Pat's Easy Change Added Pat's; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

[RonR]

Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

I used my tiller prior to installing Pat's system. Installed Pat's a while back and just used the tiller today. I had the skid shoes down on the tiller, so I had the 3PH in full down. When the rear tires went over a slight bump, the tiller stopped turning.

Didn't hear it hit anything; it has a slip clutch, so no shear bolt. I shut it off; got off and found that my PTO shaft had come apart.

Apparently when the rear tires went over the hump, the tiller went down enough that the shaft came apart. It didn't hit anything, and I was able to slide it back together.

I went ahead and used it to finish what I was doing; I just sat the tiller on the ground and didn't set the 3PH to down.

Next week, I'll take the male piece to TSE; I think they carry that shape of pto shaft. If I can find a mate, I'll grind the tube off at the connector and weld a longer piece on.

I'm thinking the dealer must have cut this pretty short, but will have to check on the full up closed length prior to pointing fingers.

Anybody else experience this?

Ron

 

[gabby]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

I've had the same problem in reverse. JD's 6' iMatch roto tiller is designed to be used with the iMatch yoke. If you don't use the iMatch yoke and connect directly to the lift arms you can't close the pto sleeve enough to get it onto the tractor pto.
Gabby

 

[KiotiJohn]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

I had to get another PTO shaft after adding Pat's. The difference was about 3" and the original shaft had been cut at it's minimum. This was for a brush cutter, but same principal. John

 

[RickB]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

Any time a modification to the hitch geometry is made, this type of thing can happen. The shorter the shaft, the less room for changes/adjustment. Too bad no one pointed out the possibility of that happening.

 

[JATO_RaT]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

Rather then get a new drive line, you could buy just a shaft extender. I purchased one not to extend the shaft but because my old tractors PTO would not hold onto the shaft. The little balls in the coupler would not seat in the tractors machined PTO groove. The extender eliminated the problem.

 

[RonR]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

I knew that might be a possibility when I bought Pat's. Don't know if I read it from Pat's or here somewhere.

I doubt that a new pto male tube is that expensive, and a coupla hours with the grinder & welder should make it good as new.

Ron

 

[HayDR]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

Some PTO profile tubes are pressed into the yoke and held in place by a roll pin so you may not have to weld at all.

 

[RonR]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

Hey that would be morely better! THKS.

I need to take it apart this afternoon and see what it looks like.

I plan to do a full up/full down check before I cut a new one. If nothing else, I could measure the distance Pat's moved the hitch back and add that to the old length.......

Ron

 

[DannyD]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

I also had this happen, but according to something I read you should extend BOTH the male and female sides of the shaft. 3 inches is correct as that is what I had the dealer do for me and it works fine now.

Dont know about shaft extenders but from the description here sounds like it might even make the close quarters easier also, so I may check into that too. My drive line is as short as I would recommend and I doubt that it overlaps the recommended 6 inches.

 

[DannyD]

Re: Added Pat\'s; Now Tiller PTO is too short..........

My KK tiller was this way, no welding, just a pin, but required a press to get it out of the yoke.