Independent drive for a steam plant

[kiwimodeller]

Doing the usual late night dreaming about boats I came up with the following idea for independent drives for a sidewheeler. Thought I would post it and see what everybody thought. My idea is to drive each wheel from a countershaft by belts or O rings and pulleys. The difference is I thought I would use loose belts and then tension them with idler pulleys operated by servos. This would allow me to disconnect the drive to the inner wheel when turning and possibly by using R/C mixers I could do this automattically. Although it is not going to give the same manouverability as being able to reverse the inner wheel it should still help turning somewhat. All comments and thoughts most welcome. Will it work??? Thanks, Ian.

[mjt60a]

I think it could work, you'd need just the right tension on the belts (and they might need replacing more often due to wear...) is the reason for this, to be able to use a steam engine?

[kiwimodeller]

Yes, the main reason is that I much prefer steam and also have a couple of steam plants sitting around waiting for boats. I have remembered where I saw the idea, it was on a garden cultivator I had to repair. The main thing I learned from that was that it is important to have guides on the outside of the belts just a little away from the driver pulley. These make the belt "bell out" away from the pulley when the tension is off and thus there is no friction or slipping partial drive of the belts and therefore no wear of the belts, they are completely disengaged. If I get to do it and it works I will post pictures, if it does not work I will of course say nothing! Cheers, Ian.

[Red_Hamish]

Hello all, Ian, if you need some photos of this type of transmission then just ask. My father has buried in one of the sheds a Qualcast cultivator which employs this type of clutch mechanism. It must be almost as old as I am and in slightly better shape than me too    It is going a nice colour of rust and I'm going white, will definitely have to change the login name   :lol:

cheers

Jim

[kiwimodeller]

Thanks for the offer Jim but the system is still used on modern Honda rotary hoes. I work part time in a machinery hire centre and was servicing one which is what started the train of thought. Now there is just the little matter of three boats to build or finish so that I can get on to trying this out. "So many ideas, so little time!" Cheers, Ian.