Hydraulics for boom arms

[ACDII]

I have been contemplating putting remotes to raise and lower the arms on my home built sprayer with an 18' boom. It has 3 6' sections, the outer arms pivot off the center arm, and want to put hydraulics on now that I have remotes on the new tractor. I see on some equipment like tedders use thin shaft cylinders, but they are basically one way, like on the MoCo, only pressure is used to raise, gravity lets them fall, and well, the arms aren't heavy enough to fall on their own so need double acting.

Since I have 3 remotes, I can split them apart to raise and lower one or both, or just one, depends on what I can find and cost. What I don't know is what to look for, what length and how best to attach them so they work properly. The booms are 1" square steel tubing. Not heavy at all, but when trying to spray my front yard, which has a lot of trees, its a PITA to get out, lift and lock the arms, spray between the trees, get out, drop and lock the arms, and continue on.

Is there a way to use one to lift up both?

 

[Vigo]

Sounds like the arms that need moving are pretty lightweight. I absolutely get the wanting to use the fancy new hydraulics stuff you have, but considering the cost of hose and fittings, I would seriously consider just doing this job with electric linear actuators (if the force needed is as small as im imagining). Doing some fairly light-duty wiring is a lot easier and cheaper than the hydraulic plumbing.

Either way, you can absolutely run two cylinders OR actuators in parallel. This would work the same way as dual-lid grapples, the same way bucket curl cylinders on an FEL act when nothing is attached to them, etc..

Which is to say they would not necessarily be perfectly synchronized, but whichever one has less resistance will move first and faster. When that one hits more resistance than the other one, the other one will speed up and this may go back and forth etc until they both hit their 'stops'.

In the case of hydraulics hooking two cylinders in parallel to one circuit doesn't change the flow of the circuit, it just causes it to move slower than it would with only one cylinder. If you hook two electric actuators in parallel, the current flow through the circuit WILL double, but the current is proportional to the load so you would never see 2x the amp rating of the actuators until they were both straining against their limits, either their internal clutches or mechanical limits to the linkage you attach them to.

In the case of electrics you can run them quite simply off of a 'momentary motor reversing switch' which is a switch that can go in two directions (left/right, up/down etc) and does not click into position but is spring-loaded to return to center. It's somewhat important that it be a momentary (spring return to center) switch so that you don't accidentally leave it on and have wiring heat up and melt.

I have an electric-over-hydraulic (electric motor spins hydraulic pump) top link cylinder wired through such a switch on my B6100. The wiring and terminals i already had, and the motor reversing switch I bought on Amazon for <$20. When you get into higher currents than can be handled by a switch, you would use a 'winch relay' which is essentially a high current relay which does the same job and is used to reverse the polarity of wiring leading to a winch motor. Those are also cheap.

 

[TheOldHokie]

I have been contemplating putting remotes to raise and lower the arms on my home built sprayer with an 18' boom. It has 3 6' sections, the outer arms pivot off the center arm, and want to put hydraulics on now that I have remotes on the new tractor. I see on some equipment like tedders use thin shaft cylinders, but they are basically one way, like on the MoCo, only pressure is used to raise, gravity lets them fall, and well, the arms aren't heavy enough to fall on their own so need double acting.

Since I have 3 remotes, I can split them apart to raise and lower one or both, or just one, depends on what I can find and cost. What I don't know is what to look for, what length and how best to attach them so they work properly. The booms are 1" square steel tubing. Not heavy at all, but when trying to spray my front yard, which has a lot of trees, its a PITA to get out, lift and lock the arms, spray between the trees, get out, drop and lock the arms, and continue on.

Is there a way to use one to lift up both?

Yes. Same as your loader boom and bucket.

Dan

 

[ACDII]

Well, I did some scrounging during lunch break in my garage for something else and discovered a pair of gas struts I forgot I had bought for a topper but never used because they were too long. They have 6" of travel and found 2 pair of brackets for them as well.

I have a new thought, Set up the gas struts to hold the arms down, and put a rope system in to pull them up from the cab with a patch on each arm with another rope to unlock them. I only need enough leverage on the rope to overcome the pressure of the strut so wont need to worry about angles and such. Now that I think about it, I have some pulleys laying around too.

 

[TheOldHokie]

Well, I did some scrounging during lunch break in my garage for something else and discovered a pair of gas struts I forgot I had bought for a topper but never used because they were too long. They have 6" of travel and found 2 pair of brackets for them as well.

I have a new thought, Set up the gas struts to hold the arms down, and put a rope system in to pull them up from the cab with a patch on each arm with another rope to unlock them. I only need enough leverage on the rope to overcome the pressure of the strut so wont need to worry about angles and such. Now that I think about it, I have some pulleys laying around too.

Takes one remote if you want to fold both at the same time. Two remotes if you want to fold them independently.

A couple springs will work with a rope and pulleys.

Dan

 

[MOOTS]

This is our JD 2020 gator at work. Electric actuator and a cam setup. Seems to work well.

 

[Russell King]

@MattEllerbyit

What gets it to vertical position? Chain is slack in the picture. What do you have to do to get it horizontal?

 

[MOOTS]

@MattEllerbyit

What gets it to vertical position? Chain is slack in the picture. What do you have to do to get it horizontal?

The last little bit is manual for travel, it pins up. The short chain would be tight in the full up while spraying.

Chains are used as they are break away.(in both directions I believe)

 

[Russell King]

The last little bit is manual for travel, it pins up. The short chain would be tight in the full up while spraying.

Chains are used as they are break away.(in both directions I believe)

Thank you for the explanation and that makes perfect sense now

 

[ACDII]

Takes one remote if you want to fold both at the same time. Two remotes if you want to fold them independently.

A couple springs will work with a rope and pulleys.

Dan

View attachment 78714

The arms is similar to this, I think hydraulics would be overkill since I can't seem to locate anything with like a 3/4" shaft. It's a home made sprayer, 60 gallon tank on a yard cart, made my own booms, and has worked well for at least a dozen years if not more. I just want to be able to lift up an arm or both while spraying around trees without having to turn off the PTO, stop, get out, move and arm, cap the nozzles, start the PTO again, spray and then put it all back. I added a 3 valve control system now so I can turn off the spray heads on either arm, now just finding a way to lift the arms from the cab.

 

[Like Tractors]

I have been contemplating putting remotes to raise and lower the arms on my home built sprayer with an 18' boom. It has 3 6' sections, the outer arms pivot off the center arm, and want to put hydraulics on now that I have remotes on the new tractor. I see on some equipment like tedders use thin shaft cylinders, but they are basically one way, like on the MoCo, only pressure is used to raise, gravity lets them fall, and well, the arms aren't heavy enough to fall on their own so need double acting.

Since I have 3 remotes, I can split them apart to raise and lower one or both, or just one, depends on what I can find and cost. What I don't know is what to look for, what length and how best to attach them so they work properly. The booms are 1" square steel tubing. Not heavy at all, but when trying to spray my front yard, which has a lot of trees, its a PITA to get out, lift and lock the arms, spray between the trees, get out, drop and lock the arms, and continue on.

Is there a way to use one to lift up both?

I built a sprayer that uses hydraulic cylinders to raise and lower the booms, as the boom comes up, the spring return ball valve shuts off fluid flow to the nozzles on that boom.

 

[TheOldHokie]

I built a sprayer that uses hydraulic cylinders to raise and lower the booms, as the boom comes up, the spring return ball valve shuts off fluid flow to the nozzles on that boom.

I was just looking at the single purpose turf sprayer my golf club uses. Very similar boom cylinder setup minus the ball valves. Boom shutoff is probably electric on it.

Dan

 

[MOOTS]

I was just looking at the single purpose turf sprayer my golf club uses. Very similar boom cylinder setup minus the ball valves. Boom shutoff is probably electric on it.

Dan

Correct. Ours is a solenoid valve for on/off.

 

[TheOldHokie]

Correct. Ours is a solenoid valve for on/off.
View attachment 78951
View attachment 78952

I just purchased a 12v valve to convert my 3pt sprayer to electric shutoff. The valves are self manifolding - may have to consider two more for the triple shutoff option next season.....

Dan

 

[ACDII]

That 3 valve setup is what I am doing on mine. I pulled it out of the weeds yesterday, havent used it the past 2 years, COVID, and didn't realize how beat up it got over time. One end of the main boom is bent up, and a few fittings are sun aged and cracked. The pressure gauge is shot too. I may rebuild it into something bigger now that I no longer have to get it through 10' gates. Going to look around and see what different setup I can do, by the time I refurb this 18 YO sprayer, I might spend more that just replacing it. Will see.