Peerless 777 use ?

I am working up a plan for a little track drive experiment and looking for any feedback please.

Each track will have it's own 6.5hp engine, max torque 8 ft lbs @ 2500 rpm, 3600 rpm max speed. I plan to gear down with two jackshafts to get speeds in the 1 - 2 mph range to push around a little snow / dirt.

The only issue with above is no reverse ... so I am seeing a bunch of Peerless 777 transmission on ebay at a good price ($75) so I was thinking of adding one of these on each side. The 700 series seems to be rated around 20 ft lbs and 2400 rpm max ( not exactly clear if this is exactly correct for the 777? ). So my thought was a centrifugal clutch on each engine, something like a 2 to 1 gear to the peerless to keep the max torque and speed ok, and then gear down the output of the peerless for a total gear ratio engine to track of about 100. This gives me the ability to have a reverse and a higher speed selection on the peerless for moving around the rig when I am not pushing anything.

What I don't know is if I am wasting my time with the peerless and will this just be the weak spot ? Any experience that could help would be appreciated ?  Thanks.

Welcome to ATLTF. I think the potential is there for the 700's to do what you need them to. I think they will hold up just fine, as long as you build carefully. Watch the chain (or belt) tension on the input shaft, and if at all possible, support the input in the installation. Racers do this by welding a collar to the underside of the mount plate.

I need to ask- are those engines horizontal shaft? If so, how do you intend to get the power from there, to the 700 which features a vertical shaft input? Maybe, you could mount the engine(s) longitudinally (crankshaft pointing lengthwise along the chassis, then, mout the transmission(s) up on end making for a horizontal input shaft...

Doc is quite right - proper preparation and a 700 can handle quite a bit. The part I noticed most with them (in failures) was reverse. Still, I've hammered them repeatedly over the years with very little preparation and higher than normal hp/torque/rpm ratings and they've held up.

So, it's likely for what you want to do that a standard 700 would do the job as well as a prepped one.

thanks for the comments, yes engines mounted so shafts longitudinal, I have a little diagram I'll try to load... ( although I'm not seeing the picture in the preview?)


concept by mtbikedroid, on Flickr