Now that I have seriously down-sized, from bulldozer and skidder back down to just my Kubota tractor, I have to find creative ways to do more with less...or at least less horsepower. One of the ways I am thinking of doing that, is in converting my log trailer into a power trailer. This was never a problem before because my bulldozer would just drag the trailer through anything, even mud so deep the tires would not turn! The bulldozer did not care, but my Kubota does not have nearly the traction. What happens is, the trailer tires get trigged and the Kubota just spins out. So my thoughts were, if the tires were powered, they would not get trigged and stop forward progress. Now I have a "carrier" I use for my woodsplitter, and that uses a Prince PTO pump. If I coupled that through a flow control valve, then to a splitter and then to two hydraulic wheel motors, through the PTO I could power the trailer via my tractor. It seems like the cost would be around $1000. But the concept could be improved upon. If I mounted tracks around the two sets of tires, I would get extra flotation and traction. This would really help me float over mud and snow. It is not a skidder or bulldozer, BUT I am thinking by powering the tracks under the load, it should work much better than my Kubota towing it alone. I am thinking something like this (though my log trailer is bigger of course)
Take lotsa pics ! Most of the power trailers around here used a pto shaft going to a manual transmission then to a rear end . If you swapped out the road tires for a traction tire I can see a hydro setup like that working.
