PV Sundowner Rebuild

[Roderick Smith]

Michael phoned earlier in the week.  He is hopeful of having PV Struggler self-propelled from this weekend.  I have asked him to phone me, and to parade in front of the Echuca webcam:
www.echucamoama.com/river-web-cam
I will then place an instant alert on Paddleducks (although I could well be at a theatre matinee on Sunday afternoon), for those who no longer have World Cup soccer to keep them up all night.

I admire the organisation.  During a trip to Qld to introduce his daughter to her grandparents, Michael dropped a major transmission component at Canberra on the way north, for machining, and collected it on the way south.
In the web cam view as I post, Struggler is hidden behind a bigger paddleboat.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[michael]

With crazy weather today, Echuca got a half hour hail storm!!

[kno3]

Looks like the paddles are all installed. Very nice.

[michael]

Yeah wheels are together, and have attached some photo's of the drive system

[kno3]

Looks like a very complicated set-up and no independent wheel control, so why do you need that car differential for? Please explain what it is supposed to do.

[andy]

Ouhhh..

With such a construction I would have killed all the chain transmissions and had fitted the wheel axles direct to the wheel flanges of the car gear.

And I would have installed a steam engine.

Andy

[Roderick Smith]

Most Australian paddleboats don't have independent wheel control.
Combine that with high windage and shallow draft, handling can be quite tricky: particularly entering a lock.  Nevertheless, that is part of the skill of being a riverboat captain.
It is quite common to use a spring line to come off a wharf, or a riverbank mooring.

Michael can explain more, but that transmission had to bring the power from floor level to paddlewheel-centre level: putting the whole drive shaft at that level would have stolen passenger space, and raised the centre of gravity undesirably.

Steam is romantic, but impractical for extended voyaging.  It isn't just the work of cutting wood and loading it; a lot of wood is not allowed to be touched.
Nearly all Australian Murray-Darling paddlesteamers were wood burners.  Today there are a couple of oil burners; also a lot of diesel-propelled paddleboats.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[Barry]

He'd need the reductions in gearing provided by the chain drives to get the engine speed down to the needed paddle speed. Even with the gearbox and diff gear reductions the engine would be too fast to get slow speeds at the paddles.
We can get a fine low speed control with a electric motor in our models but not many i.c. engines like to run much below 600rpm. The gear reductions would increase the torque at the paddle wheel.  I.C. engines develop their maximun torque higher up the rev range not at idle or low speeds.

[Roderick Smith]

At some stage the drive has to be changed from a fore & aft shaft to a transverse one; it may as well be done with the diff which came with the motor.
Jessie II (four stroke petrol, not diesel) is redlined at 2500 rpm, and I often cruise at those revs all day.  I will cruise at 2000 rpm in tricky water.  1000 rpm is only for easing out of moorings with restrictive speed limits.
A lot of paddleboats use tractor engines: readily available, and providing good torque at low revs.

Larger boats seem to use reduction gears; smaller ones use chain drive for reduction.  A few used rope or belt drive.

Does the diff provide protection against a paddle jamming on a snag?  The chain drive as such wouldn't.  A rope or belt drive would.

That requirement has been mentioned in some of the modelling threads.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

[michael]

The whole drive system is overkill for the size of the boat, the engine 6cyl could really be 3 or 4 cyl, tho i got it cheap, the truck diff could be out of a car however, i got it for a slab of beer! The paddleshaft could be smaller in diameter, but thats what size the wheel housings were.
The whole set up is for the engine to be doing 1000-1500 rpm and the paddlewheels doing 20 rpm which is a comfortable cruising pace, the diff has a 4:1 ratio, from diff to lathe shaft is 4:1 ratio and from lathe shaft to paddle shaft is 4:1.
I have added some photos from the last couple of days in Echuca with alot of rain fall river has risen so boats have been moving all around the place!

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's......& thanks Michael...... the 17aug10.jpg is a 

The reflection on the water is only from OZ
The "upturned tinnie" is only from OZ & made of aluminium
Not sure of why PV Sundowner was the cloths line for others ......

Anyway great shots.....

You could just imagine ....... ...waking up.....a few birds swarking .......cooking  bacon & eggs for breakfast &  ,....then a few  ...later on.......what a way to spend a day in OZ  .....Derek

[michael]

Couple more shots from today. The rudder is now attached to the steering chain, the levers are in place by the steering wheel for throttle and changing gears, and got some stickers made for the front, looking good, and ready to go for a cruise

[kno3]

How did you run the chain to the rudder, did you use pulleys?

[michael]

Chain runs through redgum pulleys at front of boat then through plastic pipe to back of boat the out to rudder with aluminium pulleys.
Struggler went for its maiden voyage over the weekend, with a high river in flood, steering not 100% right, little fuel in the tank and a crew of three we set out for half an hour around the port. With no major problems the trip was a success, boat moves along very nicely,just a few little things to fix up then ready for a summer of cruising!

[kno3]

Great pictures, I'm glad its runs well. Are you going to paint the paddlewheel boxes?