Tug

[planenutz]

Anybody out there got a design for a battery powered tug??
TIA
Paul

[John T]

How about a gas powered? fella in my chapter took a old belt driven
snowblower, removed the belt, and filled the auger/chute area with 60#
of concrete for traction. Now he's got a tug for about 60 bucks. :)

John

[planenutz]

Hi John

Very good idea, only problem we don't have snow blowers in the UK, but
thanks for the input I'll have a look at some other agricultural power
driven units. I am still real interested in an battery powered jobber if
anybody has created one.

Paul
"John T" > wrote in message
...
> How about a gas powered? fella in my chapter took a old belt driven
> snowblower, removed the belt, and filled the auger/chute area with 60# of
> concrete for traction. Now he's got a tug for about 60 bucks. :)
>
> John
>

[Darrel Toepfer]

planenutz wrote:

> Very good idea, only problem we don't have snow blowers in the UK, but
> thanks for the input I'll have a look at some other agricultural power
> driven units. I am still real interested in an battery powered jobber if
> anybody has created one.

Didn't Kitplanes (maybe another mag) have a recent article on a cordless
drill creation? I think the details were sketchy though, not a Jim Weir
production forsure. I might be wrong but I believe it used the remains
from a weedeater powered garden tiller...

[Robert Bonomi]

In article >,
planenutz > wrote:
>Hi John
>
>Very good idea, only problem we don't have snow blowers in the UK, but
>thanks for the input I'll have a look at some other agricultural power
>driven units. I am still real interested in an battery powered jobber if
>anybody has created one.

Ye gods! some heavy duty batteries, a high-torque, low-RPM, gear-motor,
and an on-off switch.

Look around for _anything_ electrically operated that is 'self propelled'.

At one extreme, an electric golf cart.

At another, I believe there was a U.K. TV show, on which the U.S. "Robot Wars"
was based. *LOTS* of possibilities there.

For petrol-powered, consider a self-propelled lawn mower. Maybe the
big-brother, "riding" variety, sometimes called a 'lawn tractor'.

Or a "roto-tiller", used for plowing small gardens. remove the tines, put on
tyres, and voila!


Lastly, how about an old Morris "Mini" ? <giggle>

[Mark Hickey]

Darrel Toepfer > wrote:

>planenutz wrote:
>
>> Very good idea, only problem we don't have snow blowers in the UK, but
>> thanks for the input I'll have a look at some other agricultural power
>> driven units. I am still real interested in an battery powered jobber if
>> anybody has created one.
>
>Didn't Kitplanes (maybe another mag) have a recent article on a cordless
>drill creation? I think the details were sketchy though, not a Jim Weir
>production forsure. I might be wrong but I believe it used the remains
>from a weedeater powered garden tiller...

The one in Kitplanes (from a month or two ago) was based on a Ford
truck wiper motor, a Harbor Freight rubber tire, some scavenged
bicycle gears and chain, a small sealed lead-acid battery and a Volvo
window switch... but mainly it was just about ideas to cobble
something together more than "plans".

It all comes down to the fact that if someone's a good scavenger and
knows how to weld they can build anything.

Mark "occasionally it'll even fly" Hickey

[Morgans]

"planenutz" > wrote in message
...
> Anybody out there got a design for a battery powered tug??
> TIA
> Paul

I could easily see a fork to hold a rubber tire, with the towbar welded on,
as to give a lever to pull against the handle to make force to keep the
drive tire on the ground. Use a 12 to 18 volt drill, with a low speed
gearbox, and chuck up a small tire with an axle to press on the drive tire.
--
Jim in NC

[Frank van der Hulst]

Robert Bonomi wrote:
> In article >,
> planenutz > wrote:
>
>>Hi John
>>
>>Very good idea, only problem we don't have snow blowers in the UK, but
>>thanks for the input I'll have a look at some other agricultural power
>>driven units. I am still real interested in an battery powered jobber if
>>anybody has created one.

I was told once about a guy who built himself a little cart powered by a
car starter motor. IIRC, he had two wires from the battery to the
motor... using one wire gave low power... if he wanted high power he
connected the second wire up in parallel.

Frank

[Morgans]

"Frank van der Hulst" > wrote

> I was told once about a guy who built himself a little cart powered by a
> car starter motor. IIRC, he had two wires from the battery to the
> motor... using one wire gave low power... if he wanted high power he
> connected the second wire up in parallel.

This would work, if it were not used at high power for very long, or even at
low power, not all that long. I'm guessing that the low power wire was
small enough to act as a resistor. It would get very hot. Better off to
use a larger wire, then a short length of smaller, uninsulated wire for the
resistor, where the extreme heat would not do any harm.

Starter motors have no good way to get rid of the heat they generate,
because they have no cooling fan. In cars, they only operate for short
bursts, so the heat buildup is not much of an issue. They rely on the
thermal mass of the case, but that does not help the armature keep cool very
well.

I saw a plan for a winch, for launching RC gliders, that used a starter
motor. They had attached a large set of cooling fins all of the way around
the outside of the case. It helped, but because of the armature issue, it
still could not be operated very many times before it had to sit and cool
down.
--
Jim in NC

[Andy Mckenzie]

"planenutz" > wrote in message
...
> Anybody out there got a design for a battery powered tug??
> TIA
> Paul

We had one built for our group, starting from the chassis of a ride on
mower, but with propulsion using a 12 volt electrical motor, pretty heavily
geared. It is very slow, but speed wasn't important to us. It is used to
move a Wassmer, which is light enough to be moved by hand, and only has to
roll 20 metres to clear the hangar, but we had some people who found moving
it hard due to back problems.

I could probablly get some photos of it, but not for a week or two.

Its based at Popham (which is in the Southern UK)

Andy

[Charlie]

Morgans wrote:
> "planenutz" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Anybody out there got a design for a battery powered tug??
>>TIA
>>Paul
>
>
> I could easily see a fork to hold a rubber tire, with the towbar welded on,
> as to give a lever to pull against the handle to make force to keep the
> drive tire on the ground. Use a 12 to 18 volt drill, with a low speed
> gearbox, and chuck up a small tire with an axle to press on the drive tire.
There's a commercially produced product built as you describe but using
a starter motor & chain drive to the wheel with 12v car battery as power
source. There's one in my hangar right now. IIRC, it's called a
'Taildragger Dragger'.

Charlie

[Charlie]

Charlie wrote:

> Morgans wrote:
>
>> "planenutz" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>> Anybody out there got a design for a battery powered tug??
>>> TIA
>>> Paul
>>
>>
>>
>> I could easily see a fork to hold a rubber tire, with the towbar
>> welded on,
>> as to give a lever to pull against the handle to make force to keep the
>> drive tire on the ground. Use a 12 to 18 volt drill, with a low speed
>> gearbox, and chuck up a small tire with an axle to press on the drive
>> tire.
>
> There's a commercially produced product built as you describe but using
> a starter motor & chain drive to the wheel with 12v car battery as power
> source. There's one in my hangar right now. IIRC, it's called a
> 'Taildragger Dragger'.
>
> Charlie
Am I good or what?

http://www.dragger.com/tdd.html