im now looking at is a bail lifter, (btw john i came up with a possible tottally different idea to your rolling C lifter concept you thought of so i might run through that see what you think.) from what john told me of the farming side there are various forms of it, infact i watched a youtube video of one working, but from what im making out its a slow process, so im hoping to see if i can improve that, create a purpose designed hitchcart and trailer that could pull 4-6 bails onto it and then transport to barn.

as for the forestry concept i thought of i really need information, i posted in the forestry section for the information i need for the time being, but what it is basically is an up and over hitchcart, where the logs could be pulled below the operators seat and then use the logs themselves to make a “trailer” of sorts.

and thanks for welcome

[D.Walker]

okay with that kind of idea i think it would be more about miniturizing the standard design, that probably would mean a smaller blade length, unless we can minimize drag by using small wheels instead of skids at the ends of the blades. which is also an idea for creating larger blades for full scale draft horses. sorry thinking out loud :rolleyes:

what kind of pulling power and rough maintainable speed would your pony be able to do? so that i have an idea of weight restrictions and what levels of speed i would need to generate for the recipricles. also what kind of design would you prefer, a standard side mounted style or would that matter?

[D.Walker]

well i was gonna see about making arrangements to get out in the next few weeks to see you at the farm. just need to see what time i got. been trying to think on that damned rolling C design you thought about but everytime i make progress on it i find more problems… times its a good job you aint been about 😛

wanted to go over a few ideas i had for the hitch cart but on the overall framework i think im pretty fixed in my head for the design. but what ill need to get is dimentions, again part of the reason im on here is for the research. also ive had a few simple ideas on a forresting hitchcart (silly random thoughts i had when i been working) so if you could perhaps put me in touch with the guy you were talking about that does that i can perhaps get additional information off of him and perhaps finnish off the design and pass it onto him which could perhaps help him with his productivity, depends on the information i get back.

just need to hope i get a small group of people on board that i can quiz for information

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