A fellow I used to worked with called this type of building engineering on the fly. If I were you at this point I would take out the coil spring and weld a heavy walled piece of pipe in its place and call it good. If and when you tow it vary far just lower the tire air pressure down. Looks to be a heavy built splitter.
Log Splitter Build
- Thread starter JakefromCharlotte
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Wood Hound
ArboristSite Operative
Jake, check out this video, about 3/4 the way thru, how he did his axle, thanks...
JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
A sliding axle? Huh....
Wood Hound
ArboristSite Operative
I find this very interesting-at least the part that it is not welded in place-think about this....
Not any different then the tandems on a trailer. Just a few pins hold them in place. Big wedge(landall) trailers slide hydraulically slide the tandems to lower the rear of the trailer to the ground.
JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
Ugh.... Sprung axles 2.0 didn't work....
I measured the force on each side and came up with :
Then I mounted the springs on the press and cut them down to match the pressure. I was shooting for 2 inches of compression for the static load.
Made some buckets to hold the springs:
And it didn't work.... For some reason (maybe depression) I didn't get a pic of it compressing. With the full weight, it compressed the spring until the coils touched each other.
Now I'm mad.
3.0 I think I have the whole spring assembly too close to the pivot point of the axle. I am trying to figure out an outrigger design to mount the spring vertically closer to the wheel.
4.0 Weld it solid with a 3.5" piece of pipe
I measured the force on each side and came up with :
Then I mounted the springs on the press and cut them down to match the pressure. I was shooting for 2 inches of compression for the static load.
Made some buckets to hold the springs:
And it didn't work.... For some reason (maybe depression) I didn't get a pic of it compressing. With the full weight, it compressed the spring until the coils touched each other.
Now I'm mad.
3.0 I think I have the whole spring assembly too close to the pivot point of the axle. I am trying to figure out an outrigger design to mount the spring vertically closer to the wheel.
4.0 Weld it solid with a 3.5" piece of pipe
I would just go with 4.0 and call it good if your splitter height is where you want it.
I am very sorry about your frustration as most of us have been there. One thing that might be a band aid fix is to put two springs together in the same cage. The problem you decided was important that you needed some suspension. I cannot haul a splitter with out suspension in my area. One time I got stopped by the high way patrol telling me that I cannot continue hauling splitter. I typically put my splitter on another trailer which was fine. Now with suspension the splitter is no problem. As you have indicated the leverage on your springs is tremendous. If you were not using mobile home tires that are very stiff then you might be able to go with out some suspension. It looks like to me that you are very close to having this issue solved. Moving your pivit point a couple of inches down below the I beam could do wonders. I really love your fabrication effort as it is first class. I often do not do that kind of quality because I am so often in a hurry. After solving all issues I often come back to grind edges of welds and paint but some times that takes much time. I expect you will get it just right. Thanks
dowonders
dowonders
Wood Hound
ArboristSite Operative
I would use this on another project, this axle set up...Rethink the axle, you will never be happy with it..
The old saying, KISS
The old saying, KISS
I agree at least some what. I think the design aspects have some flaws. However the project looks better than good. I am speaking from an experienced mechanical engineer's point of view. To scrap the whole project because of some flaws also seems wrong. I would think that all that needs to be done is to some how reduce the leverage ratio with out starting over. Thanks
JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
Option 2.5
Heavy duty trailer leaf springs!!! From Facebook Marketplace.
Mounted like this. (Not actual spring size, just some random 3D model I downloaded)
I'm feeling good about this. The leaf spring will be easier to mount and adjust. Looks like he has 5 or 6 of them, so I could even double them up.
His ad says "6 leaf spring assembly for 6000 lb axle weight".
Heavy duty trailer leaf springs!!! From Facebook Marketplace.
Mounted like this. (Not actual spring size, just some random 3D model I downloaded)
I'm feeling good about this. The leaf spring will be easier to mount and adjust. Looks like he has 5 or 6 of them, so I could even double them up.
His ad says "6 leaf spring assembly for 6000 lb axle weight".
Wood Hound
ArboristSite Operative
Well, i will tell you one thing, if this works, it is a first...
It looks like the swing arm would rise over the leaf spring. Instead of pivoting off the beam consider a solid arm off the beam with a swing arm off the end similar to torsion suspension.
JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
Let's find out together!!
The pic above is a crude mock up. I am thinking about making a mount that will let me use two springs, side by side on each side. On the axle, I will make a wide flat bar welded solid to press against the springs. With this approach I will be able to adjust the preload with the length of the trailing arms for the spring.
It would be great if I could use u-bolts to connect the axle to the spring instead of free floating
OK Jake what are you using for a CAD program. Your 3 D looks nice. I have some programs that are twenty years old but still use them. I would have made the coil springs work but leaf springs will work too. Very very easy to adjust though. I would say you are one h**l of an engineer. I likely would have not thought out side the box as far as you did. Hopefully you will describe a big smile soon. Thanks
cumminstinkerer
addicted to making my boiler run clean
@Ted Jenkins he is a heck of an engineer, thinking outside the box is poor farm kids like me do so i get that, go check out m thread about m new to me econoburn boiler and the BS I went through to get it dialed in over on another forum, I know the mods don't like it much so h***h. com not sure I posted much on here with that battle, things got busy and I wasn't posting much.
JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
Worked on the splitter a little today after I came back from the equipment auction looking at this:
It was way too big and way too expensive. It also had a blown motor....
When I got back I cut out some parts to mount the leaf springs
I plan to weld it together tomorrow and give it a test.
It was way too big and way too expensive. It also had a blown motor....
When I got back I cut out some parts to mount the leaf springs
I plan to weld it together tomorrow and give it a test.
JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
It worked!! The wheels before we started moving are angled a lot because the brackets are not fully welded:
Once we started moving the wheels settled down:
Checked with a digital level, the motor side has 2 degrees of positive camber, and the tank side has .5 degrees positive. I was shooting for 1 degree, so I will grind a little off the motor side and shim a little on the tank side.
I drove it around the block and over a few speed bumps and it seems to work. You can see some flex in the springs for sure, maybe 1 inch.
Now I can work on the long list of small items to finish this up.
Once we started moving the wheels settled down:
Checked with a digital level, the motor side has 2 degrees of positive camber, and the tank side has .5 degrees positive. I was shooting for 1 degree, so I will grind a little off the motor side and shim a little on the tank side.
I drove it around the block and over a few speed bumps and it seems to work. You can see some flex in the springs for sure, maybe 1 inch.
Now I can work on the long list of small items to finish this up.
Wood Hound
ArboristSite Operative
Good for you-it worked out for you-paint it an accent color, starting to like it....
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