Tracked Wood Hauling ATV project...

My beloved honey badger suffered a catastrophic failure: The primary clutch broke. A replacement is between $250-300 on ebay.





I have been toying with the idea of converting the machine to hydraulic drive since i first purchased it. Now is the time.

I will document the progress below.

The plan is to completely remove the stock powertrain and put a kawasaki engine and hydraulic drive system from a commercial zero turn mower in it's place. I think the new hydro setup will be slower than the current system, but steering and maneuverability will be significantly improved.

Only 537 hours on the machine according to the meter.



here she is with most of the primary removed...




Apparently to own a PPT you also need to purchase a front end loader......or in this case a backhoe....



A couple photos of the underside while it's up in the air....

It took almost no time to remove the engine......



Spent a few more hours and the stubborn drivetrane cradle just wouldn't budge.....



I hope to have the drivetrane out tomorrow, and perhaps mock up the new hydro's.

As far as the hydro setup, if i didn't think there was a reasonable chance for success i wouldn't put the effort into the conversion. I know that hydraulic drive works in this application, i just don't know if these particular hydraulic components are well suited to this particular setup.

The big reason for the swap is that the original drive setup has never functioned correctly since i've had the machine in spite of my constant fiddling and adjusting. Plus it consists of certian components that i likely could not purchase when/if they fail.

If the hydro swap does not work, I plan to restore the original drive setup with the parts i can find while it is out of the vehicle and accessible.

the hydro system consists of two sets of pump/motors. One variable flow pump (i don't know the technical term) connected to each hydraulic motor. The pump has a built in valve that controls the speed/direction of the motor.

This setup will allow the machine to go from forward to reverse without having to stop to change gears. it should also provide surgical precision when steering.

The honey badger final drive is chain driven. This means that i can simply change the drive sprocket in order to allow the hydraulic motor to give the drive sprocket the appropriate amount of torque. More torque = less speed.

One thing i am not sure of is the existence of a pressure relief in the system. If, for instance, the hydraulic motor was unable to turn because the resistance was too great, would a pressure relief valve open, would the housing of a pump/motor suffer a catastrophic failure, or would the motor simply stop turning and nothing would be damaged?

BobUrban said:

WOW -that is really cool. I work in Lapeer often and would love to see in action sometime.

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If it works you are welcome to come check it out (that's my ploy to have help processing firewood lol)

Jags said:

Do you have a specific system in mind? Make/model of drivetrain? If you did, you could probably pull up specs to see what kind of torque you are dealing with. If I remember correctly (and that is not guaranteed), I think the gas converted to hydraulic is accepted as a 20% loss.

Click to expand...

I appreciate your input and expertise. I should probably listen to you and save myself a lot of trouble......

Unfortunately i was not able to work on the project at all today......

The setup is from a bunton commercial walk behind mower I bought brand new almost 20 years ago. I do not have the specific make/model number of the hydros or even the specific size. Obviously lawn mower manufactures dont make their own hydraulics, they just bolt things together. It's engineered to pull a sulky with a person on it, plus the weight of the machine itself, combined nearly 750 pounds I would estimate.

Here is a similar pump, it's 10cc/revolution.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/Hydrau...-CU-IN-HYDROGEAR-PUMP-10CC-PG-1HCA-9-8052.axd

The motors are cast iron.



I've used it to pull trailers, skid logs, blow snow, and mow grass.

The mower drive tires are about 12" in diameter while the honey badger drive sprockets are 8" in diameter. Geared at a 1:1 ratio the hydros adapted to the honey badger would already produce significantly more torque at the final drive because of this smaller diameter, there would also be corresponding slower top end speed. Here is the final drive sprocket inside the honey badger with what looks like #25 roller chain? Wiki indicates that #25 has a tensile strength of about 750 pounds.



Top speed of the mower is an estimated 10mph (faster than I can run) but the controls were adjusted to only allow the machine to travel at a brisk walking speed.

Since honey badger is "down for maintenance" i had to use the backhoe to move firewood today.