6.5 HP 3600 RPM overhead valve gas engine for $130

[rcavictim]

Princess Auto has a cute little utility four stroke engine on sale again (ended yesterday sorry).   These come on sale fairly often however.  It is a 39 pound package that includes fuel tank, air filter, muffler, recoil start, low oil shutdown and a 3/4 inch keyed horizontal output shaft.  I picked one up yesterday because for $129.88, it is the cheapest solution to a unique power problem I have to address regarding my large wind turbine.

I have decided to build my behemoth turbine on a IHC TD14A, tracked crawler/loader which weighs about 25,000 pounds as the base rather than bolted to buried concrete and rebar to avoid the stupid and unfair property tax increase associated with improvements.  Once done I can move my turbine if necessary to somewhere else on the estate if my extension cord doesn't reach it.   

The original diesel engine is removed to make room for the wind generator stuff but I need to be able to make this thing crawl during fabrication and placement.  I don't need power to push over stumps while moving it and I don't have to set any speed records.  I plan to install this little engine where it can be belt reduction coupled to the input shaft of the crawler's transmission, where the original engine and clutch attached.

[mobile_bob]

i don't know about the princess auto motor, but i picked up one last year from costco
for around 115bucks with tax
6.5 hp, easy starting, started it out on the lawn, without even bolting it to anything
runs very smooth for a single, and is extremely quite even at full throttle
appears to be the chinese knockoff of a gx160 honda i have on a couple of compressors.

cool little motor it is, and i know we would have traded our left nad for one when we were kids
building gokarts

i am planning on direct driving a leece neville or a prestolite with mine, for a portable battery charger.
might be kinda cool, mounted to a cheap two wheel dolley for ease of movement.
maybe put a battery on it and an inverter,, havent decided yet.

be interesting to see it pull your dozer around

bob g

[rcavictim]

Jens,

Thank you for that cool mental image and bringing my project into the rocket science category.   

Bob,

Man I sure would have given my left nad for such an engine when I was about 14-15 and playing with carts and mini-bikes!  My minibike, welded from water pipe frame which I got from my mentor neighbor who was five years older came without an engine.  I scrounged a Clinton, cast iron 2-1/2 HP lawnmower engine off a retired reel mower and with direct chain sprocket drive (no centrifugal clutch) had the time of my life.  Using both feet to stop was known in our circle as having 'dual scrub brakes'.     Man did I burn through a set of running shoes fast!

That cast iron engine had next to no compression but ran well without smoking.  I could get a max speed of 36 MPH with premium gas and about 30 on regular leaded.  The bike could muster about 175 MPG calculated at the time IIRC.

A friend got a store bought minibike with a professionally fabricated formed tubular steel frame.  He put a monster displacement 6 HP B&S aluminum engine on it and holy crap would that thing go like a bat outa hell.  Not enough rake in the steering angle though and it was bloody dangerous to drive.  I only test drove it once and that aspect scared me.  I don't know if we understood the mechanics of that at the time.

[Tom]

How long has it been since your td14 has been moved. I resurrected a td6 that had sat for 10 years. The tracks were quite rusted up and it took quite a bit of power to get it to moving the first time. Even after using it a bit some of the links on the track remained rusted solid.

It would be to cool with your fancy new 1115 installed in there. I'm curious, what ratio are you going to use on the belt drive?

[rcavictim]

How long has it been since your td14 has been moved. I resurrected a td6 that had sat for 10 years. The tracks were quite rusted up and it took quite a bit of power to get it to moving the first time. Even after using it a bit some of the links on the track remained rusted solid.

It would be to cool with your fancy new 1115 installed in there. I'm curious, what ratio are you going to use on the belt drive?

When I took delivery about two years ago it rolled easily by pushing, although it took quite a bit of power. The tracks are hardly rusted and still have paint on them.  The two steering clutch handles have been tied off pulled back keeping the clutches disengaged while sitting since before and after I got the beast.  As for a ratio I am figuring 10:1 -15:1 would be great.  Unfortunately with a single hop using a tiny and large 19 inch pulley I can only get about 7:1.  If I had a 1.5:1 gearbox added to that I would be good.

It turns out I have a really beefy 10:1 angle drive box here on my other wheeled loader just sitting on a yet to be connected winch that I can borrow.  That shud do the job.  I still want belts to get the engine in an easy to access spot on the machine from the drivers seat.  The belting can then be a modest or 1:1 ratio.

[Tom]

Sweet! I forgot what a bugger those clutches were to break loose, good thing you've got them tied back.

[trigzy]

If you missed the sale and still want one - there are still independant dealers around here who will match PA's price.

ST

[rcavictim]

If you missed the sale and still want one - there are still independant dealers around here who will match PA's price.

ST

I looked at your website and could not find any data in your gas engine section, only the diesel section had pics info and pricing.  That has to be costing you sales.

I want to get one of your AVR's at some point.  I will need it for my ST-12 now all torn apart, once rewound without harmonic windings.

[rcavictim]

appears to be the chinese knockoff of a gx160 honda i have on a couple of compressors.

bob g

Bob,

I believe it is a knockoff of the Honda GX200 @196cc and 6.5 HP.  The GX160 is only 163cc and 5.5 HP.

[Grael]

I use that very engine to run an alternator to charge my batteries. Use good fuel and good oil, cant stress that enough. If not they will burn out FAST!!!! Don't ask me how I know...

[rcavictim]

OK,  since the snow went away I have been busy preparing my tracked crawler for use as the wind turbine base.  I managed to get the big engine out and clear necessary room for the generator head, gearboxes, etc.  I have installed the little 6.5 HP lawnmower engine with a 2:1 reduction on a #40 roller chain centrifugal clutch to a really beefy 10:1 gearbox which is coupled to the crawler's transmission input shaft with a heavy duty driveshaft, U-joints and slip-spline yoke from a 5 ton Ford truck.  I have 200 ft. lbs of torque into the crawler's input shaft at 180 RPM.  It has trouble when I try to lock one track to turn so I am going to increase the chain reduction for more torque and less speed.  This merely involves changing the sprocket on the input of the gearbox for one with more teeth and linking in a bit more roller chain.

Today I got the package all mounted, started the brand new engine (started first pull), and proceeded to try to get the old crawler to crawl out of the hole it had settled into on my gravel drive over the past two years.  She was really stiff and took a lot of coaxing but after some movement and effort she loosened up with use and became mobile. All the gears and track clutches work and the track brakes as well. I made a video of it moving with the engine at WOT and the dozer in low range gear. The engine is hunting with the governor in the video at full throttle, not working very hard. The fellow along for the ride is a friend that dropped in to help me today.  I needed someone on the engine throttle while I was at the controls in the cockpit.  I now have the machine on level gravel in my work yard next to the shop where my big welder cables can reach and my mobile lifting gantry can roll into position over it for the construction phase about to begin.  Getting the crawler to self propel was the critical first step.  It is a success!

See my 11 second, 3.2 MB  short film with sound here.   www.area31.org/movies/crawlermovie.mov

[Tom]

Wow, you've actually got it moving at a pretty good clip.

[lowspeedlife]

WHAT A SIGHT LOL

[rcavictim]

Wow, you've actually got it moving at a pretty good clip.

Yes I was actually surprised it was moving so fast.  As I said, I think this is in low range too!  I left the hi-lo lever in the first place that broke the crawler free from sitting.  I think it is a good bet that this is the LO RANGE setting given the extremely marginal power level I have available.

Quite a sight yes!  Since it SOUNDS like a lawnmower maybe I shud put a mower deck on it wide enough to do the entire lawn in two passes, or do the neighbor's lawn at the same time I do my own.   

[Tom]

Hang a brush hog off the arms for the bucket and it would look just like a big lawn mower.