Hi all,

Thanks for all the help/suggestions. It's very much appreciated.

I'll take the liberty to ask another question while we are he

There has been a lot of talk about having things sized properly such that
the system is controllable. Is proper sizing just a question of making some
assumptions and doing the math?
For example, lets say that I wanted the loader to go from the ground to the
full-up position in 3 seconds (is this too fast? too slow?).
Assuming:

Two hydraulic cylinders with a bore of 2", and a stroke of 14" to go from
down to full up.
3 seconds to extend ram 14"

To compute flow:
Speed (in/min) = flow (in3/min) / area (in2)
flow = speed (in/min) * area(in2) = 14"/0.05min * 3.141in2 = 880in3/min *
1g/260in3 = 3.4gpm
and since we have two cylinders, we need 6.8gpm?

This estimate seems to be reasonable based on what I have seen for other
loaders regarding pump size. Is this (basically) all there is to it? And
from there should I pick the lowest pressure which will (a) operate all the
parts and (b) give me the force which I need to do what I want? So if I
want to have the loader capacity be 1000#, I would have two cylinders which
could produce (minimally, since I guess there is geometry to consider and
the loss of usable lifting force - haven't gotten there yet ) 500# each
at a given PSI (seems like 1500 is the lowest common on, and this will
produce a force 500#)?

Easy...so what am I missing?

As always, thanks a lot for your help.

don



"don schad" wrote in message
om...
Hi all.

I am scheming to build a front-end loader for my tractor, and I have
been looking into hydraulics. I have a couple of pretty basic
questions which I have generated after reading various sources and
looking through the catalogs. Any help/insight into any of these
questions would be much appreciated.
.....

Thanks in advance for your help. I appreciate any and all comments
and info.

don