12v electric caravan mule

[poppa smurf]

has anyone built a "mule" for moving caravans around the yard

I'm thinking maybe a starter motor with a double pulley on the shaft to two belts driving a shaft to wheel barrow wheels mounted on a heavy low steel base with a 50mm ball mounted in the centre and a handle to control it

one belt twisted to give reverse with two hand driven roller tensioners

as the tension is placed on either belt this will determine the direction the shaft would rotate

any thoughts??

[mik]

yep thought of that one myself Poppa, good idea.
Or you could get the wife to doit, for traction purposes just give her more fried chicken a bit more often, i can see it now, "hey love" ............."a little bit more to the left"..... "Eer hun"......"put your shoulder into it" ........... "nearly there hun".
Might get a bit expensive with the chicken though(hard on the cars springs too), yes well devise a mechanical option!

[poppa smurf]

well I suggested to my darling wife that just maybe she could help, just a little, to move the van into position in front of the shed

the response was such that to place it in here would see an automatic deletion......suffice to say her participation in that activity will not be forthcoming, now or the foreseeable future

I've ordered a maco mule but I reckon that will be too slow.......the decent van movers are too expensive

I have a garden tractor that I could adapt but it has no reverse........just wondering if the starter motor would last

it only has to go, probably, 60 feet at 90 degrees

I've got a starter motor, spare battery and a heap of scrap, been welding for 40 years.....so what can possibly go wrong!!!!!

[mik]

lol , women can be a bit funny like that , they don`t always see the humorous side, starter should be ok for short stints if it`s geared properly, not so sure about making the starter run in reverse, perhaps one of our resident sparky`s could comment on that , remember the old days when a lot of the pommy cars had the remote starter under the hood, i`m thinking one of those babies might be handy if you could get your hands on one ;).

[poppa smurf]

I was thinking about building a flat 3/8" steel platform with 3 wheel's and a centre pole made from 75mm tube, suitably braced and mount the 50mm ball to that

the handle I would pivot from the centre tower as well so that the whole "mule" could be spun around the ball and tower

whichever way the handle was facing the mule would go opposite......the starter would not have to reverse, the mule would be spun around to suit

as for the switch i thought about one of those "horn" press button type

but when i get a bit of time I will get around to it.....I'm no stranger to building "things, gadgets and doohickeys"........I've already built it a dozen times.....people value sleep way too much LOL!

[Yellow_Festiva]

I was thinking to try and score an electric pallet jack with buggered batteries and tinker with that, perhaps running it off mains.

Then I found these on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-elect...item415f2d63a5

Or same with pumped up tyre

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/12V-elect...item2ebb57228d

Would save a lot of mucking around!

[poppa smurf]

yep looked at them.....I wondered how they would go.....just looking at the size of wheel i reckon it would bog down

unless i paved/concreted out the front of my shed after building the gabled carport for it......phew!!!! getting tired just thinking about it!!!

[davenl5l]

they use starter motors on boat winches but they do use a small ring gear ive seen them on some big boat trailers

[poppa smurf]

years ago when the earth was being born we used to knock up 4wd winches (before they become an "off the shelf product) out of starter motors and motorbike chain gear and home made winch drums out of bore tube

they were short running units, as in didnt need to run very long to pull the unit out of the muck, but geared as they were become very popular for all sorts of things

I'm drawing on those days to construct this next frankenstein

[FGII-XR6]

A high current reversing switch or relay would be easier . the other question would be will the starter stand up to the longer duty cycle involved ? they are designed for a very short duty cycle and may burnout if used for longer periods. you could use a 12V winch motor as an option

[Franco Cozzo]

Starter motors don't last long if you drive something with them, they're not made for moving something along, just to turn over the engine.

Manual cars that don't start you can put them in gear and drive it in on the starter motor, but they don't last very long lol.

[poppa smurf]

well I guess the other way is to chuck a little petrol motor on it.....plenty of them around cheap and longevity would not be a problem.....a reversing box would be great if I could find one small enough

only want to build it once

[Phil B]

If you're thinking of going petrol, would a ride on mower be a starting point? Get an old ride on mower, gets you the motor and drive train, or a self propelled mower?

[Barnaby]

Have access to any old photocopiers? They usually have at least one good 12 or 24V motor in them, usually with a gearbox on them.

[FGII-XR6]

way too small would be like trying to move a falcon with a whipper snipper motor

Originally Posted by Barnaby

Have access to any old photocopiers? They usually have at least one good 12 or 24V motor in them, usually with a gearbox on them.

[XP6]

Why not use an 1~3hp electric motor geared down, its around your house/yard so an extension cord will reach.

A ride on mower will be no good as they are not designed to tow... find an old clapped out dingo or kanga or something they work great!

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by Barnaby

Have access to any old photocopiers? They usually have at least one good 12 or 24V motor in them, usually with a gearbox on them.

way too small

Originally Posted by XP6

Why not use an 1~3hp electric motor geared down, its around your house/yard so an extension cord will reach.


I have a brand new motor in my shed, 1/2 horse I think.....I gotta find out how to wire it up, it came with no cord or instructions


A ride on mower will be no good as they are not designed to tow... find an old clapped out dingo or kanga or something they work great!

they would be absolutely ideal, but no luck finding one I'm afraid

[Phil B]

What power do washing machine motors make? Would they be enough?
Or one for a water pump? (not a car one of course but a household sized one)
Or motor from an air compressor, find one with a stuffed tank or pump and grab the motor

You might be hard pressed to get up to 3hp, dad has one on his big monster metal lathe. The motor is a 3hp 240v beasty, I think we weighed it at 70kg and about the size of a 20L drum, so probably too big for what you need.

[GUTLES]

I have an old ride on without the mower deck on it you could have cheap but your in sa!

[poppa smurf]

washing machine motors used to be 1/3 to 1/4 horse........the old simpson wringer jobs were big heavy 1/4 horse and would be perfect, I've used a lot of those in different jobs

I'm looking at gearing it right down to probably 10 to 1 so to be controllable, power I dont reckon would be an issue at that ratio

[Barnaby]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

way too small

Um...have you guys even seen the main drive motor out of old photocopiers? I have a friend with one of these mule things you are talking about and I have a 24V geared motor that is bigger than the one in his mule...it would whip his!

OLD photocopier or copy printer main drive motor.

[poppa smurf]

ah okay, I stand corrected, I have never seen a drive motor from a copier.......I assumed it would be a little feller

[Barnaby]

New ones yes, old ones...



Standard 10mm spanner for reference.

You might be thinking that the thickness of the power wires are a bit small but that is a 10-1 gearbox on the end of it which means it can drive a substantial load without a huge current draw.

[mik]

yes it`s surprising how little motor you actually need if you have the right gearing, i hired a petrol post hole digger a while ago, it only had roughly the size of a cheap small whipper snipper motor on it, the bloody thing would near pull your arms out of the socket if the auger got jammed up.