PTO Safety Question/Experiences

[LouNY]

If your lawn tractor gets something stuck up under the deck and you need to reach under and free it, do you shut off you lawn tractor to do it or leave it run? even tho the PTO is off.

That question is no where near the same, connecting a 540 or 1000 rpm pto shaft is completely different from reaching up inside a piece of equipment,
a lawn mower would be shutoff to reach into the deck, I also shut down a tractor and will throw in the transport locks if I'm reaching into or crawling under
a piece of rotating equipment.
ie. replacing a shear pin, unplugging a chopper or mower or baler ect.

 

[MHarryE]

I'm looking at the scar running from the base of my right thumb to the base of my thumbnail thinking its better to shut off. That was a nice, mechanical PTO, Far all Super A. I remember my cousin saying to hold it in my mouth while he drove me to the hospital so I wouldn't bleed all over his 53 Mercury convertible. Fortunately the only lasting evidence is the scar.

Sent from my LG-V930 using TractorByNet mobile app

 

[goeduck]

I shut the tractor down because I知 not a fan of exhaust blowing in my face while I hook up an implement.

Ah the rear swept exhaust.... I know it .. cough, cough....well.

 

[vvanders]

I'm looking at the scar running from the base of my right thumb to the base of my thumbnail thinking its better to shut off. That was a nice, mechanical PTO, Far all Super A. I remember my cousin saying to hold it in my mouth while he drove me to the hospital so I wouldn't bleed all over his 53 Mercury convertible. Fortunately the only lasting evidence is the scar.

Sent from my LG-V930 using TractorByNet mobile app

Yup, it takes ~2 seconds to restart/shut down a modern tractor? Risk vs reward just isn't there to justify saving a couple seconds and some small wear & tear on a starter.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I used to leave it running but I got to thinking how embarassing it'd be to be the subject of an "Local Man Killed by Tractor" acticle in the paper.

Your safe now, no one reads the papers anymore anyway.

 

[dnw64]

I always shut down the tractor when hooking an attachment to the PTO shaft. Although whether or not to shut down the tractor is obviously a personal choice, to me shutting down the tractor is negligible inconvenience, and causes negligible wear and tear on the tractor, in return for absolute assurance that I won't get injured by the PTO.

Seems to me that the likelihood of a manual PTO engaging itself while the engine is running is roughly the same as a tractor starting itself while in gear and backing up over you.

However, no one can assign a value to peace of mind to someone else.

 

[N80]

Discussions about safety are always interesting and often unhelpful. They range from people who patently dangerous stuff "all the time" and "never have a problem" to people who accept no risk at all and go to counterproductive lengths to avoid statistically insignificant risk. And few of us can determine the _exactly_ correct approach.

I turn my tractor off to attach the PTO. But here is my logic:

If something happens the results can be catastrophic (limbs removed, death).
The work area is extremely constrained so the ability to react and move out of harms way is very limited.
The odds of an unintentional PTO engagement are low but mine is a small lever that actuates an electronic switch.
Turning the tractor off and restarting are simple, quick easy tasks that are of no detriment to anything at all.

The point being, the probability of failure is low but the consequence of failure is high and the act that obviates the risk costs nothing.

 

[bdog]

I have never shut my tractor off to attach the pto. I am super cautious around it when it is spinning though.

 

[dnw64]

...mine is a small lever that actuates an electronic switch.

That makes all the difference. I would never consider hooking up or working on a PTO that was electrically engaged while the engine was running.