PTO hookup- Is it just me?

[jmc]

Hello All,

Whenever its time to put on the rotary cutter, I find myself semiconsciously dreading the PTO shaft hookup. Not so much locking the shaft on, but getting the splines aligned is the trick. Its a combination of things- no good place to stand; ducking the top link while sidestepping the bottom link; needing both hands to extend the shaft while needing a third hand to rotate the stub spline; or difficulty rotating the shaft while trying to extend it- all these things complicated by protective shrouds on both the tractor and on the PTO shaft that reduce the ability to get a good grip.

To the tractor designers- I'd gladly trade my factory cup holder and cruise control for a better hookup system. Does anyone else have this problem?

John

 

[jdsafeman]

I have the same problem with a 15' mower. I cut a piece of lumber that fits between the u-joint and I use it for leverage to turn the shaft. Easy to line up now and I keep the stick in the tool box.

 

[Wombat125]

Whenever its time to put on the rotary cutter, I find myself semiconsciously dreading the PTO shaft hookup.

There's no semi-conscious about it. I am fully conscious of my disdain for this task.

My trick is to keep it greased and curse at it like a wounded sailor.

The JD Autohitch sounded interesting for a moment, but was turned off by price, complexity, and the requirement to cut all my PTO shafts to fit it. Even my dealer said it was kind of bogus technology.

 

[Willl]

Don't tell anybody, but I cut the shroud portion off the protector sleeve because of this problem.

Made a world of difference in hooking it up. And it's still protected by the tractor metal shield.

 

[jsborn]

Don't tell anybody, but I cut the shroud portion off the protector sleeve because of this problem.

Made a world of difference in hooking it up. And it's still protected by the tractor metal shield.

I did the same thing and if the safety police come after me I wont tell you did it too.

 

[yzbdsbp]

I have the same problem with a 15' mower. I cut a piece of lumber that fits between the u-joint and I use it for leverage to turn the shaft. Easy to line up now and I keep the stick in the tool box.

Just like as stated here I hate it too. But I only have a 6' bush hog so the way I have learned to do it....is after i hook the lower arms to the cutter, I raise it up just enough that i can turn the shaft when im tryin to hook the PTO up. If you have the cutter on pretty flat ground, it will allow the shaft to turn the blades just enough for the splines to line right up and slide right up on there. Same concept as jdsafeman only a much smaller scale.

 

[scott_vt]

Don't tell anybody, but I cut the shroud portion off the protector sleeve because of this problem.

Made a world of difference in hooking it up. And it's still protected by the tractor metal shield.

Good Mornin Willl,
Sounds like a good idea to me, like you said you still have the protection of the PTO tractor shield ! Its kind of redundant to have two levels of protection, especially when you could reduce the level of cuss words on every PTO hookup ! I may try that myself !

I have also found that keeping those splines really clean with a wire brush helps IMO !

 

[mwb]

My new Montana is a PITA to hook up compared to my old Ford. The biggest difference with the new machine is that the PTO is locked - it won't freewheel by hand. I made the mistake of disconnecting my blower with some snow still in it - i had to use a prybar to turn the blower over to line the splines up. Any implement that doesn't turn over by hand would be difficult...

The other difference is that the Ford had a crank adjustment for the link arm; this made coupling a lot easier. The Montana has a crappy get-off-the-tractor-and-crawl-under-to-adjust thing (my dads new L3400 'bota is just as bad). I intend to change mine to a TNT

I still love my new machine though!

 

[randy41]

greasing the shaft goes a long way toward making the hookup easier. the top link is the last thing i connect so it doesn't get in the way. i hook up the 2 sides first then i turn the tractor off and hook up the pto and then start the tractor and hook up the top link. i find the most annoying thing is if i really didn't line the tractor up well and i have to climb up on the seat and adjust its position.

 

[jas67]

I just put the PTO in gear (with the engine turned off), and that keeps it from turning counterclockwise (it will still turn clockwise, due to the overrun clutch). Then I just need to rotate the implement's shaft counterclockwise to line up the splines.

This works everytime!