If any of you are ever in the market for some sort of shaft that you would like to see make out of carbon fiber, I highly recommend Precision Shaft Technologies in Clearwater, Florida. Their website is here: looky. Yesterday the UPS man delivered a custom driveshaft I had made for our 1/4 scale tractor pulling tractor here at school. I tell ya what, it is damn sweet. It is comprised of a carbon fiber section, aluminum u-joint on one end, and a steel u-joint on the hardened end. I asked them what it would be worth if I would have had to pay for it (they donated it since we're a non-profit organization + they'll get some superb advertising out of it) and they told me $600-$700. The attached pictures will show it off a little bit more.

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Excuse the shitty tires, those are just used for rolling it on pavement because the the hard surface is so hard on our good tires.

how much does it usualy cost... and how much does it weigh compared to the metal one?

-E

Ummm, see post above. ;)
They said this one would have been between $600 & $700. As for the weight difference, since this one has a big chunk of steel on it I couldn't compare it to any that we have laying around the shop. I would say that there is a substantial difference though because just by lifting around the carbon fiber end it is damn light. Plus they can build these things to handle some serious torque numbers so it's all good!!

I see you are using a Sauer Danfoss 15 series U-type hydrostat in there!!!!

I like the driveshaft though. Once you get that tractor fully built, you'll have to post pics.

That I'm unsure of but I'm assuming you're right. I don't know a whole lot about the hydrostat except it is made by Sauer Danfoss here in Ames. The 2 seniors who designed just about everything would know all about that, us younger folk just help out where we can. I will definitely post up pictures when it is completed and hopefully a few from the national competition which begins one week from yesterday in Moiline, IL.

Yeah, I think the model number starts off BDU-10..... or something like that.

wow listen to the farm boys do their thing LOL

Tom only if you knew the amount of engineering that goes into something like this, I bet you'd be amazed.

Erik you're right about the hydrostat, it is the Sauer 15-U. As for pictures from the competition, I'll post up a few and if anybody wants more let me know and I'll e-mail you some.

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I should probably mention that the competition was held last weekend and we placed 3rd overall in the pulling area of the competition and 7th in the overall competition.