# Experiences with Large Brooms



## Aerospace Eng

This was a deal that was too good to pass up, so I bought these two ex-airport brooms for use at the airport where I have my hangars. I will likely sell one of them to another nearby airport.

They are nameplated Schmidt Equipment Company, but that company is now Wausau-Everest, out of Wisconsin.










They were used at the Niagara Falls International Airport from 1994 to about 2007 fairly heavily (about 500 hours per year), but then were only used about 100 hours a year until 2010, when they were relegated to emergency backup status. They were sold at auction in 2015, and then sat. I purchased them from the winning bidder.

I'll post my experiences hers as I learn how to operate and maintain them.

The carriers are Schmidt HDC-300, and have a GVW of 32,000 lb. The rear engine (Detroit 6-71T-DDEC) drives the chassis, power steering, and the non-power hydraulics. The running gear is conventional, with Allison transmission (MT(B)-654CR), Rockwell transfer case (226T), Eaton 23K single reduction axles (Series 51). Air brakes. 2 wheel steer through TRW Hydrapower steering unit. 14.00R20 tires.

The front engine (Detroit 6V-92T) drives two hydrostatic transmissions through a step-up gearbox. One (Eaton 76 series) drives the broom. The other (Eaton 64 series) drives a double sided 34" centrifugal blower that blows air out nozzles to help clear fines left by the broom.

First order of business was to separate the brooms from the carriers...It was relatively easy with the quick hitch.









However, one of the lock bars for the lower pins on the broom did have to get cut because it wouldn't move inside the channel (the photo shows the lock bars that did move on the second carrier) I'll cut a new piece of steel and reinstall.









This broom has some life left on the bristles (all the bristles are steel, and the brooms are composed of 46"x19.5" wafers and spacers). The reason for this life compared to the other broom shown attached to the carrier, above, can be seen in the middle, where part of the motor housing is lying on the a-frame, and the rusted guts can be seen on the broom. It looks like someone dropped something on the housing and broke it.

The hydraulic motor drives a shaft which drives a Dana 50 differential, with the output shafts driving the individual broom cores. RPM is generally kept at about 400, but can be varied due to the hydrostatic drive to accommodate different sweeping speeds and depths of snow and ice.

This means that to sweep and not leave a center stripe, the broom should be angled to its maximum, 35 degrees. Since the broom cores are 16' wide, this gives a 13'1" swath.

The first carrier left Niagara falls today. By taking the air chutes, disconnecting them at the hinge, and turning them sideways, we were able to get the load to 8'5" wide, without taking apart any hydraulic lines and/or pins.










There are two really nice things that I like so far.

One is that the airport kept great records, which they passed on. I know, for example, that on March 3, 1999, the airport had to jump start broom 47, and replaced the starter solenoid. I know that the reflective tape was installed on March 15, 2000. I know they were replacing the left dolly wheels on the broom on #47 much more than the dolly wheels on the right. I now know to look at that, to see if I can determine a cause and corrective action. The only thing in the records I don't like is that they used 15W40 for the engine oil. While acceptable in cold weather, 2-stroke Detroits really prefer straight 40 weight.

I don't know when the hydraulic motor was broken, only that it occurred when it was parked between 2010 and 2015.

The other thing I like is that they have never seen salt. As far as I can tell from the records, the carrier units haven't been repainted in their 24 year life, and still look OK. More importantly, they are still structurally sound.


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## Mark Oomkes

Pretty sweet find!


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## Aerospace Eng

Mark Oomkes said:


> Pretty sweet find!


Yep. Thanks to @icudoucme. I'm not sure he was being serious when he posted the link, but so far between the airport and myself we have bought things three different times that someone (Fred with the '08 Belos and '48 Sicard) put up on the "Craigslist Finds" thread. Happy with the purchases each time.


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## BUFF

Nice Summer project and always very detailed post.Thumbs Up


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## BossPlow2010

Pretty cool setup, could it run anything else such as a front mounted blower?


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## Aerospace Eng

Yes, you could put a blower on it, and people do.

In theory, you could run anything that can be run by a hydraulic motor, up to about 250 hp. 

Not sure I’d trust it off-road with a 20’ brushhog, though.

You can also put a runway plow on it, but that seems like a waste of the second engine to me.


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## 1olddogtwo

Aerospace Eng said:


> Yes, you could put a blower on it, and people do.







Arctic picked this bad boy a few years, it was training day.


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## Mark Oomkes

1olddogtwo said:


> Arctic picked this bad boy a few years, it was training day.


You ever push a broom that wide Oldmop???


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## 1olddogtwo

No Sir,

Just got promoted last week from corner broom to push.


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## BossPlow2010

My Ex gf asked where the broom was once, I asked if she was going somewhere.


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## Defcon 5

Nice Find!!!.....Great review so far...Your probably right on the assumption that the oil is for colder weather use...Any leaks on the Detroit???..They do like to leak...Their motto used to be...If it ain't leaking...It ain't working...






Curios how much the broom bristles will cost to 
Replace?...The cost could make anyone's sphincter clench....Keep up the reviews as you delve deeper....





Btw...It seems it's just a Ventrac on steroids


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## Aerospace Eng

The engines are actually really clean, and internally appear to be in decent shape, as there is not a lot of smoke on startup. I find it interesting that the carrier engine is a DDEC, but not the broom/air blower engine.

The steel wafers are $27 each, for the 13# wafer. Poly wafers are $21 each. Each broom takes 118 wafers, plus 116 spacers at $2.50 each, so it is about $3.5K to rebristle with steel. From the maintenance records, each broom lasts about 250-300 hours in snow/ice removal application, although if the pattern is wrong (too much downpressure) you can ruin a broom in 50. So figure the bristles are a $12 per hour consumable. 

That sounds like a lot, but at 12' wide, allowing for a 1' overlap, and a 15-20 mph brooming speed, that gives 1.2 million square feet per hour, or 100,000 square feet per $1. That's way cheaper than NAAC solid deicer ($1.50 per pound, 7 lb/1000 sq ft for thin ice, 25 lb/1000 sq ft for 1" ice), which costs about $21,500 for each 100,000 square feet. Liquid de-icer (E-36, $5.50 per gallon, 1 gal per 1000 sq ft for anti-icing, 3 gal per square foot for 1" ice) is about half the cost, at $11,000 per 100,000 sq ft. 

Brooming is even significantly cheaper than salting, based on what I read on here. I recognize that these costs don't include the cost of the carrier, but I figure that would be close to a wash compared to a de-icing truck.

I'd actually say my Belos Trans Giant (84 hp Municipal Implement Carrier) is a Ventrac on steroids.


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## Defcon 5

I agree with the broom being cheaper than NAAC...Plus my experiences with NAAC is its very expensive and does not work all that great..


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## BUFF

BossPlow2010 said:


> My Ex gf asked where the broom was once, I asked if she was going somewhere.


I put a broom in the wardens car trunk incase she has a roadside issue.....


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## Aerospace Eng

1olddogtwo said:


> Arctic picked this bad boy a few years, it was training day.


Looks a lot newer than my stuff (or the airport's blower). How much do you use it per year?


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## icudoucme

I'm glad they went to a good homeThumbs Up


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## FredG

Aero, Where was the lowboy company from? I'm assuming they were the most reasonable, Did the driver load on trailer or did you have to be there? I know most prefer to load there self but I had to be there to load one time.


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## kimber750

Looking forward to seeing these things in action.


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## Aerospace Eng

FredG said:


> Aero, Where was the lowboy company from? I'm assuming they were the most reasonable, Did the driver load on trailer or did you have to be there? I know most prefer to load there self but I had to be there to load one time.


The details are in the next few paragraphs, but from New Brighton, PA.

The guy I bought them from was looking around at haulers he knew, and I tried calling a few places, including the Ag company you mentioned, and prices were about $1200 per trip.

Then one of the mechanics at the airport was mentioning the machines to a friend of his who owns a local excavating company (and who has moved my excavator for me). He indicated that he had a lowboy with a 29' well. Not only that, the deck was less than 18" of so off the ground, so we wouldn't have to take the beacon off to get it below height. He offered to do it for $895 per round trip. He took one carrier down last night, and is bringing a wood processor back up on Monday, when he will get the second carrier.(The guy I bought the brooms from bought one in Champion PA and had it shipped to the airport where I have my hangars.)

The excavation contractor then mentioned he had a 53' flatbed, and that he would take the live bed and conveyor for the wood processor up and both brooms down for the same price ($895). While not as good a deal as the lowboy, as flatbeds are usually cheaper, it is a decent price, so I went with that. The cheapest bid for the brooms I got on UShip was $850, on a 38' gooseneck behind an F550, and that wouldn't have included bringing the live deck and conveyor back up.

The brooms are going to wind up costing me about $1200 to move due to wide load permit fees (2 states and PA has a Ton-mile charge), but overall it is costing me $2200 to move everything, as I am splitting the costs for one lowboy trip and the flatbed trip with the guy who sold me the brooms. I think that is a great deal.

I did not have to be there to load. The guy I bought the brooms from handled that end.

I honestly can't believe how lucky I was that he was the seller. He disconnected the brooms, took off the step, partially disconnected the air discharge chutes to make it a dimensional load, put in new batteries, drained/flushed the diesel tanks, added some diesel, capped a leaking return line that had drained the hydraulic tank through gravity, and added enough hydraulic fluid to run the power steering and aux hydraulics.....all for the cost of the fluids and parts. I guess telling him that his asking price was more than fair and not trying to negotiate it down worked out in my favor.

I disassembled his wood processor to make it a dimensional load, and put his wood processor on the lowboy (and will put the conveyor and live deck on the flatbed).


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## FredG

Aerospace Eng said:


> The details are in the next few paragraphs, but from New Brighton, PA.
> 
> The guy I bought them from was looking around at haulers he knew, and I tried calling a few places, including the Ag company you mentioned, and prices were about $1200 per trip.
> 
> Then one of the mechanics at the airport was mentioning the machines to a friend of his who owns a local excavating company (and who has moved my excavator for me). He indicated that he had a lowboy with a 29' well. Not only that, the deck was less than 18" of so off the ground, so we wouldn't have to take the beacon off to get it below height. He offered to do it for $895 per round trip. He took one carrier down last night, and is bringing a wood processor back up on Monday, when he will get the second carrier.(The guy I bought the brooms from bought one in Champion PA and had it shipped to the airport where I have my hangars.)
> 
> The excavation contractor then mentioned he had a 53' flatbed, and that he would take the live bed and conveyor for the wood processor up and both brooms down for the same price ($895). While not as good a deal as the lowboy, as flatbeds are usually cheaper, it is a decent price, so I went with that. The cheapest bid for the brooms I got on UShip was $850, on a 38' gooseneck behind an F550, and that wouldn't have included bringing the live deck and conveyor back up.
> 
> The brooms are going to wind up costing me about $1200 to move due to wide load permit fees (2 states and PA has a Ton-mile charge), but overall it is costing me $2200 to move everything, as I am splitting the costs for one lowboy trip and the flatbed trip with the guy who sold me the brooms. I think that is a great deal.
> 
> I did not have to be there to load. The guy I bought the brooms from handled that end.
> 
> I honestly can't believe how lucky I was that he was the seller. He disconnected the brooms, took off the step, partially disconnected the air discharge chutes to make it a dimensional load, put in new batteries, drained/flushed the diesel tanks, added some diesel, capped a leaking return line that had drained the hydraulic tank through gravity, and added enough hydraulic fluid to run the power steering and aux hydraulics.....all for the cost of the fluids and parts. I guess telling him that his asking price was more than fair and not trying to negotiate it down worked out in my favor.
> 
> I disassembled his wood processor to make it a dimensional load, and put his wood processor on the lowboy (and will put the conveyor and live deck on the flatbed).


Good deal,


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## the Suburbanite

Nice when things work out, Aero


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## Aerospace Eng

The first carrier was unloaded last night, and I put it in the hangar bay I use myself. The first order of business was to reinstall the chutes that had been disconnected at their hinge and tied up. I got some old bolts and new bolts installed, but wasn't happy with them.

One of the problems I noticed was that the bolts that were used as hinge pins were worn, especially where they were rotating within the fitting on the carrier vehicle.










I decided that I would replace the bolts with a bushing and bolt, which is how they should have been designed in the first place. The bolts were 3/4 inch, and a top link adapter pin was 3/4" OD, 5/8" ID, and 1.5" long -- perfectly sized. It's better to be lucky than good.










I used my HF engine hoist to push up on the chute to relieve pressure and pushed the bolts out and the bushings in, after coating them with moly grease. I then secured the bushings in place with a 5/8" bolt, washers, a lockwasher, and a nut. As shown, when tight the ears are not pulled hard against the blade on the carrier - much better.




























I put the bolt heads on the inside so that if the bolt seizes, I can use a punch and hammer straight on the outside and drive the bolt to the inside.


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## Aerospace Eng

With the chutes attached, I turned my attention to filling the hydraulic tank. It was a PITA because the tank was designed to be filled with a pump from a drum. There is a small cap on the top of the tank, and limited clearance between it and the top of the engine doghouse.










The maintenance records indicated that the system had always been filled with Hytran fluid, which is an ISO 60 Tractor UTF. This broom had a leaking return line from the broom motor, and over the years, it had drained the hydraulic tank to below the pick ups and returns through gravity.

The guy I bought the brooms from added 10 gallons of a Hytran equivalent fluid, which was the amount needed for the power steering to start working. The manual for the vehicle does not specify a viscosity for the hydraulic fluid, so I referred to the Eaton hydrostatic transmission requirements....

Startup Viscosity <2200 cSt
Ideal Viscosity 17<x<39 cSt
Minimum Viscosity 13 cSt

Using the data for Shell Tellus S2 VX, the viscosity at -10C, the range for viscosity between 20 cSt and 30 cSt, and the maximum temperature are:

ISO 22 fluid 300 cSt, 33C to 43C, 55C
ISO 32 fluid 530 cSt, 42C to 53C, 65C
ISO 46 fluid 910 cSt, 51C to 63C, 77C
Hytran 1300 cSt, 58C to 70C, 82C
ISO 68 fluid 1500 cSt, 62C to 74C, 87C

The hydrostatic transmissions share a cooler with thermostatic bypass valves, but I don't know what temperature the valves are controlling to. I decided to go with something other than Hytran (or equivalent UTF) because they typically have friction modifiers and additives for brakes, clutches, etc., which are irrelevant in a hydrostatic drive. I went with Mystic ISO 46 fluid (Citgo), as it is a decent product (and available at TSC on Saturday).

As I operate the broom and blower, and get an idea as to the temperature regulation, I may change viscosities.

I added 12 gallons to fill the system (slightly over, due to a lag in the sight glass), so with the 10 already in it, it has a capacity of at least 21 gallons, and currently is somewhere between an ISO 46 and an ISO 60 in viscosity.


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## Aerospace Eng

I then added a gallon of oil (Shell Rotella straight 40W) to each engine to bring them up to the full mark, and 2 gallons (mixed) of coolant to the carrier engine to fill the radiator to where it was about 2" (length from middle joint to tip of index finger) below the filler cap neck.

Fired up the rear (carrier) engine and let it warm up, then exercised the hydraulics, operating the chutes and diverters on the end.










I also exercised the broom lift.










The red cylinder stop is to define the position for the broom lift plate, as it is connected through a 4-bar linkage and having the linkage straight means the push force doesn't lift up or push down on the broom. The broom lift cylinder has pitting above the stop, but I'll live with it, as it only sees that position when the broom is being removed.

I then fired up the front engine, drove it outside, tested it's turning radius (about 35 feet) and exercised the air blower. The rear engine throttle was limited to 1600 RPM, as a result of some band-aids to the design in the past, so that is something I will have to rectify.


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## Aerospace Eng

One of the things I noted before I bought it was that there were 2 wiper outputs for each window, but only one wiper blade. I found the arms and blades that had been removed in the "glovebox" which is about 6" tall x 1' deep x 4' wide.










I'm not sure there is room for two blades on one window. In other words, if one is down when the other up, then they may interfere as they sweep.

They appear to be blades for an older boat or tractor?










Anyone have an idea where I can get replacement blades?


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## kimber750

May be easier to find modern wiper arms to use your every day wiper blades. Believe most marine applications use a 13.75mm hub.


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## fireside

Blades are old school truck wiper blades. An good Napa will have in stock.


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## BUFF

Aero since it's green you should name it Kermit.


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## Aerospace Eng

BUFF said:


> Aero since it's green you should name it Kermit.


What would you name the second one?

We were talking at the airport, and we are likely to go with "Thing 46" and "Thing 47"

We already have nicknames for: 
the "Snow Beast" - the '48 sicard blower
the "mini Beast" - the '08 Belos blower


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## Aerospace Eng

fireside said:


> Blades are old school truck wiper blades. An good Napa will have in stock.


Thanks. With that hint, I found that they are the Trico 61 series. Before, I kept coming up with Sea-Ray wiper blades.


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## BUFF

Aerospace Eng said:


> What would you name the second one?
> 
> We were talking at the airport, and we are likely to go with "Thing 46" and "Thing 47"
> 
> We already have nicknames for:
> the "Snow Beast" - the '48 sicard blower
> the "mini Beast" - the '08 Belos blower


Oscar


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## Masssnowfighter

Aerospace Eng said:


> Yep. Thanks to @icudoucme. I'm not sure he was being serious when he posted the link, but so far between the airport and myself we have bought things three different times that someone (Fred with the '08 Belos and '48 Sicard) put up on the "Craigslist Finds" thread. Happy with the purchases each time.


I posted the 48 sicard on the Craigslist finds. If you ever want to add a second antique blower to your fleet, I have a early 50's Oshkosh with a snogo that I may be selling soon


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## Masssnowfighter

Also if you are looking for a runway plow truck there are 2 low mileage all wheel drive Mack’s with 19’ power angle plows on public surplus.com. They are in Rhode Island. $10,500 each


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## Aerospace Eng

Masssnowfighter said:


> I posted the 48 sicard on the Craigslist finds. If you ever want to add a second antique blower to your fleet, I have a early 50's Oshkosh with a snogo that I may be selling soon


I apologize for the misattribution.

I think I am done with equipment for a while. ...I need to fix/use what I currently have.

The blower is the airports, and they aren't in the market, but if I run across someone looking for something, I'll let them know.


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## Aerospace Eng

I was able to delve into the carrier vehicle a bit more today. Some interesting things, some issues to resolve.

I only found two spots that were significantly corroded, and they were co-located. One is the outside just below and forward of the driver's door.










The other was the triangular mount for the foot actuated high-beam switches (I wish cars still had these).



















One of the interesting things that I noted when I first drove it is that it is a pure left-foot brake machine. The go-pedal is on the right of the steering column, and the stop pedal is on the left.










Another interesting thing I found when checking the tires is that there are different load ranges front and rear. The maintenance records indicate that the 14.00R20s had been replaced with 395/85R20s. The fronts are Load Range "G" - rated at 9370 lb, and the rears are load range "L" - rated at 11,700 lb. I think they should both be L, as the front axle is 23,000 lb rated, and especially because you occasionally pick up the 7,400 lb broom. I'm not going to replace them now, but when they wear out, it will be load range "L."



















The 395/85R20 have a rolling radius 0.9" less than the 14.00R20, but it appears that the air chutes still have enough ground clearance. When I get the broom back on, I will see if I need to adjust the stop to get the push arms parallel to the ground.


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## Aerospace Eng

The carrier has some low temperature features.

Ether start for both engines. This is a KBi simple injection system -- hold the "Ether Aid" button for 2 seconds while cranking.










The one for the broom/blower engine still had ether and worked. The one for the carrier engine was empty and the adapter between the canister and the solenoid was broken.




























When I noticed the external block heater ports when I visited, the guy I bought the brooms from said they weren't hooked up. It turns out that the block heaters are installed and hooked up, but that the battery charger location is just an empty junction box.



















I do find it interesting that if you are going to have a block heater and ether start for cold weather that you don't have a heating pad for the hydraulic tank. If I start keeping them outside in the winter (because the hangars are full of airplanes) I might put one on the hydraulic tank and under the batteries.


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## Aerospace Eng

The maintenance access is pretty good for the hydraulics.

The cab is lifted, as noted in prior pictures. The black area is actually a heavy flap (conveyor belting?).










It gives pretty good maintenance access when removed. One interesting feature is that if you need more access, you unbolt the cab mounts, install a pin in the front, and hinge it forward until stopped by the cable. Then you install another pin so it doesn't fall back. The hoses and cables are routed so that the cab can be tilted without disconnection, with the possible exception of the transmission shift cable, which can be seen behind the valve block.










It also shows that there are some areas that weren't washed as well as the rest of the truck by the NFTA and need a good wash.

The under-cab area was actually dirtier than the compartment with one of the blower inlets, which you would expect to be dirty because of how much air it sucks during operation.


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## Aerospace Eng

There are some design flaws. The principal one I have found so far has to do with the broom controls. In the manual, it indicated that there were electrical switches that controlled the stroke of the pumps that ran the broom and blower. It indicated that after the engines were started the pumps should be stroked to their maximum and then the broom speed controlled by varying the engine speed (4:1 reduction in the broom head). This seemed completely stupid to me. The advantage of a hydrostatic transmission is that you can get an infinitely variable speed out of the transmission while the engine is operating at maximum horsepower. In general, there is no faster way to kill a hydrostatic transmission than to run it at lower than rated speed at maximum stroke, as this is maximum heat generation and pushes the components together with maximum force. -- As an aside a lot of people don't realize this, and if their lawn tractor starts to slow down on a hill they press the pedal harder, rather than backing off.










The controls for the broom and blower had had those switches removed, and there were levers for the hydrostatic transmission. I was pretty happy, since I thought they were like boat controls. I was mistaken. They are basically parking brake valves (on/off) and run pneumatic cylinders connected to the input levers on the pumps. There is a switch with a spring "finger" on it that won't let you start the engine unless the controls are in neutral.

I only tried the blower control, as the broom was not hooked up. No matter how slowly I moved the lever, when it added pressure, the pump pressure went almost to the relief valve setting, and when I moved it back, you could hear it bypassing. Meanwhile, they had set up the broom engine to max out at 1600 RPM, versus a 2100 RPM maximum. Anyone who has run a 2-cycle Detroit knows that they like to be run at high RPM. This would also allow the engine to develop max horsepower.



















So, I have figured out two options. One is to install a hydraulic control, such as a Hynautic control a boat, or an equivalent cable system.

A better one, in my opinion, is to retrofit an electronic stroke control to the pump. There is some indication in the literature for these series pumps that there was an ESC available in the past. It used a 0-100 mA current to control the pump stroke. I am not sure if it is 0-100 in one direction and 0 to -100 in the other, or if 50 mA is neutral.

If I can get one, I could put a detented rheostat in the panel (one for the broom and one for the blower), and mark it for Broom/Blower RPM with the Detroit at 2100.


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## BUFF

Most people these days don't know what switches on the floor do.....
I add them to run the jaaaagoof light's on my pickup.


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## SHAWZER

Keep the pictures and commentary coming . Very interesting how some of these older machines are very well thought out and built to last .


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## Mr.Markus

I have an older Kubota f series from the 80s, it is funny that your solutions for PTO rpm are along the same design.
It has a 2 speed PTO for the same reason, it needs a higher rpm (2400) to run the mower and blower but the sweeper needs a lower rpm ( 12-1400)/or it just tears itself apart. Love this thread...


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## Aerospace Eng

So I found out today that an electronic control of the pumps swashplate should be possible, with a 0-100 mA signal. I don't know what the pricing is yet.

I did find out that a motor to replace the one broken on the broom is $5K, which is about what I expected. I'll have to wait to build up reserves again before I order it.

I ran the truck today, since it was raining a bunch, and I figured I would get a decent idea as to the blower performance. I drove the truck onto an empty slab with a floor drain (currently plugged so rainwater doesn't go into it. When it rains, it gets about 2" deep at the pipe stub.

It is hard to see in the picture, but the lower right quadrant is blown dry. It was about 15' to the side of the truck. This should be decent for blowing fines left behind by the broom.










I think it can do better as well. I need to turn up the wick on the blower/broom engine. The power absorbed by a blower roughly goes like RPM cubed, so turning up the wick should roughly double the power of the air streams from the blower.


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## Aerospace Eng

While I was waiting for the engines and hydraulic fluid to warm up before I tried the blower, I played with the electrical system. Nearly all of the lights, both interior and exterior work. However, I discovered I had a grounding problem on the dash, as the gauge needles would all tick in unison with the hour meter clicking, and when I had the parking lights on all of the broom engine (but not the carrier engine) gauges would peg high.

To explore this issue, I looked under the dash.










Overall, I like the layout, with bus bars going to self-resetting breakers and everything going to terminal boards. This will make troubleshooting much easier. I do wish that the wires were bundles better, into sub-bundles going to individual switches and then overall bundled. It's certainly better than a lot of under dash spaghetti wiring that I have seen, particularly for a 25 year old vehicle, and there aren't that many wires.









I did find that one piece of wire (for the left windshield wiper motor) had rubbed through the insulation, and two contacts for the "alarm override" (the out of focus sockets in the foreground) had come off the switch. I'll repair the insulation, get the disconnected wires back on the switch, bundle the wires, and make sure they cannot contact structure.


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## BUFF

That's just too cool and simple, plus appears to be easy to get to.


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## 1olddogtwo

Can't wait to see the videos

www.youtube.com


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## Aerospace Eng

I was supposed to get the second carrier today, but the tractor that was going to get them broke down outside of Erie, so who knows when I'll get it now.

In the meantime, I started tackling the wiring, as a way to understand the systems better.

One of the things that bugged me were a switch and what I thought was a rheostat hanging down.









It turns out that the rheostat was a 3 position blower and A/C switch for the Hupp-Aire system in the cab. However, someone had replaced the blower switch with a two position switch, and left the AC and high blower switches connected to the old blower switch, which was just left dangling. The wires don't look to be in great shape. I will get a new 3 position switch for the blower, and will have a separate A/C switch, for defogging reasons.










When I was underneath the panel, I spied a switch that had no wires attached. It was in the broom reverse override location. The wiring is such that when the reverse lights go on, the broom is raised, probably to save the casters. If you don't want it to raise, you override the automatic feature by interrupting the voltage. Although old wiring can be a pain, one of the nice things is that you can fix it, rather than replacing some computer module/harness/controller and hoping the diagnosis was correct and the replacement works.










At any rate, I could confirm that the color coding of the wiring for the reverse override matched that of the wires connected to the switch, so I am confident that that's what it is. I'll get a new switch (the hanging one isn't working) and re-install in the panel.

I also started sorting out the wiring on the back of the dash.










I will separate it into bundles, separate the power and ground leads for the carrier instrument lights and instruments from the broom engine instrument lights and instruments. I will relocate and and lace-tie the parking light, turn signals, headlights, etc. into one wire bundle which will be separate from the wires for instrumentation and the DDEC module.

Right now, all the wires are just bundled together. Some, like the power lead for the ignition are not well crimped. Others are just not connected (like the live lead dangling for the cigarette lighter). Many wires are looped around in ways that make no sense to me.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Given the success of asking a question about the blades (Hovis, a truck parts store, had some Trico 61-220s in stock), I'll ask about indicator lights.

The dash has a bunch of warning lights, and some are missing lenses.









Anyone have any idea where I can get replacements? I tried googling around for truck dash indicator lights.


----------



## icudoucme

I know how the lenses went missing. See the first 10 seconds.


----------



## BUFF

icudoucme said:


> I know how the lenses went missing. See the first 10 seconds.


Those guys are hilarious.


----------



## fireside

Looking at the picture they look like winco lights. They were used again in trucks especially fire apparatus from late 70 to early 80’s. At one point federal signal had lights that matched but that was a few years ago. I really don’t think you will find them.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

fireside said:


> Looking at the picture they look like winco lights. They were used again in trucks especially fire apparatus from late 70 to early 80's. At one point federal signal had lights that matched but that was a few years ago. I really don't think you will find them.


Thanks. I might just change them all out for flush mount indicators.


----------



## kimber750

Aerospace Eng said:


> So I found out today that an electronic control of the pumps swashplate should be possible, with a 0-100 mA signal. I don't know what the pricing is yet.
> 
> I did find out that a motor to replace the one broken on the broom is $5K, which is about what I expected. I'll have to wait to build up reserves again before I order it.
> 
> I ran the truck today, since it was raining a bunch, and I figured I would get a decent idea as to the blower performance. I drove the truck onto an empty slab with a floor drain (currently plugged so rainwater doesn't go into it. When it rains, it gets about 2" deep at the pipe stub.
> 
> It is hard to see in the picture, but the lower right quadrant is blown dry. It was about 15' to the side of the truck. This should be decent for blowing fines left behind by the broom.
> 
> View attachment 178264
> 
> 
> I think it can do better as well. I need to turn up the wick on the blower/broom engine. The power absorbed by a blower roughly goes like RPM cubed, so turning up the wick should roughly double the power of the air streams from the blower.


Can the motor be rebuilt?


----------



## John_DeereGreen

kimber750 said:


> Can the motor be rebuilt?


I thought he said that something had been dropped on it and it was busted apart?


----------



## kimber750

John_DeereGreen said:


> I thought he said that something had been dropped on it and it was busted apart?


That would be a really good reason not to rebuild.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

It's broken.









If they had taken it off immediately after the case was broken, it probably would have been salvageable. Except for the rust, the internal components don't appear to be damaged.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

The second carrier showed up today, but I am out of town until the middle of next week. I'm not sure when the brooms will show up. I've been told next week sometime.

The fun has begun with the electrics. Even though they are working, I have noticed that the wiring diagrams (which were not completed until 2 years after the brooms were delivered) are incorrect in many places.

For example, the starting circuit is shown as a series/parallel arrangement, where the batteries are connected in series for a 24V setup to the starter, but 12V otherwise. When you have two engines, this arrangement gets quite complex, as shown in the diagram.










I'm not even sure how large the advantage in starting would be. You basically have only half the current, but I'm not sure it would matter in general, or if these series/parallel arrangements are still used.

However, the batteries as installed are simply hooked up in parallel. There are only 2 large wires feeding the batteries.










Furthermore, the service history indicates that when the starters failed, they were replaced with 12V starters (without ever changing both at the same time). Thus, it is not clear that the series parallel arrangement ever existed on these units.

The only indication that it may have is that there are a bunch more solenoids on the side of the engine than I would have expected for a standard system, and the wiring diagrams only show 2 large solenoids not associated with the starting system (both of which are under the dash and are present).










The diagram also shows the start circuit energizing the DDEC, which is supplying power to 3 solenoids supplying power to the series/parallel solenoid, the starting motor, and to the fuel shutdown on the engine itself. However, Detroit 2-strokes are shut down by providing 12V to a shutdown solenoid, rather than removing power from a solenoid. This obviously makes no sense, as if you energize the shutdown solenoid (cutting off the fuel) during the same time you are energizing the starter, you will never start.

Time to break out the multi meter, trace wires, and change the diagrams to be accurate.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

While I was away, the other carrier showed on Friday. Thing 46 and Thing 47 are now both present at Zelienople.










Since @Randall Ave asked a question in another thread, here are pictures of the engines, from both sides. I will take a video once I get the brooms mounted (once they get here). Even without the brooms, the noise with the air blower is substantial.

Carrier Engine is a 6-71T. The turbo sits in a fore/aft orientation on top of the engine, and feeds the inlet to the supercharger.


















The Hydrostatic engine (broom and air blower) is a 6V-92T. The turbo sits across the engine, and feeds the supercharger in the valley between the cylinder banks.

View attachment 178737


----------



## FredG

Looks like someone took care of them, Nice clean Detroit's.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

I began some preliminary work on Thing 47 before I get back to the wiring on Thing 46.

As with the Thing 46, the bolts for the chutes were worn, so I replaced them with bushings.









However, this time, I used a flange bolt and a metallic locking flange washer, as I didn't like the clearance between the flat washers and the bolt (which lead to some marginal support of the bushing) on my prior solution. I like this one better, and will probably replace the bolts on Thing 46 with this approach.



















Even with the bolts tight, the addition of the bushing prevents the ears from being crushed against the center part. There are no zerks, so I'll have to take it apart to regrease once in a while.

I had noticed that when I was testing the blower on Thing 46 that the chute on the left side moved out when blowing to the right. I noticed the same on Thing 47. The problem is that there is wear that has occurred where the cylinder attaches, as evidenced by the fact that the pins sit at an angle. Once again, no bushing, and no mechanism for grease.



















This slop allows the chute to move out under the air pressure, creating a gap at the chute attach.



















I will probably replace the rod end forks, since they thread on, but will probably have to drill and bush the chute brackets. I'm not sure what to do with the base end of the cylinder (replacement of the end cap, get a new cylinder, or bush the existing end).

Where bushings are necessary, I will probably do a heavy bronze bushing, so that it will wear preferentially, and I will only have one part to replace in the future.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

I also found that there was no cap for the hydraulic tank, just a plastic bag stuffed in the screen area (better than nothing).

The hydrostatic engine would not shut off. I shut if off manually, and found when I did so that the shut-off solenoid was disconnected.










I'm not sure yet if the solenoid is bad, there is a short producing 12V at the connector, or what just yet. I'll have to get someone to help me there, as I can't measure in the engine compartment and press buttons in the cab at the same time.

Although it works, I'm not happy with the throttle actuator for the hydrostatic engine (Addco 720-104). Addco is now Actus.










The 720 series are still being made (unchanged since the 1980s), but at $600, I think I might replace it with a Concentric LD series for about $150 (it is still IP65 rated).

In the photo, you can see how the turbo feeds the supercharger in the vee.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

The brooms showed up this morning. I left one on a slab (the one with the broken motor) and put one in the hangar.



















I then took a closer look at the brooms themselves. They hook up to the carrier through a quick attach mechanism, with two upper hooks engaging the upper pins on the carrier, and two lower pins which go into the lower hooks on the carrier. The upper pins then have collars put on them (as seen outlined in rust) so they can't drop out, and the lowers have bars across the top so they can't lift out. It's a pretty secure mechanism.










The carrier does not generally lift the broom to adjust the pattern. In fact, it does not generally carry the weight of the broom. Instead, the two bogies seen in the above pictures carry the weight of the broom.

Each bogie has two tires with a pivoting axle, so that they share the load equally.










To allow the weight to be carried by the bogies, and thus the broom to track the ground independent of the carrier, a 4-bar linkage is provided between the quick attach plate and the side to side pivot mechanism. The carrier keeps the plate with the pins vertical, and the pivot mechanism is then also kept vertical, but it is allowed to move vertically with respect to the carrier due to the action of the 4-bar linkage. The linkage consists of 4 dog bones with spherical bearings, and what is basically a panhard rod.



















It is of primary importance that the pivot axis of the broom be kept exactly vertical, so that when the broom angles, one side isn't driven into the ground while the other gets lifted. The truck chassis with its wheelbase and the way the quick attach is designed should accomplish this well.

The primary structure of the broom are the large tubes that run across the back of the broom head. The two bogies are attached to this tube. This is a nice design, in my opinion, because then the broom height with respect to the ground is defined by the two bogie attach points, which will always form a line. The weight is equal between the tires in a bogie because of the pivoting axle. Other brooms I have seen have 4 individual single wheel casters, but then if the road has a crown or dish, the weight is not shared equally among the wheels.

The upshot of the mechanism is that you have a tube that is at a constant height above the average surface, defined by a line connecting the tires of the two bogies.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

For good sweeping, the pattern should be 2-4", and never more than 6" for the 46" broom, according to the manufacturer of replacement bristle wafers. Any more than this, and you don't sweep as well while at the same time shortening your broom life by as much as 90%.

If the bogie wheels determine the height of the tube, how is the broom pattern controlled?

This is done by the broom head mechanism, (hydraulic motor, dana 60 drive, hood, carrier bearings, etc. being attached to a second set of tubes that rotate on the outside of the tube with the bogies. On each side of the pivot mechanism there are inner and outer sleeve bearings.

The inner bearing on the right side can be seen outside the tube, as evidenced by the zerk fitting. The outboard side is welded up to a structural box on the broom head.










The other side of the structural box connects to the outer bearing.










This serves to carry the loads around the bogie.










The rotation of the sleeve bearings is controlled by a hydraulic cylinder connected between the two tubes...the "tilt" cylinder.










If the cylinder extends, the outer tube rotates to lift the broom. If the cylinder retracts, the outer tube rotates to let the broom down. The most that the cylinder can retract (and hence the broom pattern is set by an adjustable stop in the cylinder. The bolt is connected to a piston that is moved in the small cylinder protruding from the main cylinder. The double ended cylinder rod extends down into the small cylinder, and will bottom on the piston at a position determined by the bolt.










When the broom was originally delivered, there was some sort of servo mechanism, whereby the operator could control the broom pattern through a switch in the cab which changed the setpoint on some switches which actuated the valves for the broom tilt cylinder. This was very problematic, and was abandoned after about a year. The adjustable stop bolt mechanism is also used on the broom the airport has on their forestry machine (Sweepster, a different manufacturer).


----------



## John_DeereGreen

Those brooms look like they're built to be bulldozers. Do you have any idea how much they weigh?


----------



## Aerospace Eng

I investigated the shut-off solenoid on Thing 47 some more. The solenoid is working fine.

For some reason, the Kysor-Cadillac shut-down system is detecting a fault and keeping voltage to the solenoid, even if the shutdown override button is pushed. I'm not yet sure if the shutdown button is faulty or if there is a faulty sensor. The faults that should shut down the engine are oil pressure, coolant level, and coolant temperature. I have a mechanical oil pressure gauge, so I know it's good. I visually checked the coolant (and added 4 gallons) so I know that's good. The temperature can't be too high when starting a cold engine. 

More investigation to be done.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

John_DeereGreen said:


> Those brooms look like they're built to be bulldozers. Do you have any idea how much they weigh?


7500 lb is what's on the nameplate. I assume that weight is with a new set of bristles, which is about 1200-1500 lb.

The hydraulic motor is about 270 lb.

At first glance, the bogie tires look like tires you would fine on the front of a lawn and garden tractor, but they are rated at (and inflated to) 110 psi.


----------



## kimber750

Some small trailer tires have a rating for 110psi. I have such an urge to drive out and tinker with these things. Completely intrigued by them.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Did I ever mention that sometimes I outthink myself?

One of the guys who works at the airport was looking at the brooms tonight. I showed him the chute pin slop/wear issue. 

After I explained my intention to Ream and bush the cylinders, he asked if I cared how far the chutes retracted when up. I told him “No.”

He then suggested I just loosen the rod end clevis and screw it out a turn or two to take up the slop when down. 

Why didn’t I think of that?

It will work until I have nothing better to do:


----------



## John_DeereGreen

Aerospace Eng said:


> 7500 lb is what's on the nameplate. I assume that weight is with a new set of bristles, which is about 1200-1500 lb.
> 
> The hydraulic motor is about 270 lb.
> 
> At first glance, the bogie tires look like tires you would fine on the front of a lawn and garden tractor, but they are rated at (and inflated to) 110 psi.


That's a lot heavier than I thought they'd be. I was guessing about half that. What do the carriers weigh?


----------



## Aerospace Eng

John_DeereGreen said:


> That's a lot heavier than I thought they'd be. I was guessing about half that. What do the carriers weigh?


32,000 lb, without brooms.


----------



## Mark Oomkes

That's a ton of engineering that went into those brooms to keep them parallel to the surface. Very impressive.


----------



## Defcon 5

Mark Oomkes said:


> That's a ton of engineering that went into those brooms to keep them parallel to the surface. Very impressive.


Do you think Birdseed was involved in the engineering??


----------



## Mark Oomkes

Defcon 5 said:


> Do you think Birdseed was involved in the engineering??


Had to have been...


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Defcon 5 said:


> Do you think Birdseed was involved in the engineering??


As long as it wasn't the welding....


----------



## Mr.Markus

Any sign of welded chain lift links...?


----------



## Mr.Markus

The rotating tube sweeper is a sweepster design. It allows the whole sweeper mechanism to roll forward to keep uniform pressure on the brushes as they wear. Giving you maximum life from your brushes without messing with the quick attachment angle height. (You probably already know this)


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Mr.Markus said:


> The rotating tube sweeper is a sweepster design. It allows the whole sweeper mechanism to roll forward to keep uniform pressure on the brushes as they wear. Giving you maximum life from your brushes without messing with the quick attachment angle height. (You probably already know this)


I didn't know who invented it, so thanks.

I know Sweepster has been around a long time.

If I get some time, I'll take pictures of the airport's Sweepster broom (a 16'x46" so same size) for comparison.


----------



## Mr.Markus

Yours has some lift or transport clevises on the back. Without seeing it in context to the bottom is it possible these are used for springs or adjustable linkages to the top to carry some load?


----------



## Aerospace Eng

The red circled items are the lifting hooks. They are welded to the box beams between the inner and outer bearings for the broom head.










The brooms balanced either slightly nose up or nose down, depending on the bristle wear, but were pretty flat regardless. I am not sure if a suspension (e.g. accumulator on the hydraulics) would help or hurt. Right now, the only suspension for the broom is the tires.

As the broom wears, the stop bolt for the tilt cylinder is adjusted to allow the broom to rotate down around the tube a bit more. It doesn't do it automatically.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

I've been traveling this week, so I scanned the electrical diagrams, reviewed them, and then played with them in paint to see if I could narrow down the possibilities for the shutdown solenoid always receiving power. The maintenance records for these machines are great, but the maintenance manual, not so much.

The wiring diagram for the system is below. There are two ways for the solenoid to get power...The bosch relay or the shutdown switch. The shutdown switch ohms good, so either the bosch relay is sticking or it is being commanded on.









There is also an electrical solenoid shown downstream of the shutdown switch and the bosch relay, but that can't be the problem as the shutdown system does not get power when the ignition is off. I'm not really sure why that solenoid is there, as it seems unnecessary to me. The shutdown switch contacts are good to 70A, and a typical Bosch type relay is good to 15. This is way more than needed to operate a shutdown solenoid.

Another relay can be seen in about the middle of the diagram. This functions as the hydrostatic drive system protection, and will also shut down the engine. It also acts through the Bosch relay.

I haven't found an exact manual for the Kysor system, but I have been able to glean that it will shut down 30 seconds after a hot water or low oil pressure scenario, but not allow a start if the coolant level is low.

Assuming that there is coolant and hydraulic fluid, the following describes the operation of the system. Before start, pin 5 of the Kysor has power, the alarm is sounding and lit, and pin 1 is open. The broom and blower have no hydrostatic pressure, so they pull the hydrostatic relay closed. This supplies power to the hydrostatic system alarm. However, since the blower and broom controls are in neutral (upper two switches) they do not ground out the output of Pin 3 of the Kysor. THe shutdown relay is energized because pin 86 does not have power, and therefore pin 30 is connected to pin 87A, which is connected to the shutdown solenoid. At the moment of start, pin 3 of the kysor goes high, providing power to pin 86 of the bosch relay, causing the power to be pulled from pin 87A and allowing the shutdown solenoid to move to allow fuel to be given to the engine.










Assuming that oil pressure is up and the coolant temperature is low enough within 30 seconds, then the system transitions to a run mode, where power is applied to pin 1, and not applied to pin 5 of the Kysor. Pin 3 of the kysor provides power to pin 86 of the bosch relay, which keeps power from being applied to the shutdown solenoid.










If either oil pressure is lost or the coolant temperature becomes excessive, then pin 1 goes low, pin 5 goes high, and the alarm sounds. 30 seconds later, power is pulled from pin 3 of the kysor, triggering a shutdown.


















If hydraulic level, or broom pressure, or blower pressure is lost, then the hydrostatic relay gets pulled in and the hydrostatic alarm sounds. If either the broom or blower pumps are not in neutral, then the output of pin 3 is grounded through the hydrostatic relay (I deduce that it must have a current limit on it to allow this to happen), and power is pulled from pin 86 of the Bosch relay stopping the engine.










Since there are multiple reasons for the shutdown solenoid to be getting power (and I do want a safety system to be functional), my next step is to pull the hydrostatic relay. If the shutdown solenoid then allows the engine to start and run, then the problem is in the hydrostatic safety switches and/or relay. If the shutdown system still does not allow the engine to run, I'll install some telltale lights on the outputs of the Kysor system to determine what is not behaving as it should.


----------



## the Suburbanite

The next guy that buys a pair of surplus airport sweepers off Craigslist is going to be thrilled to find this thread. Nice documentation.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Got the broom mounted to Thing 46 today...


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Sorry....

Accidentally hit post reply before I was done....

Got the chutes adjusted yesterday, and put 1 tube of grease in it today before mounting the broom.

One hydraulic quick connect for the deflector won't lock in, so I will replace it tomorrow.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

I tackled the "broom oscillator" for the Thing 46 broom (the one with the good broom motor but worn bristles) over the last few days when I had some spare time.










This has a vertical kingpin at the front of a triangular "A-Frame" (not-really a frame, but we'll call it that since it resembles one) to allow a left/right pivot. This can be seen on the left side of the photo. A large shaft is welded to that in front of the pivot, and carries a large set of tapered rollers that allow the broom to then rotate left side down/right side up or vice versa.










The side of this mechanism has two pipe flanges which are bolted to mating flanges on the tubes that go to the left and right, and around which the broom head pivots to lift, as described above. To access the bearings and adjust them, you remove the flanges and pull out the housing, then remove a cover plate, one bolt of which is just visible below the motor flange bolt at about the 1 O'clock position a the end of the outer bearing housing. Unfortunately, someone welded the flanges together rather than fixing loose bolts (for what reason I cannot fathom), so until I grind those welds off, I can't perform any inspection or adjustment. That's something that I will leave for another day. I just pumped about 15 squirts of grease into the bearing housing and am hoping for the best (the photo shows the first attempt to put a few squirts in which didn't go well...a bit more force on the zerk adapter and it was OK).

The amount of allowable pivot is controlled by stop bolts and slotted holes in two plates that can be seen in the first photo in this post. However, this adjustment is not mentioned anywhere in the manual, and it looks like the stop bolts and the through bolts may never have been loose. If so, this would explain why there were repeated caster replacements noted in the maintenance records.

First, I tried to clean the bearing area out a bit, getting rid of the moss that had grown in the semi-trapped area between the two plates that has the recess for the rear bearing seal. I'm not really happy with how clean I was able to get it, but I can't do much better at the moment, since as noted above someone welded the flanges together.










After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and borrowing a 3/4 drive impact, I got the bolts loose. However, the upper two bolts could not be removed due to interference with one of the head bearings that ride on the tube.










This did reveal that the bolts were meant to be left in place, as the broom side plate had slotted holes. I cleaned the holes as best I could, but they are still ugly.



















A small gap had opened up between the plates with the bolts removed, so I squirted some 3% Moly Grease into the gap, and then forced it in as best I could with a putty knife.










I then filled the bolt slots with the same grease, reinstalled the lower bolts, and tightened them up. I did not use a torque wrench, as the plates need to move. Instead, I tightened the bolts until I could not stick the putty knife in, and called it good.










I backed off the stop bolts as shown above. After I drive around brooming a bit, I should be able to see v-shaped patterns on the broom side plate if the broom is rotating around this bearing. If not, I'll loosen the bolts a bit.


----------



## Mr.Markus

I wish I was in that shop, it looks like fun. Does it look like its been apart before? Maybe when someone welded those flanges? I like to put the nut side on the sloted holes, to me they appear to be backwards and would make for easier access with the bolt accessible from the other side.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Mr.Markus said:


> I wish I was in that shop, it looks like fun. Does it look like its been apart before? Maybe when someone welded those flanges? I like to put the nut side on the sloted holes, to me they appear to be backwards and would make for easier access with the bolt accessible from the other side.



I do have fun, fortunately.​
I'm not sure whether it has been apart or not since 1995 or so. It clearly hasn't been apart since it was last painted.

Unfortunately, the maintenance records, good as they are, simply state "Welded broom head" at various times, and there are various cracks that have been welded, particularly where the torsional loads get transferred from the hinges to the box beams, as can be seen in the same picture that shows the welded flanges.

Every hinge fitting has cracked and been welded. That's one area I think I will strengthen. There was no reason to scallop those end of hinge fittings except for looks. I'll put a strap from the cylindrical portion up to the top of the broom frame, and then fill in the gap with a web.

While I agree that putting the bolts in from the truck side would make it easier to get out, it would also put the threads in the slots, which would lead to increased wear.

As a general rule, I don't ever like to see threads in a bearing area. If I use a bolt in bearing, I generally will buy bolts that are long so that I have an unthreaded area in bearing, and I will cut the threaded end if the length is too long so that I get the 1 1/2 threads coming through the nut without a lot extra.

The knives in my flail mower for my mini-ex are attached with bolts, but the only threaded area is outside the mounting, and the nut is secured with a roll pin. That's OK.

In my opinion, in this application there should have been press-fit bushings in the truck-side plate sticking through the broom-side plate, with the right length so that when a bolt and nut were compressed against the bushing you would get exactly the right clearance or compression between the plates.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

I discovered something interesting, that should have been obvious to me, but wasn't...... Here are two pictures. The first is the transfer case from the left side of the carrier. The second is the transfer case from the right side.


















What's this tell you about the drive system?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The carrier vehicle is normally a front wheel drive, since the air cylinder that locks in the secondary output shaft is on the rear side of the transfer case. I discovered that the carrier was front wheel drive when I went to back the vehicle out after hooking up the broom. The right front tire got onto a patch of ice, and I stopped while the wheel spun.

I surmise that it is a front wheel drive because the engine is in the back, and they just stuck in a standard Rockwell transfer case. The problem is that the rear wheels are basically centered between the engines, and the front wheels are close to the broom. The diesel tanks (250 gallons) are behind the rear axles. This means the rear wheels have most of the weight, and therefore traction, even with a bunch of weights welded onto the front.










Since the broom bogies carry its own weight, it's likely there would be steering problems without the weight.

I guess I'll be brooming in 4WD most, if not all, of the time.


----------



## Mr.Markus

Huh. Just like a front mower, except mine are rear wheel steer.
I can tell you that the natural forces of sweeping against your drive direction is hard on just about every linkage point, especially since you have to design it capable of changing that force with whatever angle the operator chooses.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

I took Thing 46 out for a test drive today. Works well. A few hydraulic leaks on cylinder seals.

The plates move, now that they are loosened, greased, and the stop bolts retracted.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Broom Video --

First brooming, sent to me by a mechanic who came out of his hangar to watch. Sorry for the rotation of the phone. I'll make a better one later.






It works well, and the air blower definitely gets rid of the fines.


----------



## John_DeereGreen

That's awesome!!


----------



## Mr.Markus

And its booking it...


----------



## Mark Oomkes

Mr.Markus said:


> And its booking it...


I thought it was brooming it...but you're from Kannada...so whatever I guess...


----------



## Aerospace Eng

It was about 17 MPH (27 KPH). I think after I get used to it, it will probably broom fine at 20-25 MPH (32-40 KPH).

It was interesting to me that on the video the sound of the broom and blower mask the sound of the engine, even through it is a 2-stroke at 1950 RPM. The engine noise is more noticeable in the cab, but you are just in front of it and the blower is behind it.


----------



## the Suburbanite

Impressive seeing that machine run. Surprised it didn't have more blinking lights in that it came from an airport. Nice work!


----------



## Aerospace Eng

There are a bunch of clearance lights, and 4 headlights that I didn't have on, but only one yellow beacon on the top. 

Airports are surprisingly dim, and don't have that many blinking lights on vehicles.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

One of the things I worked on this past week on Thing 46 was the spotlights mounted on the cab.










They were very stiff in the up/down direction, and immovable by twisting the handle.










After finding some parts listing on the manufacturer's website (Unity Manufacturing, on the north side of Chicago, still makes the lights in their "New" (1961) factory), I removed the interior handle, loosened the friction screws and removed the assembly.










The power contact is the small nub at the very end of the shaft extension. It mates with the switch contained in the handle.

I then removed the light (50W Halogen) and the cover over the bevel gears.



















It's neat how they get the power to the bulb through the shaft on which the gears ride, but with electric isolation from the shaft housing. The power comes through the brass shaft extension which contacts a similar shaft protruding from the bevel gear on the bottom.









I soaked the gears, the handle end of the shaft, and the rotating joint between the light housing and the bevel gear housing, with some Mil-7870 (a light oil used for exterior hinges and bushings on aircraft). It's not quite as good a penetrant as PB blaster, but it is a much better lubricant) over a day or so. It works really well on Bowden cables.










I then gradually working it back and forth over a slowly increasing range until I got the light freed up. Reassembly was the reverse of disassembly. It worked great, so I did the other one on the driver's side. I'll fix the spotlights on Thing 47 when I get it back in the barn.

I will clean it up, but I'm not sure I will buff it out, as I kind of like the patina.










I'm not really sure what they were used for, as airport runway and taxiway signs are internally lit. They weren't designed to be moved often, as you can't reach the passenger side one without getting out of the seat and walking across the cab.

Maybe lighting the leading edge of the broom on both sides? The headlights seem to be positioned more for driving visibility and alerting other vehicles.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

Adjusted the shimmy dampers on Thing 46 today.

On each of the bogies, there are two bolts sticking out from the side. They adjust the tension on two friction pads that are against the axle.










The bolts are hollow on the end. The recess serves as a guide for the part that pushes against the friction pad, and the rest of the bolt pushes on a set of stacked Belleville (conical) washers.




























Too tight and the broom won't track well and you will wear out the bogie tires. To loose and you get a shopping cart wobble.

You basically tighten the bolt until it compresses the bellevilles flat, then back off 1 1/2 turns, according to the manual.

Of course, the bolts were frozen in place, but I was able to take them out with an impact. After freeing up the threads, so that they turned easily by hand, I greased the guide hole in the bolt with some moly. I then re-installed the Bellevilles, and adjusted per specification. We'll see how they work the next time I go out brooming.


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## Mountaineer com

Aerospace Eng said:


> One of the things I worked on this past week on Thing 46 was the spotlights mounted on the cab.
> 
> View attachment 179382
> 
> 
> They were very stiff in the up/down direction, and immovable by twisting the handle.
> 
> View attachment 179383
> 
> 
> After finding some parts listing on the manufacturer's website (Unity Manufacturing, on the north side of Chicago, still makes the lights in their "New" (1961) factory), I removed the interior handle, loosened the friction screws and removed the assembly.
> 
> View attachment 179384
> 
> 
> The power contact is the small nub at the very end of the shaft extension. It mates with the switch contained in the handle.
> 
> I then removed the light (50W Halogen) and the cover over the bevel gears.
> 
> View attachment 179387
> 
> 
> View attachment 179386
> 
> 
> It's neat how they get the power to the bulb through the shaft on which the gears ride, but with electric isolation from the shaft housing. The power comes through the brass shaft extension which contacts a similar shaft protruding from the bevel gear on the bottom.
> 
> View attachment 179388
> 
> I soaked the gears, the handle end of the shaft, and the rotating joint between the light housing and the bevel gear housing, with some Mil-7870 (a light oil used for exterior hinges and bushings on aircraft). It's not quite as good a penetrant as PB blaster, but it is a much better lubricant) over a day or so. It works really well on Bowden cables.
> 
> View attachment 179389
> 
> 
> I then gradually working it back and forth over a slowly increasing range until I got the light freed up. Reassembly was the reverse of disassembly. It worked great, so I did the other one on the driver's side. I'll fix the spotlights on Thing 47 when I get it back in the barn.
> 
> I will clean it up, but I'm not sure I will buff it out, as I kind of like the patina.
> 
> View attachment 179385
> 
> 
> I'm not really sure what they were used for, as airport runway and taxiway signs are internally lit. They weren't designed to be moved often, as you can't reach the passenger side one without getting out of the seat and walking across the cab.
> 
> Maybe lighting the leading edge of the broom on both sides? The headlights seem to be positioned more for driving visibility and alerting other vehicles.


If you would happen to need parts for the spotlights let me know I have several parts and would give them to you to get them out of my way.


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## the Suburbanite

Mountaineer com said:


> If you would happen to need parts for the spotlights let me know I have several parts and would give them to you to get them out of my way.


Witness the beauty of the Internet


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## Aerospace Eng

Mountaineer com said:


> If you would happen to need parts for the spotlights let me know I have several parts and would give them to you to get them out of my way.


Sent a PM.


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## Aerospace Eng

It will be interesting to see how the broom does this storm, as it is likely to be wet heavy snow.

I won’t be operating it, as business took me to Pensacola.

One of the airport guys will use it. He has promised video.


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## Aerospace Eng

Here are a few videos sent to me by one of the airport guys that operated broom 46 during the snow a few days ago. The snow was very wet and heavy, so a challenge for brooms (As an aside, he mentioned that the rubber edged pusher on the articulated truck worked perfectly -- clean pavement in one pass).

He was playing with the down pressure so we can develop a playbook so we know how to use the broom for various types of snow.

This one shows the first pass in undisturbed snow. It leaves some behind





This shows the second pass. The blower and broom are pretty loud. The blower makes the howling sound, and the broom makes a sound like an air leak.





This shows a longer pass, but with less down pressure because the load on the broom went up with the snow from the adjacent lane being pushed up. The current conclusion here is that once the snow gets much above 3", whether freshly fallen or "windrowed" that the surface needs to be plowed first.






This one is from inside the cab on relatively fresh snow. It shows that the broom is getting to pavement, but leaving a stripe in the middle. I don't know if that would be eliminated with new bristles. The air blast works, and helps with the fines, but it is not moving much of the wet, heavy snow that was on the ground next to the path.






The last one shows the broom dolly shimmying at about 12 mph. I obviously did not get the shimmy damper adjusted correctly.


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## BUFF

Aerospace Eng said:


> Here are a few videos sent to me by one of the airport guys that operated broom 46 during the snow a few days ago. The snow was very wet and heavy, so a challenge for brooms (As an aside, he mentioned that the rubber edged pusher on the articulated truck worked perfectly -- clean pavement in one pass).
> 
> He was playing with the down pressure so we can develop a playbook so we know how to use the broom for various types of snow.
> 
> This one shows the first pass in undisturbed snow. It leaves some behind
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This shows the second pass. The blower and broom are pretty loud. The blower makes the howling sound, and the broom makes a sound like an air leak.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This shows a longer pass, but with less down pressure because the load on the broom went up with the snow from the adjacent lane being pushed up. The current conclusion here is that once the snow gets much above 3", whether freshly fallen or "windrowed" that the surface needs to be plowed first.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This one is from inside the cab on relatively fresh snow. It shows that the broom is getting to pavement, but leaving a stripe in the middle. I don't know if that would be eliminated with new bristles. The air blast works, and helps with the fines, but it is not moving much of the wet, heavy snow that was on the ground next to the path.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The last one shows the broom dolly shimmying at about 12 mph. I obviously did not get the shimmy damper adjusted correctly.


For the first rodeo and with wet snow I'd say it was a success.Thumbs Up


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## Aerospace Eng

BUFF said:


> For the first rodeo and with wet snow I'd say it was a success.Thumbs Up


I agree.

The ability to run in some snow also let me confirm suspected issues (I will implement an infinitely variable speed control system for the broom and blower rather than have them as on/off), and find out a few (broom motion switch placement is less than ideal, a few hydraulic weeps) that I wasn't aware of.


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## Aerospace Eng

As a comparison, I shot some photos of the broom that the airport owns (Sweepster HB3116 broom attached to a Barko 937).










As seen, the basic problem with this adaptation is that the mounting plate for the 4-bar linkage is not vertical by design, and the operator has to keep correcting it back to vertical by eye.










We tried to use a pendulum pointer, which worked until it iced up. If the mounting plate is not vertical, then one end of the broom is driven into the ground, and one end skies, which is not good for brooming. This isn't a knock on the broom, but on the adaptation. I think that we will manufacture some cylinder stops for both the lift and tilt cylinders.

It uses a rotating tube concept (apparently pioneered by Sweepster) but has small rings attached to a beam, with the tube attached to the head, rather than a tube with the rings attached to the head.










The rings are much smaller (about 20% as large) than the ones on the Wausau/Schmidt brooms. Note that this doesn't meet they aren't strong enough, and the airport has had no problems with the broom head.

Rather than 2 dual-wheel bogies, there are 4 single castering wheels attached to the beam to which the loops are attached. The wheels are held on with through axles, rather than a hub. While this is a much simpler design than the Wausau/Schmidt brooms, I don't like the fact that any pavement unevenness will cause the load to be carried by the casters unequally.



















Rather than the large rotating bearing of the Wausau Schmidt design, lateral motion is accommodated by a spherical bearing essentially at mounting tube height, and a large top link. This is a much simpler and more inspection/maintenance friendly design than the Wausau/Schmidt brooms. The theoretical drawback is that the broom height may change slightly as the broom pivots, since the top link distance will change as it swings. I don't think this is enough of a disadvantage to overcome the advantages.


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## John_DeereGreen

The Wayne Co airport here uses an ag tractor with broom mounted on the loader carrier for their runways. It's a big tractor, 250+ hp and they certainly don't let grass grow under the tires while brooming. Those broom blower combos look like they are the ticket for what they're meant to do. Especially compared to the way it's done here.


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## Aerospace Eng

The Things have about 350 hp available to the broom and blower combined (and about another 300 hp to push the chassis). Based on the pressure and flow rate, the broom sucks up about 150 hp for the type of snow we had last week, while traveling at 10-15 mph. The blower is at about 100 hp.

The Barko has 400 hydraulic horsepower available for the broom (it's designed to run an 8' Fecon head) and hydrostatic transmission machine drive combined. It doesn't use it, of course, just to run the broom. However, the steering is via joystick, it is limited to about a 10 mph top speed in high range, and it has no air blower. Also, because the Barko is not designed to have various hydraulic functions out at the arm ends, this adaptation has selector valves on the broom to make things work, which slows down the operation.

The feedback is that the Things are easier to operate and do a better job faster. The Barko only beats the Things in maneuverability. I'm not sure that there would be any difference if the Sweepster broom were mounted on the Schmidt carriers.

One other difference is that the Barko currently has 50% steel and 50% poly wafers. We haven't done a side-by side comparison yet with the Things on a snowfall.....next year.


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## John_DeereGreen

What are the requirements for smaller local public airports as far as keeping pavement clean? It seems like they're always running that broom tractor around here. I think the operator(s) chase snowflakes around and broom them off as they hit the ground.


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## Mr.Markus

Poly bristles are thicker I would think that for snow the combo would work well. They wear the same when combined with wire, and after a few uses you'll find they are tied together anyway.
Does the big broom need to be angled all the way to one side when sweeping or can it be operated at less than full angle? Sweeping sand and gravel I find better results with less than full. Slower wear to the outside brushes as well.


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## Aerospace Eng

If you aren't a commercial service airport, there are no specific requirements for when it has to be done. The airport might simply close until the storm is over if it is severe enough. This isn't as bad as it seems, as generally the small aircraft aren't flying in the middle of a snowstorm and the airport may not have the approaches to allow landings in very low visibility.

Where I am, the airport generally waits until the snow is done, and then plows, unless they know of an aircraft coming in. If a lot of snow is expected, they may plow the ramp and runway during the storm a few times, so they aren't trying to push a foot off the runway at one time. Many small airports still wait even in those storms, but then it takes a long time to reopen.

The airport will plow and broom the access road frequently during the day to minimize the ice on it due to cars traversing it and not using any salt, but generally it is just left to accumulate between 5 PM or so and 7AM, as very few people will be driving on it.


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## Aerospace Eng

Mr.Markus said:


> Poly bristles are thicker I would think that for snow the combo would work well. They wear the same when combined with wire, and after a few uses you'll find they are tied together anyway.
> Does the big broom need to be angled all the way to one side when sweeping or can it be operated at less than full angle? Sweeping sand and gravel I find better results with less than full. Slower wear to the outside brushes as well.


I'll shoot some more pictures of the Barko, as their poly bristles are worn about 1/2" in radius more than the steel.I think this may be due to the verticality issue above and the poly being less able to tolerate it, but that is just a guess. Unlike on some smaller brooms, there is no such thing as 50/50 wafers. To get 50/50 you alternate poly wafers with steel. Typically, you have a spacer between each wafer, but not always.....

An article on different wafers can be found here:
https://www.united-rotary.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/urbinsertfinal.pdf

It's somewhat propaganda but contains interesting information. I think I am going to stick with all metal, and the airport has a new set of wafers (50% poly, 50% steel) for the Barko so we will compare.

These brooms (Sweepster and the Schmidt/Wausau) are center drive. Thus they have a gap in the middle between the broom cores and are generally angled all the way (35 degrees). This gives about a 13' width.

Some other brooms are driven by dual motors on the ends. This eliminates the center gap, but the motors make the broom wider so you can't sweep as close to buildings.


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## Mr.Markus

My smaller brooms alternate the poly/steel wafers as well to combine the 2.


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## Aerospace Eng

If I recall correctly from your posts, you have at least two brooms mounted on Kubota F-Series, but one has guide wheels on it and one does not.

How do you set the height/downpressure when sweeping to get the right pattern on the one without the guide wheels? Does the brush just float on its own weight?

The reason I ask is that one thing I noticed when testing Thing 46 out on a mostly dry surface was that when I went from the ramp to the taxiway (from a downslope to an upslope), the broom hydraulic drive pressure spiked. It would go from about 2000 psi to about 5000 psi, and then to less than a thousand and then back to 2000.

This was the result of the wheels being 3.5 feet or so behind the broom contact line, and so the brush was being driven into the upslope on the concave part of the transition, and then lifted from the desired pattern as the slope went from concave to convex.

I found myself trying to tilt the broom head up as I went through the transition, and then back down afterwards. Do you worry about those transitions when you are brooming, or just drive on through?


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## Aerospace Eng

John_DeereGreen said:


> What are the requirements for smaller local public airports as far as keeping pavement clean? It seems like they're always running that broom tractor around here. I think the operator(s) chase snowflakes around and broom them off as they hit the ground.


Although this is a bit off of the thread topic, for those interested in reading here are the Transport Canada and FAA requirements for airports.

They are required only for air carrier service airports.

https://www.tc.gc.ca/media/documents/ca-opssvs/AC_302-013.pdf

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/150-5200-30D.pdf

The Transport Canada document has some interesting information on sand sizing.

The FAA document has information on sizing of equipment. For low volume, non-commercial service airports, Table 1-2 Footnote 1 indicates that the airport should be expected to clear 1" of snow in 6 hours from Priority 1 areas (runway, taxiway, and some limited ramp space). For commercial service airports that time becomes 30 minutes.

The FAA gives guidance on equipment selection...

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/150_5220_20a.pdf

The document contains information on selection of equipment and sizing of hoppers/liquid tanks/plows/snowblowers/etc.

For commercial service airports, the FAA is serious.... it fined Cleveland Hopkins $200K for not staffing adequately to meet the required service times.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/05/cleveland_to_pay_record_fine_f.html

The FAA then gave Cleveland Hopkins $8 Million to buy new equipment in 2016 and 2017.

Small airports aren't so fortunate, and many make do with not much more than a pickup with a plow, and maybe a loader. The average age of equipment for local airports is 18.8 years (see page 23). The average clearance time for the runway and taxiways is about 4 hours. Getting hangars accessible after a snow event can take days.

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/22105/a...tices-for-small-airports-with-limited-budgets

One of the reasons I jumped on the brooms, and encouraged the airport to buy the '48 Sicard, is that I feel that my hangar business can be helped by having better snow removal at the airport than at other local airports.


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## John_DeereGreen

You aren't kidding they're serious about it...

Although in the case of Hopkins the winters they had issues were huge winters. Double plus normal average snowfall.


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## Mr.Markus

On the f series sweepers there are 2 oscillation points. It tilts back to front supported by springs (which allow some variance) and side to side from one main support in the middle. Driving the sweeper onto a slope would cause it to roll back on its own weight, which in your case is alot more significant. Transitions at the top of a slope where it levels back out are more difficult many times requiring being swept from the other direction, there just isnt enough float on the f series ti drop thw arms this low.The one with guide wheels is a later design and reduces wear when doing even surfaces like sidewalks and pavement but is pretty useless doing uneven lawns. They are easily adjustable and I could probably take them off for the majority of my work as most of the sidewalks have to be swept across a grass blvd onto the roadway.


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## Aerospace Eng

Pictures of the airport's broom bristles.








The poly is worn down below the steel.










My guess is that there is too much down pressure due to the problems in keeping the pivot vertical, and the poly being less able to resist. That is just speculation, however.

The bristles also look less dense than the ones on the Schmidt/Wausau brooms.

The steel wafers are offered in 8#, 10#, and 13# versions. I'll be using the 13# wafers when I re-bristle.


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## Aerospace Eng

I started organizing the wiring a while back...
I'll only show Thing 46 unless stuff gets interesting to avoid repetition.

I started with the wiring for the windshield wipers, since as mentioned a few pages pack, there were some broken and chafed wires.

The wiring isn't bad, but it is difficult to follow what goes where.


















I disconnected the wires from the back of the wiper switch, untangled them from the rest of the wires under the dash, and brought them out of the dash. I put a small zip tie around them, and began to lace them up as I used the zip tie to comb them. Basically move the zip tie about 2", make another knot and repeat.




























As I got further, I added in the power wire coming from the circuit breaker. and the ground wire, until I got to the switch. I then put the whole bundle back under the dash, and repeated the procedure for the other switch. I repaired the green wire by replacing the connector (it was long enough that I got rid of the chafed spot)










I then tied the bundles together near the switches so they would be away from structure and mutually self supporting.

I also replaced the toggle switch that was being used for the shutdown on the broom engine with a pushbutton.










Lastly, I really like the Snap-On light I got for Christmas, and it has proven to be useful. It has strong magnets along one side and at the bottom, and can be used either in flashlight mode or with the LED panel. It has proven useful in wheel wells, etc. It is not as useful in airplanes, since the magnets don't stick to aluminum, but it is still bright and compact.


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## BUFF

What are you using to tie the wires together?


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## Mark Oomkes

BUFF said:


> What are you using to tie the wires together?


Wire ties...duh.


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## Aerospace Eng

Lacing tape or lacing cord is what they call it. That's what the spool next to my knee is. If I recall, it's Koroseal, but there are many brands, and you can get it in nylon, nomex, dacron, etc. Just like shoelaces, waxed hold knots better. 

I try and avoid zip ties except when holding together groups of bundles. Without the plastic heads it's easier to fit bundles through small holes and have bundles of bundles. The tape won't chafe the insulation as zip ties can.


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## Aerospace Eng

Short description of the various techniques. I like individual knots, rather than a continuous thread.

http://www.flight-mechanic.com/lacing-tying-and-cutting-wire-bundles/

It's much faster to do it continuously, but I don't think it is as neat a job as combing the wires as you lace them. Also, if it gets cut in one location, everything can come undone.​


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## the Suburbanite

Never seen lacing tape, thanks for the information. Looks like it's pretty light weight, is it something used in aeronautics? Enjoying the thread. I want to get one now.

Edit: just saw the link above


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## BUFF

Mark Oomkes said:


> Wire ties...duh.


Seems mister smarty manpris was wrong.......


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## BUFF

Aerospace Eng said:


> Lacing tape or lacing cord is what they call it. That's what the spool next to my knee is. If I recall, it's Koroseal, but there are many brands, and you can get it in nylon, nomex, dacron, etc. Just like shoelaces, waxed hold knots better.
> 
> I try and avoid zip ties except when holding together groups of bundles. Without the plastic heads it's easier to fit bundles through small holes and have bundles of bundles. The tape won't chafe the insulation as zip ties can.





Aerospace Eng said:


> Short description of the various techniques. I like individual knots, rather than a continuous thread.
> 
> http://www.flight-mechanic.com/lacing-tying-and-cutting-wire-bundles/
> 
> It's much faster to do it continuously, but I don't think it is as neat a job as combing the wires as you lace them. Also, if it gets cut in one location, everything can come undone.​


Thx for the info, I'm going to have to get some if it and give it a try.


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## Aerospace Eng

the Suburbanite said:


> Never seen lacing tape, thanks for the information. Looks like it's pretty light weight, is it something used in aeronautics?


Yes. It's not so much about the weight, although over a large aircraft it might add up, but the ease of getting it through holes in frames, etc., being able to have sub-bundles to make troubleshooting easier, and having the wires be mutually supporting. Zip ties are becoming more common for field work, but I still see a lot of lace tying in factory harnesses.



BUFF said:


> Thx for the info, I'm going to have to get some if it and give it a try.


The zip tie used for combing should be tight enough to comb the wires so that the wires don't squirm around in the bundle, but loose enough to slide. It is work, but not too bad. I can usually get 20 feet done while watching an hour long TV show, if I'm building a new harness for something.

I find that a pair of sharp flush cut dikes, such as Klein D275-5 (that I use for nothing but cutting zip tie ends flush and lacing) makes the job go much faster.

If you can, don't put the connectors on the ends until the wire bundle is in place, since as it is routed around, the wires will shift within the bundle by a little but (the outside of the bundle gets longer around a curve). By not putting the connectors on the end until after, then everything can be cut to the proper final length and have a neat and tidy termination.


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## Aerospace Eng

Figured out a few things over the last two days with respect to the engine shut down on Thing 47, which, upon investigation applies to Thing 46 as well.

I opened up the panel and found the broom safety relay (see post 79).










When I pulled it, the broom still started.










I then reconnected the shut down solenoid, and the shutdown switch functioned. However, it was also obvious that the wiring diagram that I spent a bunch of time figuring out is wrong.










Pins 3,4, and 5 ( 3 terminals on the lower right) were not connected to anything. Per the diagram, Pin 3 should have been connected to the hydrostatic drive neutral switches. Without Pin 3 connected, the connection to Pin 1 (second from bottom on left) does nothing.

Pin 2, the one that controls the ground side of the relay coil, was grounded. When I checked the relay on thing 46, it was not grounded. Unfortunately the wire just disappeared into the loom.

I figured I would start with the neutral switches. The one on the broom pump was not sensing the neutral position. Instead it was hanging down and inoperable such that the two leads were connected. I disconnected them, figuring that might fix the problem.



















Nope. Now, the engine wouldn't even turn over. Further investigation (crawling around under the cab with an ohmmeter) revealed that the neutral switches were hooked up in series with the lead to the starter relay, which actually makes more sense than the way that the wiring diagram had it working through the engine shutdown solenoid. I reconnected the wires to the switch, and the engine started and would run without the hydrostatic safety relay plugged in, but would only crank if it were in.

Since I had (and have) no idea where all the safety connections are, I went to the hydraulic tank, since one possible cause of shutdown is the hydraulic oil level. Since all three leads are in parallel, you can't tell which one is causing the problem without disconnecting, so out came the wire cutters. With the hydraulic oil level switch disconnected, the system worked fine with the hydrostatic relay installed.

I now know that I need a new hydraulic oil level switch as well as a new neutral safety switch for the broom hydrostatic pump.

I then wondered how the hydrostatic safety relay was shutting down the engine. I believe (but have not yet confirmed) that the shutdown is now simply connected to pin 6, as shown below. This is simpler than before, so it makes sense. If I can confirm it, I might move the shutdown to pin 3, to reduce the current through pin 6 which is also running the alarm.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

While I was troubleshooting the shutdown system, I also was able to determine that the warning lights for which I am missing a lens were a Cole-Hersee 4112 (now owned by littelfuse).










Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, they do not sell replacement lenses. I would have to buy the whole switch/buzzer. I think that I will eliminate the secondary buzzers for the hydrostatic warning system, as whenever one (such as the hydraulic oil level) is triggered, it also triggers the master broom engine alarm and buzzer. If I replace them with warning LEDs in both trucks, then that will give me enough lenses to use on the alarms I am leaving.

I also noticed that the wire for the check engine light on the truck engine had been cut. I reconnected it, fearing it would illuminate, but the check engine light stayed off (yes, I checked the bulb resistance).


----------



## Aerospace Eng

One of the marker lights on the cab of Thing 47 wasn't working, and the beacon wasn't either, so I got up on the roof (after crawling up there the first time I got smart and used my boom lift).










It was obvious why the cab marker light wasn't working.










Despite the fact that they are chrome plated plastic, they are considered "vintage" and people want $20 each for used ones. However, a search of various more modern options didn't reveal any that had the same hole pattern. I did find three NOS ones for $16 each on the 3rd page of a google search, so I bought them.

The beacon was also inoperative. The bulb was blown.










Whelen no longer makes the bulb, but there were some aftermarket ones available for about $40. I put the bulb in, flipped the switch, and nothing. I took the beacon off, disconnected it, and measured the voltage on the power lead, and it was battery voltage. I figured "Well, at least I have a spare bulb for the beacon on Thing 46," but with nothing to lose I then tried it using a power supply. It worked fine. I must have a high resistance connection somewhere between the power switch and the beacon. I'm not looking forward to removing the headliner, but that's probably what it will take.


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## BUFF

When looking at the back of the switch panels and the wiring it reminds me of what I've seen in older machine tools from the 60's -80's.


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## Aerospace Eng

Yep. No digital data lines. Just switches, relays, and lights.


----------



## Aerospace Eng

As noted above, when brooming the snow, the bogies on Thing 46 started to shimmy when adjusted per the book. The shimmy could be reduced by tightening to about 250 ft-lb.

Also, when I was working on the broom for Thing 47, loosening the 4 bolts to allow the broom head to rotate left and right about the longitudinal axis, I decided that the washers between the left bogie and the broom head visible in the image below had been put there in an attempt to keep the broom wear even, since the broom head couldn't rotate with the bolts tight.










I decided that as long as I had to remove the left bogie to remove the washers, I would take a look inside.



















After pressing out the bogie kingpin, the likely cause of the shimmy was apparent. The tivar cylinder that acts as a brake shoe was completely collapsed. When manufactured (the drawings for the cylinder were on a fax page in the parts book) there should be a 1/4" gap, that gets closed as they wear and the outer cylinder gets pushed against them by the bolts and Belleville washers.










Also, the parts that hold the axle assembly are just angle iron with a hole in it. The "pins" are just steel cylinders welded on with a grease hole. The steel-on-steel wear has resulted in significantly worn pins and angles.


















While I could remake the angles fairly cheaply, the pins aren't so simple. Instead, I believe I will find a machine shop to turn down the pins to 1.875" or 1.75" and bore the angles to accept a press fit bushing, made out of something like manganese bronze. I thought about just using a pillow block on turned down pins, but plain bearings will do better than rolling element bearings in this application (almost stationary, slight oscillations, radial load only).

I removed the wheels, the axle retaining bolts, and one hub, so I can press out the axle and reduce the size of the lathe needed. Of course, the axle is stuck, so I left it with a bunch of penetrant under lad in the press.










I am also trying to get one adjustment bolt apart. The pin is stuck in the bolt with the washers collapsed.


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## Aerospace Eng

I also looked at the right bogie. The wear in the angles and pins was worse. No amount of dampening will stop shimmy with this much wear. 









This one did not come apart as easily. I had to put it in the press (but it was a bit to big, so I had to mill the sides of the plate by about 0.050" per side so it would fit. When I pressed it out, the lower bearing separated, and left the race stuck on the bogie kingpin. Obviously, it is going to take some work to get it off.



















As with the left bogie, the right shimmy dampener was worn out.










However, since the race was gone, I could remove the brake material.










The construction of the outer cylinder, with the two holes to accept the front of the pins that are pushed on by the bellevilles can be seen down in the hole. They appear to be packed with the Tivar worn from the brake cylinder.


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## Aerospace Eng

Since the broom on Thing 46 is operable, I think what I will do is to rebuild these two bogies from Thing 47, then swap them into Thing 46, and then rebuild those bogies. I am certain that the damper material will be worn out as well and the angles and pins elongated/worn.


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## John_DeereGreen

I like the names...Thing 46 and Thing 47...


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## BUFF

Aerospace Eng said:


> As noted above, when brooming the snow, the bogies on Thing 46 started to shimmy when adjusted per the book. The shimmy could be reduced by tightening to about 250 ft-lb.
> 
> Also, when I was working on the broom for Thing 47, loosening the 4 bolts to allow the broom head to rotate left and right about the longitudinal axis, I decided that the washers between the left bogie and the broom head visible in the image below had been put there in an attempt to keep the broom wear even, since the broom head couldn't rotate with the bolts tight.
> 
> View attachment 179994
> 
> 
> I decided that as long as I had to remove the left bogie to remove the washers, I would take a look inside.
> 
> View attachment 179996
> 
> 
> View attachment 179995
> 
> 
> After pressing out the bogie kingpin, the likely cause of the shimmy was apparent. The tivar cylinder that acts as a brake shoe was completely collapsed. When manufactured (the drawings for the cylinder were on a fax page in the parts book) there should be a 1/4" gap, that gets closed as they wear and the outer cylinder gets pushed against them by the bolts and Belleville washers.
> 
> View attachment 179997
> 
> 
> Also, the parts that hold the axle assembly are just angle iron with a hole in it. The "pins" are just steel cylinders welded on with a grease hole. The steel-on-steel wear has resulted in significantly worn pins and angles.
> View attachment 179999
> 
> 
> View attachment 179998
> 
> 
> While I could remake the angles fairly cheaply, the pins aren't so simple. Instead, I believe I will find a machine shop to turn down the pins to 1.875" or 1.75" and bore the angles to accept a press fit bushing, made out of something like manganese bronze. I thought about just using a pillow block on turned down pins, but plain bearings will do better than rolling element bearings in this application (almost stationary, slight oscillations, radial load only).
> 
> I removed the wheels, the axle retaining bolts, and one hub, so I can press out the axle and reduce the size of the lathe needed. Of course, the axle is stuck, so I left it with a bunch of penetrant under lad in the press.
> 
> View attachment 180000
> 
> 
> I am also trying to get one adjustment bolt apart. The pin is stuck in the bolt with the washers collapsed.
> 
> View attachment 180001


For your Bushing material check out these 3 links:

https://www.ampcometal.com/products/aluminum-bronze/ampco-18-extruded/

https://www.ampcometal.com/products/aluminum-bronze/ampco-21-extruded/

https://www.ampcometal.com/products/manganese-bronze/ampco-863/

We all three in molds (depending on the requirements )for wear plates, ball screw nut and various other areas where we have "actions" moving.

We also use Bellville washer to add preload or for areas where minimal movement doesn't warrant a more expensive method such as a cam action, mechanically floating a plate, hyd or servo driven action.
Bellville's do wear out (flatten) when over loaded.

If you have a had time finding someone to do the machine work and you're not in a huge hurry let me know and I can help you out.


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## Aerospace Eng

Thanks.

Any idea why they would use Tivar instead of Delrin for the brake pads? The Tivar appears to have done well, just curious.


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## BUFF

Aerospace Eng said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Any idea why they would use Tivar instead of Delrin for the brake pads? The Tivar appears to have done well, just curious.


Tivar does better with friction applications as in gripping where Delrin is geared more towards sliders and bushings due to its chemical make up.


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## Aerospace Eng

I had the two main bogie parts blasted and painted. I have to machine new lower angles, after which they will be painted and bushings installed.

In the meantime, I needle scaled, then used an abrasive disk on a die grinder and a wire wheel on a drill to clean off the bogie mounts, at least where I won't be able to get to them once the bogies are back in place.









This is the view from the bottom. There are a few corrosion pits where the bogie sat, so when I put the bogie back on, I will brush on some fresh paint and then bolt it together.









Waiting for the primer to dry.


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## Aerospace Eng

n Saturday, I had a welder come over and weld doublers over the corroded areas of the cab, after needle scaling to get rid of the corrosion.










I'm also going to have him put a plate on the bottom of the door, with a grab handle.

He also replaced the trailer jacks for the broom hoods. There were a few different types, with some really ugly welds, and none worked.




























I replaced them with 5000 lb static, 3000 lb dynamic 2" trailer jacks. I used a shop hoist to hold the head in position, until the jacks fit nicely into the bottom bracket and top attachment fitting.










It sometimes took a bit of bending, cutting, re-welding to make the attachments work top and and bottom,as some had been deformed over the years. For example, in the one below, the bottom attachment had to be spaced out by about 1/4 inch, and the upper attachment ears would not fit around the jack because they had been crushed around a smaller tube, so they were cut and the remaining piece welded to the jack body.



















Now, any of the 4 jacks can be used in any of the 4 positions which will help overall system reliability.

I'll take the jacks back off, and paint the assemblies green.


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## Aerospace Eng

Well, I was off by at 50%, and probably 100%. Here's an equipment list from the CLE Snow and Ice Control Plan (dated 2009), showing 15 brooms, 13 of which also have plows.

Snow Equipment List
CLE operates and maintains the following equipment for the purpose of snow and ice control:
Qty Description 
13 24' plow / 22' broom multi-purpose high speed Oshkosh / MB-Companies snow removal vehicles 
15 22' and 24' plows on Oshkosh, Volvo, and International 6X6 trucks with 15 yard dump bodies. 
2 20' self-propelled front mounted runway brooms. 
10 Runway Snow Blowers: 2 Oshkosh, 6 Schmidt Wausau, and 2 MB Companies Blowers with 5'-75' at a rate of 3000 to 7000 tons per hour. 
6 Material spreader trucks: 3 Ford tandems and 3 International tandems spreader trucks. 
8 Wheel loaders with 3-5 yard buckets with various size pusher boxes. 
1 Caterpillar grader with 14 foot blade 
3 Runway deicer trucks with 4000 gallon capacity and 50' spray bar coverage with throttle and vehicle speed coverage. 
3 Bombardier parking lot plows 
4 Parking lot single axle plow trucks, 3 with material spreaders 
1 John Deere 310 backhoe with 12' pusher box 
2 Trecan snow melters with 160 tons per hour capacity
4 Trecan snow melters with 80 tons per hour capacity 
1 Light and sign plow mounted on Ford Bi-directional tractor.

However, this adds up to only about 75 pieces, so there are 30 more by now. In 2016, they added 6 plow/broom vehicles (and a bunch of other stuff). In 2017 they added 2 more plow broom vehicles and 4 trucks like mine (and another 4 with snowblowers and a bunch of other stuff). $18 million spent on snow removal equipment in 2016 and 2017.

Assuming they got rid of everything they had before, they would still have 12 brooms. If they kept everything, they would have 27.

Here's a recent article depicting some of the snow equipment and their 97,000 sq foot garage.

https://www.cleveland.com/expo/news/erry-2018/11/0891e9e2165877/cleveland-hopkins-internationa.html


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## John_DeereGreen

That’s pretty cool, they’re using an agriculture sprayer to plow over runway lights and put deicer down. Lot of iron waiting for the snow to fall. 

I wonder how long it takes them to handle a 2-3” snowfall from start to finish.


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## FredG

John_DeereGreen said:


> That's pretty cool, they're using an agriculture sprayer to plow over runway lights and put deicer down. Lot of iron waiting for the snow to fall.
> 
> I wonder how long it takes them to handle a 2-3" snowfall from start to finish.


 This is a old video but looks like they move right a long. The music is good. :laugh:


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## BUFF

Aerospace Eng said:


> Well, I was off by at 50%, and probably 100%. Here's an equipment list from the CLE Snow and Ice Control Plan (dated 2009), showing 15 brooms, 13 of which also have plows.
> 
> Snow Equipment List
> CLE operates and maintains the following equipment for the purpose of snow and ice control:
> Qty Description
> 13 24' plow / 22' broom multi-purpose high speed Oshkosh / MB-Companies snow removal vehicles
> 15 22' and 24' plows on Oshkosh, Volvo, and International 6X6 trucks with 15 yard dump bodies.
> 2 20' self-propelled front mounted runway brooms.
> 10 Runway Snow Blowers: 2 Oshkosh, 6 Schmidt Wausau, and 2 MB Companies Blowers with 5'-75' at a rate of 3000 to 7000 tons per hour.
> 6 Material spreader trucks: 3 Ford tandems and 3 International tandems spreader trucks.
> 8 Wheel loaders with 3-5 yard buckets with various size pusher boxes.
> 1 Caterpillar grader with 14 foot blade
> 3 Runway deicer trucks with 4000 gallon capacity and 50' spray bar coverage with throttle and vehicle speed coverage.
> 3 Bombardier parking lot plows
> 4 Parking lot single axle plow trucks, 3 with material spreaders
> 1 John Deere 310 backhoe with 12' pusher box
> 2 Trecan snow melters with 160 tons per hour capacity
> 4 Trecan snow melters with 80 tons per hour capacity
> 1 Light and sign plow mounted on Ford Bi-directional tractor.
> 
> However, this adds up to only about 75 pieces, so there are 30 more by now. In 2016, they added 6 plow/broom vehicles (and a bunch of other stuff). In 2017 they added 2 more plow broom vehicles and 4 trucks like mine (and another 4 with snowblowers and a bunch of other stuff). $18 million spent on snow removal equipment in 2016 and 2017.
> 
> Assuming they got rid of everything they had before, they would still have 12 brooms. If they kept everything, they would have 27.
> 
> Here's a recent article depicting some of the snow equipment and their 97,000 sq foot garage.
> 
> https://www.cleveland.com/expo/news/erry-2018/11/0891e9e2165877/cleveland-hopkins-internationa.html


That's a lot of skin in the game....


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## FredG

John_DeereGreen said:


> That's pretty cool, they're using an agriculture sprayer to plow over runway lights and put deicer down. Lot of iron waiting for the snow to fall.
> 
> I wonder how long it takes them to handle a 2-3" snowfall from start to finish.


 OOpps


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## Aerospace Eng

John_DeereGreen said:


> That's pretty cool, they're using an agriculture sprayer to plow over runway lights and put deicer down. Lot of iron waiting for the snow to fall.
> 
> I wonder how long it takes them to handle a 2-3" snowfall from start to finish.


The clearance time for busy commercial airports is 30 minutes for priority 1 areas in a 1" snowfall weighing 25 #/ft^3. This includes the active runways, taxiway to the ramp area, and access to/from ARFF.

Priority 2 and 3 areas are allowed to take longer.

Basically plow with the storm on priority one areas, work on priority 2 when not actively plowing priority 1 (airplanes are landing and taking off), and then priority 3 when priority 2 is clear.

If they are lucky during a storm the winds won't shift and they just keep a single runway open.

See sections 1.6 - 1.8 in the following document for bedtime reading.

https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/150-5200-30D.pdf

For small airports, priority 1 areas are supposed to be cleared in 2-6 hours, but many small airports don't have the equipment to do this.

A nearby airport to Zelienople, for example, has a single 550 with a plow for the runway/taxiway, a loader with box for aprons, and an F-350 with plow for between hangars. A little bit further away, Grove City airport has a single pickup with plow, the last I knew.

Zelienople has:

Airport Owned:
Barko 937 Forestry machine with 16' sweepster rotary broom
Late 1990s? F-250 with a 7'6" Meyer straight blade
1948 Sicard Snowblower (rebuilt/re-engined in 1984) (blower mouth is 8' wide, 5' tall)

FBO owned:
Ex PennDOT 6 wheel with a right casting plow that is manually swingable and a UTG spreader for sand, 
Ex PennDOT 6 wheel with a non-reversible highway plow and wing plow.
2016 F-250 with a snoway 29R

Owned by me:
1991 Moxy with 16' super duty push box
1993 Schmidt 16' Rotary Brooms (2)
1996 Ingersoll Rand VR90B with a 12' skid steer push box 
2008 Belos Trans Giant with 7' broom and 54" blower.


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## John_DeereGreen

Aerospace Eng said:


> The clearance time for busy commercial airports is 30 minutes for priority 1 areas in a 1" snowfall weighing 25 #/ft^3. This includes the active runways, taxiway to the ramp area, and access to/from ARFF.
> 
> Priority 2 and 3 areas are allowed to take longer.
> 
> Basically plow with the storm on priority one areas, work on priority 2 when not actively plowing priority 1 (airplanes are landing and taking off), and then priority 3 when priority 2 is clear.
> 
> If they are lucky during a storm the winds won't shift and they just keep a single runway open.
> 
> See sections 1.6 - 1.8 in the following document for bedtime reading.
> 
> https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/150-5200-30D.pdf
> 
> For small airports, priority 1 areas are supposed to be cleared in 2-6 hours, but many small airports don't have the equipment to do this.
> 
> A nearby airport to Zelienople, for example, has a single 550 with a plow for the runway/taxiway, a loader with box for aprons, and an F-350 with plow for between hangars. A little bit further away, Grove City airport has a single pickup with plow, the last I knew.
> 
> Zelienople has:
> 
> Airport Owned:
> Barko 937 Forestry machine with 16' sweepster rotary broom
> Late 1990s? F-250 with a 7'6" Meyer straight blade
> 1948 Sicard Snowblower (rebuilt/re-engined in 1984) (blower mouth is 8' wide, 5' tall)
> 
> FBO owned:
> Ex PennDOT 6 wheel with a right casting plow that is manually swingable and a UTG spreader for sand,
> Ex PennDOT 6 wheel with a non-reversible highway plow and wing plow.
> 2016 F-250 with a snoway 29R
> 
> Owned by me:
> 1991 Moxy with 16' super duty push box
> 1993 Schmidt 16' Rotary Brooms (2)
> 1996 Ingersoll Rand VR90B with a 12' skid steer push box
> 2008 Belos Trans Giant with 7' broom and 54" blower.


Given the list of equipment they have at their disposal, shouldn't be hard to manage just about any amount of snow!


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## Aerospace Eng

The broom on Thing 46 is worn out. A few weeks ago, the airport tried to take it off, but didn't want to pull too hard because they weren't sure what was on the inside. The parts book said it was just a spline, but they weren't sure. I called Gene at the Niagara Falls Airport. He was super helpful.

He indicated that the brooms were simply splined on the inboard side. He said the best tool was a side shift forklift to take the load off the spline and then just ease it out, but I don't have one of those. So, a telehandler on one side, and an aircraft tug on the other and the cores came off the splines.










The next step should have been standing the cores up, and pulling them out of the bristles, then flipping them and stacking new wafers and spacers on them.

However, reality intervened. The left side splines are completely trashed. I'm not even sure how they were still turning the broom, but they were.



















The right side is worn, but not as bad.


















Tomorrow we are going to pull the cores off of Thing 47, that has the broken motor but a much less worn set of bristles. If those splines are reasonable, we will just swap differentials and cores between the broom heads and then go about repairing the differential axles and broom cores from Thing 46.

The differential itself appears to be a GM 10.5" 14 bolt.










If Wausau isn't helpful or is outrageous in pricing or lead time, does anyone know where I could get custom stub axles made?


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## BUFF

These 2 items I assume?









Talked to a buddy that builds stuff for Land rovers which includes heavier axles. He's been using Moser for custom shafts http://www.moserengineering.com/ 
Local to me in Mark Williams (he was a year younger than me in HS), they also do custom stuff too
https://www.markwilliams.com/measuring-for-axles.html

The receiving end of the shaft looks like a flange with a welded "socket" with spines, that would be a Wire EDM operation or Sinker EDM unless you wanted to broach them with a rotary table on a Bridgeport which sucks and blows BTW.


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## Aerospace Eng

Before I went to CA last week, I was working on restoring threads on the broom bogies. The nuts had come off with great difficulty and the threads were all messed up. They are 1 1/4-12. I thought about turning the stub down and using 1"-12 nuts, as they only provide preload for the bearings.

I decided to see what I could do, so I bought a 1 1/4-12 thread chasing die (basically a die with hex flats). It would not go on, because material had been rolled into the thread valleys. I needed something that would pick up the good threads and use them to locate the valleys.

I then bought an OTC thread chasing tool. It is good for 1"-5" threads. I didn't expect much, since it is just a single set of teeth held against the threads by an adjustable v-block of sorts. I used it like a pipe cutter, and was eventually able to get the valleys deep enough to get the thread chaser on.

The threads don't look great, but they are plenty strong and there are 3 full threads that the nut engages with.


I also used it to clean up some 1" threads on a rod-end for my telehandler. It did that as well.
​Small victories.....


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## Aerospace Eng

I took a day off of work today to help ensure there was an operable broom.

When I got there, the differential had been pulled from Thing 46. As a result I couldn't test my hypothesis that the wear may have had to do with improper phasing of the universal joints on the driveshaft.

It turns out that Wausau had done something clever. The lifting rings double as places the cylinders used to adjust the deflector can hook up to, making it easy to lift and secure the hood.


























The underside of the hood and the rear of the frame were in good shape, although there are cracks in the corner of the hood near the hinge. A battle for a later date.

I went and got thing 47, and just drove it with the bristles rolling on the ground since the bogies are out of it getting repaired as detailed above.

Fortunately, when we yanked the broom cores from Thing 47, the splines were in good shape.


















The differential is also a 14 bolt, but the cover has ribs on it whereas the one off of Thing 46 did not.

At any rate, we swapped the differential and cores from Thing 47 into Thing 46, taking the opportunity to liberally apply grease to the driveshaft and U-joints from the hydraulic motor as well as to the splines themselves. Also drained and refilled the differential.


















Getting the splines to line up and slide in was not trivial. As Gene from Niagara had said, it would have been easier with a sideshift forklift. We mad do with the telehandler, a regular forklift, and a guy looking at the splines (with a mirror on the second core) to direct the forklift operation. We eventually got it done.

Total man hours performing the switch...about 30.









The underside of Thing 47's broom head was not as clean.










There are also more cracks in the hinge area and on the hood than on Thing 46. The plan now is to run Thing 46 as it now sits (with the cores and differential from Thing 47, and then take more time and do a complete restoration on the broom head on Thing 47. I'm almost done with the bogies. Now I will rebuild the differential, replace the axles and splines on the cores, weld up and strategically reinforce the hood, the frame, and the hinge area, and rebristle and reinstall the cores.


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## Aerospace Eng

Link to a video showing test. No snow, unfortunately


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## Aerospace Eng

Started reassembling the bogies a few days ago. Lubed up the lower bearing (it will be difficult to access once assembled). I then Inserted the lower bearings and seal, and then painted that area. After it was dry, the upper mount assembly was installed on the shaft of the axle carrier.










The steel brake shoe and Tivar lining were then installed in the upper mount, between the shaft and the housing of the upper mount. When I removed them, the shoe did not have the partial saw cut opposite the slot, although the manufacturing drawings showed it there. I believe it is there to make it more easy to apply pressure. I was actually tempted to just cut it in half.









I then installed the "pistons" that are pushed on by the Belleville stack.

















The plan for tomorrow is to install the upper bearing and cover.


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## Aerospace Eng

The broom head project hasn't been front burnered since one of the brooms is working fine, although I did replace the pneumatic with an electric actuator. (more about that in another post).

I finally started taking apart the differential, originally it was going to be a simple rebuild, but in trying to adjust the actuator for the hydrostatic transmission on the other broom, full throw could not be used, and wasn't being used on the pneumatic setup, which may or may not have been OEM.

I decided to go to a 5.13 ratio, versus the 4.10 that was installed.

The spiders were welded since the brooms need a spool.










I just went ahead and bought a spool from Mark Williams Enterprises.

I like the 14 bolt a lot, compared to other differentials. Easy disassembly, no spreaders required.

Since my wife was out of town, I brought the parts home.

Spool in the freezer....










Ring gear in the oven










Assembly was easy...the frost on the outside shows where the gear heat has made its way up the spool.










Tomorrow I'll take the bolts back out, add loctite to the threads, and torque them back into place.


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## Mr.Markus

Shouldn't this be in the "food for thought " thread. ?


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## BUFF

Aerospace Eng said:


> The broom head project hasn't been front burnered since one of the brooms is working fine, although I did replace the pneumatic with an electric actuator. (more about that in another post).
> 
> I finally started taking apart the differential, originally it was going to be a simple rebuild, but in trying to adjust the actuator for the hydrostatic transmission on the other broom, full throw could not be used, and wasn't being used on the pneumatic setup, which may or may not have been OEM.
> 
> I decided to go to a 5.13 ratio, versus the 4.10 that was installed.
> 
> The spiders were welded since the brooms need a spool.
> 
> View attachment 207588
> 
> 
> I just went ahead and bought a spool from Mark Williams Enterprises.
> 
> I like the 14 bolt a lot, compared to other differentials. Easy disassembly, no spreaders required.
> 
> Since my wife was out of town, I brought the parts home.
> 
> Spool in the freezer....
> 
> View attachment 207589
> 
> 
> Ring gear in the oven
> 
> View attachment 207590
> 
> 
> Assembly was easy...the frost on the outside shows where the gear heat has made its way up the spool.
> 
> View attachment 207591
> 
> 
> Tomorrow I'll take the bolts back out, add loctite to the threads, and torque them back into place.


Mark Wiilliams makes some quality stuff.
Imo the best thing aboot a 14 bolt is the support the pinion gear has.
What kind of marinade did you use on the steak and what cut of steak is it.....


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## Aerospace Eng

Here are videos of one of the brooms on the runway and then taxiway.

The guy operating forgot to look at the windsock. Normally the wind is out of the west, but this time it was out of the east, so he was brooming angled into the wind.

It still worked, but didn't cast the snow as far as it should have.

The noise from the air blower and the broom itself drown out the noise from the detroit 2 strokes.

Runway






Taxiway






Yes, I need to take the audio off of automatic to avoid the wind noise.


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## Western1

Sweet


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## Aerospace Eng

I sold Thing 46 to the FBO at the airport today. Now I have funds to get the stub axles and matching broom core drives machined for Thing 47 to make that fully operational.


----------

