540/1000 economy pto

   / 540/1000 economy pto #1  

piller

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2006
Messages
408
Location
Oakdale, TN
Tractor
Kubota M8540HD ROPS
I'm looking at the M8540/M9540 tractors as I want to be able to make hay, including round bales. Kubota shows a 540/1000 rpm PTO option availabe, dealer installed I believe. Does anyone have this option or want to comment on it?

Deere offers economy PTO options where you can operate the engine at a lower rpm and use less fuel and produce less power but still get the correct pto speed. This would be used for situations that did not require the full engine power.

I did not see an economy pto option for the M series, so I was wondering if the dual speed pto option could be used for this.

Also, in looking at Kubota pto specifications it shows the pto output power for the tractor at 2600 engine rpm but to get a pto rpm of 540 the engine speed is about 2200 rpm. Any idea why they do this, and what the pto power might be at the 540 rpm pto speed?
 
   / 540/1000 economy pto #2  
My new holland has what they called an economy PTO also. It has a blue marked setting on the tach and a green one higher up in RPM. The blue one has an E next to it. It only puts out 540 RPM at the higher green mark though. I tried the economy setting with my swather and baler and it didn't like it. Some implements like my sprayer work fine on the slower speed though.
 
   / 540/1000 economy pto #3  
WTA, the economy pto speed marked on your tach is meant to be used in conjunction with the e-pto gear shift. You would shift to e-pto (its like a 600 to 700 rpm pto gear) and reduce your engine rpms to bring the pto down to 540. If you don't have the e-pto gearing option you are just running them too slow.

The 1000 rpm setting is too fast for most people to use as an economy pto. If you accidently ran your engine up a couple of hundred rpm over the right rpm for 540 you could blow apart your implement.

WTA said:
My new holland has what they called an economy PTO also. It has a blue marked setting on the tach and a green one higher up in RPM. The blue one has an E next to it. It only puts out 540 RPM at the higher green mark though. I tried the economy setting with my swather and baler and it didn't like it. Some implements like my sprayer work fine on the slower speed though.
 
   / 540/1000 economy pto #4  
piller said:
......Kubota shows a 540/1000 rpm PTO option availabe, dealer installed I believe. Does anyone have this option or want to comment on it?........

I think the 2-speed pto option is very worthwile.

540 has been the standard rpm for 3-point-hitch implements for a long time. In countries like Japan, Australia, N.Z. implements are also made for 750 and 1000 rpm. In the '70s and '80s tractors were imported here with 2-speed and even 3-speed ptos. But there is a danger in over-revving attachments and higher-speed pto's became less common on compact tractors.

Having a 2-speed pto is very convenient - so its good to see it available again. Many implements don't need the full power of the tractor's engine and will run fine on a higher pto speed but lower engine rpm. There is even a small fuel saving because there's less engine friction at lower rpm. It makes perfect sense - cars don't need to run in low gear all the time either.

Back in 2002, I converted my pto to 2-speed by adding factory parts for the Australia version of my Kubota. Story with pictures here.

Re the last paragraph of your post, the engine, in the middle of it's power range, can make a given amount of power two ways - either at high rpm with low torque, or at low rpm with high torque. The sales brochure rates the pto horsepower at the rpm where the engine makes its maximum possible power. But the recommended rpm for pto work is lower and power available at that rpm would be a little less, the precise amount depending on the engine's torque/rpm curve. It makes it confusing because the marketers like to publish the biggest sounding numbers, where the engineers may be optimizing engine torque at the 540 pto speed.
 
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   / 540/1000 economy pto
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Thanks for the responses so far.

Rbargeron: that was a very nice dual speed pto mod you made on your L5450! I enjoyed seeing the orange inside the gear box and your comments regarding the high quality of the Kubota internals.
 
 
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