adaptor to offset 3pt hitch bushhog.

[exiled]

Thanks guys for the insight. I will be looking into each idea.

 

[blambmn]

This is what I have done to my mower... I'm not sure if it will work for you... Maybe it will give you some ideas as to what could be done.. The reason for my offset was to have the mower cut outside the right rear tire to get closer to sprinklers and fences etc... Keep in mind the PTO shaft when doing the modification.... Notice the original pins are still useable... something you might consider, if possible..

Dave

I'm curious. What is the angle iron is that is bolted to the side of your mower?

 

[DaveOmak]

Sorry for the late reply... I have a few rocks that come up with the freeze / thaw cycle... they were beating the krap out of the mower housing... Sooooo, I cut out the side of the mower and bolted a chunk of 1/2" thick belting to cover the cut-out... Also, once the rocks were hit by the blade, they would bang around, under the mower deck and wreak havoc.... The hunk of belting really slows the rocks down a lot... and they can even escape if they are lucky ... LOL...

I'm curious. What is the angle iron is that is bolted to the side of your mower?

 

[sandman2234]

Just thinking...
IF you take Dave's picture and unbolt the gearbox, and turn it just a little bit, say maybe 1/8 of a turn, and re-drill the holes in the deck, that would lessen the strain on at least one of the u-joints.
David from jax

I need to offset an 8 foot twin spindle mower, about two more feet, so doing it this way probably won't work.
David

 

[Joe Batt]

Just thinking...
IF you take Dave's picture and unbolt the gearbox, and turn it just a little bit, say maybe 1/8 of a turn, and re-drill the holes in the deck, that would lessen the strain on at least one of the u-joints.
David from jax

I need to offset an 8 foot twin spindle mower, about two more feet, so doing it this way probably won't work.
David

I wouldn't do that. You want the input and the outputs of the shaft to be parallel, otherwise there will be "accelerations" between the input and output. Think of this: As you pass through a u-joint with an angle in it, the output will not be spinning at an even speed. It will constantly be accelerating and decelerating. If you have two u-joints, they can cancel each other. So, if the gear box and the PTO are parallel, the shaft may have accelerations, but the mower will not.

 

[bcp]

Some photos I collected from the internet when I was thinking about offsets.

Bruce

 

[ptsg]

This is how we handle the offset on the brush mowers over here. The entire A frame will side on those chromed rails and it's actuated by an hydraulic cylinder.

Granted our mowers are slightly different.

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[jmc]

I seem to remember from a class 50 years ago that 11 degrees is the maximum shaft angle for u-joint longevity. So if your distance between u-joints is 60 inches (probably shorter) then 11-12 inches of offset should be safe. That's if the PTO shaft is running more or less horizontally. If not, some of that offset is wasted vertically in a compound angle. But that can be calculated too.

 

[airbiscuit]

I had a small 5 foot mower, I off set so it would mow even with one wheel of the tractor,

I reversed one of the three point pins, (the up rights were flat iron), and then made a extended shaft for the other side, and then made a small bracket to support the rod, it was simple and did not permanently alter the mower in any way, I could mow up to my trees and not leave a unmowed strip where the tire was wider, worked well, I do not think I did any thing with the top link,

Reversing one 3pt pin is an easy and fast first start. That allows you to shift your 3pt arms a fair amount.

 

[jmc]

I seem to remember from a class 50 years ago that 11 degrees is the maximum shaft angle for u-joint longevity. So if your distance between u-joints is 60 inches (probably shorter) then 11-12 inches of offset should be safe. That's if the PTO shaft is running more or less horizontally. If not, some of that offset is wasted vertically in a compound angle. But that can be calculated too.

Found that engineering reference for acceptable shaft angle. Turns out a maximum of 15 degrees is recommended, rather than 11 degrees.

(That reference also supports Joe Batt's (#15) caution about keeping the input shaft and output shaft parallel.)