Full hydraulic machine

[kghills]

I wonder if they have a new design yet that gets rid of the chains? how often do you have to tighten them? do they have automatic tentioners? are they automatically lubed? Still have to carry extra chain when going out? whats the top speed like and how is the boyancy does it sink low in the water?

Mudd-Ox has had a full hydraulic machine for a couple years now. It is not sold in this country though. Every once in a while when I stop at the factory there will be one there ready to be shipped. They look very heavy duty and I was told they are expensive because the pumps and motors are pricey units to make it work correctly.

Keith.

[jerseybigfoot]

Befor you start spending any money, you should do the calculations. Guessing with hydraulics is a shore route to failure. Even calculating the torque to spin a hydrostatic tandem pump at start is required if its direct coupled. Too small an engine for the pump and starter has insufficient torque to turn the engine and pump fast enough to start. There are other thread on the forum directing you to the calculations. Or Google vehicle hydraulic drive calculations.

[Noel Woods]

I think you are correct about the weight/speed computation. A 4000 pound skid steer may top out at 10-12mph, but the same drivetrain in a 1000lb aatv should do much better than that.

I do think that when you factor in that an aatv can probably get away with one wheel motor per side, the speed should increase due to no parasitic load from the 2nd same side motor. This machine would have to be tracked to transmit the power and to have enough traction to be worthwhile.

[rcn11thacr]

Another idea if someone were so inclined; Use my basic idea in first post i did "today" on this thread and include a pair of variable hydro pumps from a skid steer/track loader to power the external gears that turn the tracks. Granted this will only work in the case of a guy that wanted a precise, slow speed unit since my understanding is that 12.3 mph is the max for a loader. Granted that speed “may” (correct me if im wrong here) increase since the vehicle we are talking about is much lighter.

[rcn11thacr]

Interesting tidbit that may help out with this thread even though its not directly talking about hydros:
Notes on Tracked Vehilcle Steering

[Nubs]

[akcrawler]

Al,

Thank you for your post. I had not heard of the Hagen transmission, but went and looked at a couple of internet posts on it. You are right; it is truly a marvel and would certainly simplify operation of AATVs that come equiped with it. I wonder if there was a reliability problem with it? It seems strange that this unit didn't catch on if it was reliable.

I wonder if one can still get them?

Mike

[john swenson]

rcn 11, i think your right. i have sure seen alot of homebuilt tracked vehicles on u tube made by russian guy's. they do alot of what your talking about. motor, trans, rear axles and homemade tracks and cogs. check it out. some are really cool ! johnboy

[rcn11thacr]

I still think if you wanted to “roll your own” and make a TRACKED amphib from scratch, the best route is to use the example the military has. Pick your choice of motor, place it wherever you choose in the vehicle. Use either a front or rear area for mounting a transmission, go thru the tub and use a single gear on each side to drive each track. Considering the track would be HDPE type material (since that’s what most of us would have access to) I’d say the gear that turns the track should be made out of the same type material. I think the gear should be as thick as possible. In the case of my Adair Argo tracks I would make sure the tooth of the gear fills most of the area available in the track. Using similar material should eliminate most of the wear and tear from friction if a dissimilar material were used. I can only speculate on what the life expectancy would be on the tracks, that part would only be known after testing had been done. However i would assume the chains in the Adair type tracks would reduce tearing up the track due to tension, etc... (design a track tensioner to take up excess slop). As for driving the tranny? Use whatever you chose, driveshaft, chains, or a hydro setup depending on what type of tranny you choose. Does anyone feel this type of set up would be inferior? Comment on the pros and cons of this please…

[Trackster]

How fast would you or anyone say you could go with a full hyd setup?

My trackster goes ~15 mph now with a Honda 24hp motor. It has never run out of torque on any incline. With the original motor it would run over 20 mph but the machine just really wasn't made for that (read terrifying because any change in input made you think you were going to wad it up). I believe the 2 stroke that it came with would run 5k rpm and the honda is only 3600, both are direct coupled so I gave up the top speed in exchange for no smell, reliability and a huge noise reduction.

[riotwarrior]

Is there any trans better than a t20?

Clearly it's a matter of opinion and seeing I"ve not had a T20 I cannot say I don't like them, I just don't like how they operate.

The Hagen/Rooter is a marvel and had it taken off like the T20 I'm certain it would have been the defacto transmission for these machines..

The ability to counter rotate your trans, or go forward to reverse, without shifting is just amazing, it's as seamless as a full hydro unit and in fact I had originally thought that was exactly what it was.

JM2CW

Al

[jerseybigfoot]

probably about 10 mph with a 25 hp kohler geared for 100 pct incline.

[ARGOJIM]

I just remember over the yrs having pulled the fuel tank off my JD 400 and found dried grass packed between the tank and trans, looked like a fire waitin' to happen but never did.

Just pointing out what can happen with hyd.'s, not common and this was a 75hp farm tractor.

[Noel Woods]

How fast would you or anyone say you could go with a full hyd setup?

I think 20 mph at best, based on current technology.

[Nitewatch45]

Is there any trans better than a t20?