RPM Safety Facts??

Do you think that the HP of an engine has any effect on how badly a flywheel could fly apart? One of the arguments is that we're mainly talking 40-70 HP Farmall C's, H's, and M's, and that you need to have higher HP numbers to worry about flywheel explosions. I don't buy that theory, just looking for others.

Also - if any of you know of sites that have pictures of flywheel explosions or can send me pictures of the aftermath of one in an antique (or other I guess) tractor please let me know and I will open my e-mail.

RPM Limits are not really an option - I know that will not fly with our committee, but maybe some required safety equipment would have a chance.

Thanks for any help.

As mentioned below centrifugal force is exponential to RPM. Force "squares" everytime RPM goes up. Double the RPM, then 4 times the force. Triple the RPM and 9 times the force. Faster you turn it the force begins to really multiply. Take a piece of cast iron that is 50+ years old and ask it to survive that kind of force? Just crazy! A scatter blanket will not contain a 100 lb flywheel that has exploded! They are only meant to catch the pieces that get past a true scatter shield made of steel or THICK aluminum. I would never dream of turing a stock flywheel more than 20% over and that is probably pushing you luck. If it is cracked then stock RPM isn't even safe!

I too pull a Farmall M with a V8. I can't imagine leaving the Farmall flywheel in there! The V8 has a steel flywheel with a Chevy clutch, crome molly input shaft machined to fit the Chevy, a new input coupling for the transmission machined, and a 60 pitch chain coupling. The whole mess is covered up with 3/16" steel to contain the parts if any of it fails and then the "tunnel" is wrapped with a blanket just in case. If it blew up and hurt me it would be bad. If it blew up and killed someone there to watch it would be the end of the world for me!

Saftey is more for the crowd than the operators. We understand there is a risk. They are just there to watch and have a good time. First time one explodes that will be the end to getting insurance.

Well, off my soap box. Hope you can convince the club of the importance of slowing those things down. Unless they have really spent some money inside the motors just twisting them up isn't doing anything HP wise but making more noise!

I have a hard time running the tractor safety course the club sponsors, and then potentially having one of those kids hop on a tractor that's running over 3000 rpms and with the impression that it's safe to do. Kids assume that if it's not in the rules it must be safe and an okay thing to do - I don't think we're sending them the right message with that.

Tech wise our pull is so easy to run that I know why there is resistance, and I understand that. All we really need to do now is check tire sizes, cut, and drawbar height, and we're done teching... if you even call it that. And it's hard to find help to do that much half the time.

With a couple of heads working together hopefully we can start thinking of creative ways to do this safely and not drastically increase the amount of teching that it takes to run the pull.