I just finished a 44 foot sternwheeler with a 4 cyl
perkins diesel used out of a combine, driving a variable displacement Eaton
piston pump powering twin Eaton 6ooo motors with a 2:1 chain reduction to
the wheel. The wheel is 8' 6" wide x 8' 8"diameter with16 buckets.
The buckets are 2pcs of 5.5" wide x 1" treated decking. After working
the bugs out I am running 12.5 mph with the engine idling.
The wheel it pretty much all wood with a 4"pipe shaft with 2 1/2 stub
shafts welded in the ends. The flanges and rings are 3/16" steel which
I had plasma cut. The arms and segments are 2" Wisconsin white oak which
were cut out at a local saw mill and air dried. Buckets are treated decking.
In retrospect..a wood wheel is nice and traditional...it is also heavy at
heck and you have to keep rotating it so it doesn't soak up and get even
heavier on one side... A metal wheel would probably be lighter in weight.
A plus with the traditional wheel design is that if you were to break
an arm, you can replace it by removing 3 bolts and a wedge while the boat
is in the water, rather than pulling the boat, getting a gas-axe, welder
etc.
The wheel is setting about 5" deeper in the water than I had planned due to
the way the boat trimmed out. So I have a little more wheel in the water than
I would like. I probably will raise the bearing mounts this winter
when the boat is pulled.
The design of the boat was based on the rafter CLYDE 1870-1940 and the wheel
design was a combination of trying to get the look of the old boat and
details from Alan Bates' book.
We have always been a river family. Granddad was a raft pilot on the original
CLYDE. Dad's uncles were Captains, Engineers and Clerks on her. My
dad built a 20' sternwheeler for me back in 1960. That got me started! The
current boat began life as a 37' Whitcraft houseboat (1970). I bought it
11 years ago. The hull was cut-down 12" and 7 feet of stern was added to
accomodate the wheel. The hull measures 44'X12'X3' and the boat is 55 x
14 overall. Draft is 26". I had to replate the hull and built the
decks (steel) and cabin (wood). I started with a 4 cylinder Toyota gas engine
driving a 37 gpm gear pump. In addition to driving the wheel, the pump also
supplies power to a 8" bow-thruster which I built out of a 20HP Mercury outboard
lower unit coupled to a small hydraulic motor. A soleniod valve
gives me forward and reverse for the bow thruster. Main rudders were operated
by a rack and pinion cable system left over from the original houseboat.
All controls are operated from the pilot house. We launched
the boat in Alma, Wisconsin on June 22 of this year and to everyone's amazement
(especially mine) it floated! After two weeks of operating, the motor
started to knock badly. Rather than rebuild it,I decided to go with
a diesel engine for the following reasons:
no fire hazard, limited electricals (the Toyota had tons of computer
operated sensors which I had no clue how to connect, cheaper operation, and
the diesel had an govenor built in which helps with the pump. I found a local
farm equipment dealer with a combine which he was parting out. A number of
friends who run diesels recommended the Perkins diesel as their first choice
and this one seemed to be in good shape. I made up a pump mount and coupling
for the Eaton pump, mounted a raw water pump to feed river water to a tube-type
heat exchanger and we dropped it in the boat while it was in the water. Everything
seems to be running ok. The rudders take a lot of power to move, especially
when backing, so we changed them to hydraulic and this seems to be working
ok.
E.C.Newcomb
The CLYDE.