Mid mount pto's

[foggy1111]

Seems like a lifetime ago....but back in the 50's we used to offer a front snowblower which was mounted on the customers front end loader. We had a "sprocket box" that attached to the rear pto and drove a shaft (tube) that went under the tractor (or sometimes over the rear axel). Normally had a hanger bearing mounted at the midway point. They worked fine when properly installed.....but some tractors could be an engineering feat.

The sprocket box was basically a larger half slip-fitted to a smaller half which was adjusted and held in place with threaded rod....with each 1/2 containing bearings and a sprocket that was connected with a length of roller chain. We handled from 30 to 100 HP tractors with this arrangement.

In those times many PTO shafts were not shielded.....I can still remember staying clear of the dreaded PTO shafting.