hydro drive, cheaper set up??

[hinemoa]

as some already seen i am setting up drive units for my 16.5 metre alloy cat, been reading some threads on hydraulic drive....
1) is the initial setup cost cheaper as i only need one large engine
2) i could buy second hand pump and drives
3) would save me buying two marine gearboxes
4) fuel savings as only need one engine to run

my questions, how do i find out what kind of hydraulic motors i need and what size pump and size of main diesel drive engine

or am i still best to use 2 diesel engines with marine boxes??

any one fitted one to a weekend cruise boat as it wont do much work , maybe 5 hours running time every fortnite?

[FAST FRED]

Oversized engines , esp diesels suffer a shorter inefficient life.

Have you considered either a mid mounted engine in a pod , or simply installing one engine in the hull and powering the other hull with a hyd motor .

Hyd drive is at BEST 85% efficient , at worst UGH!!!

FF

[hinemoa]

that could be a thought, how would i go about doing this, as obviously i need the g/box behind the engine so where would the pump go? and i would have aprox 9m of hydraulic hose, would that effect any operation?

[FAST FRED]

i need the g/box behind the engine so where would the pump go?

Most engines have a published rating for how much HP can be taken off from the front by using a 2 or 3 belt pulley.

Nicest is to balance the load with a pump on one side and a big alternator on the other.

Hose run simply means one size bigger hoses.

The hoses will usually be warm to hot , a consideration on the install.

FF

[Guest62110524]

where you live there a lot of mussell harvesters powered by Hydraulic, contact hydraulic specialities branches Ham, Ak I did two, the noise from pumps is something else again
However I would not recommend because people are leary of that form propulsion and you will suffer when it comes to resale