Random gearing question

[technicfan]

I'm not very good at working out gear ratios but I am currently building a forklift which uses a L motor driving a 8t gear connected to a 24t gear to lift the mast. I have upgraded the L motor to a XL motor for more lifting power/torque but am wondering if I need to change the gear ratios aswell or will just changing the XL motor be fine with the current gearing?.

Edited April 2, 2020 by technicfan

[Gray Gear]

You are talking about the fork moving up and down, right?

It depends...if you want to lift heavy loads, you might want to gear down quite a bit. What are you using to lift the lift the fork? Linear actuators? String? Some pics might help so people can see what you are trying to achieve 

[technicfan]

Yes moving the forks up and down, I haven't built the mast yet but will be using worm gears and string to move it up and down. Basically just wanting to know if switching the L motor to XL motor but keeping the same gear ratio from the L motor will work ok, just wanted a bit more torque for lifting than the L motor. I'll work on a pic.

[dhc6twinotter]

I think the 1:3 gearing with an XL motor, plus worm gears on the mast would be fine.  Personally, I'd probably gear it down a bit more just to make things a bit slower (plus you get more torque), but that's just me.

[technicfan]

Just did some testing with the 8t:24t and 12t:20t both ways and 8t:24t is the slowest it turns so hopefully that will be good. Thanks guys.

[amorti]

Without seeing the mechanism it's hard to say. If you're lifting something really heavy with it, the 8t gear can be a weak spot.

If you're struggling in general with gearing, think about mountain bikes and how the shifting works on front (well, mostly they don't have front derailleur anymore but you know what I mean) and rear and what influence that has on how fast you pedal, how fast you go, and what hills you can get up.