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hydraulic drivetrain

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Old Nov 10, 2009 | 11:57 PM
  #1  
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From: Wisconson
hydraulic drivetrain


so UPS and some other companies are working on building hydraulic hybreds

For the past few months i have been thinking about building a hydraulic drivetrain for my truck. just as a side project to see how they work.

but i have kind of run in to some walls
1 not that much money to spend...
2 i cant find any info on a pump i can hook up to my 7.3L idi
3 i cant find a hydrolic engine that i can hook up to my rear axle so that it will move

i have thought about using a pump out of a skid loader or something of the like where everything on it is powered by hydrolics

and the proplem that i am running in to with finding a hydrolic engine is that the way i have it set up would be to have a direct drive so the rpm rage would have to be extream

i dont really know that much about hydrolics so any help would be cool

 
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Old Nov 11, 2009 | 12:11 AM
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Two words: Forget it.

The system you drew, simply using a pump at the back of the engine and a hydraulic motor on the diff, is so inefficient you would probably use twice the fuel.

You are running all that equipment, and pushing oil through many feet of lines, in place of a driveshaft that turns on one bearing. Next time you shut down your vehicle, go feel the power steering lines for heat. Use the steering a bit before shut down. Then go feel the driveshaft. You'll get it.

The original link shows a system that accumulates pressure. You can't compress a liquid, so there has to be some gas in that system to store energy. IIRC, those systems recapture some energy by building pressure during braking, so downhills & stops help you build pressure to use on the starts and up hills. That kind of equipment is expensive, and if done on the cheap using old water tanks, dangerous.

Read about it. Check it out. Watch for it. But don't try it at home... please.
 
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Old Nov 11, 2009 | 12:29 AM
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From: Wisconson
1. i want to build a simple set up so i know it will not be as efficient as the driveshaft but im not doing this for mpg i'm doing this for fun
2. the lines get hot i know that
3. i dont want any thing like the fancy set up, i want a simple version just to play around with and there will be no water tanks in this set up
 
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Old Nov 11, 2009 | 01:44 AM
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From: Faibanks Ak.
Go to the army surplus and buy a bomb loader it has every thing you need.
 
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Old Nov 11, 2009 | 07:42 AM
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Basically hydralics are high torque low speed sort of arrangment. You could get a very high torque tow vehicle with low diff ratio but a top speed of maybee 20-30 mph.The biggest problem would be traction and if you fixed that then the diff would let go. Also with the system you drew as soon as you let of the gas the vehicle would slow very rapidly. As far as actually doing it absoutley it could be done and if you have any fab skills it would be fairly cheap after the initial parts outlay. Most heavy equipment these days is hydralic drive so any worn out machine would have the parts you need. If you get into it a bit further you can get two speed hydralic motors so you could have a high and low range. You would also need a good big oil reservoir and oil cooler because hot oil is the biggest downfall with hydralics. If you got the time money and space to drive it this could be a fun project but as stated earlier not economically viable or even road legal I would think.
 
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Old Nov 11, 2009 | 08:32 PM
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You might be able to come up with a system that would assist with the drive, but to go pure hydraulic would be very expensive and complicated. You could connect a Hyd pump/motor to the driveshaft. It would spin all of the time. You could use it as a pump to charge an accumulator to slow down. Maybe a micro switch on the throttle to select pump or motor mode. This would save some of the energy during stopping and releases it on take off.
 
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Old Nov 12, 2009 | 12:44 AM
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Look, one man's "fun" is another man's waste of time. Nothing new here, and if you wish to spend your limited fortune on a pile of worn out military parts and expensive metering devices, have at it. Just beware, you are not breaking any new ground, and will have nothing useful at the end of the day. Instead, read through:

Welcome to Hydraulic Innovations

Yamaha two-wheel drive motorcycle (note you won't find it in the Yamaha line up here or in France...)

Make a simple hydraulic powered car « Wonder How To
 
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