Did I waste my time? Is operator safer in this case?

[coffeeman]

Today I took the advice of folks here and the owners manual for my 840 Woods brushhog. I took the slop clutch loose and checked it; it may seize over winter. I haven't checked this thing in the 3 years I have had it. Clutch wasn't seized. It took about an hour and a half. Next time will be faster.

Was it a waste of time???

Then I hooked up the cutter. 3/10s of an hour to hook up the two lower pins; don't have a quick hitch. That has to be a record for me. Maybe it was todays heat here; in the 90s. Then, after moving tractor about 10 times to catch hitch pins right, I was ready to hook up drive line. After about a 3 hour job with greasing, clutch check, hook up and water breaks I was going to hook up drive line without shutting down tractor. I was parked level out of gear and ideling. The brake was on. What could happen? But, i walked around tractor one more time and shut er down.

On this one I'm guessing it's worth the extra trip around tractor to shut it down. Or....was it?


Cheers....Coffeeman

 

[RobJ]

I probably wouldn't mess with the clutch. Maybe loosen it up and wack it loose for a check.

I never shut mine down when hooking up implements.

 

[wedge40]

I wouldn't say you wasted your time. Better to be safe than sorry. If the slip clutch is stuck you could be looking as some very expensive repair to the tractor.
I have to ask how long have you had the tractor and the bush hog. I can remember the very first time I tried to hook the bush hog to my tractor. I'm sure it was at least 45 minutes, the second time it only took 30 minutes. I think I can do it now in less than 10 minutes.

I dont turn the tractor off either.. I have a high/low gear system on the tractor, I stop, take it out of gear and sometimes even put the high low in neutral, set the brake and then hook up the implement.

I have a quick hitch now. I can hook up in about 2 minutes now.
If you have to move from one implement to another then the QH is worth the money. Just have to make sure you get one that is wide enough to fit your equipment. (27 1/2" )

Wedge

 

[ChuckinNH]

I know a guy that didn't shut his garden tractor down to clear the snowblower, and it worked fine for him too. Of course he can't count on his fingers anymore. Somehow vibrated out of neutral. I think you wasted your time shutting things down.

 

[Glowplug]

I know a guy that didn't shut his garden tractor down to clear the snowblower, and it worked fine for him too. Of course he can't count on his fingers anymore. Somehow vibrated out of neutral. I think you wasted your time shutting things down.

Hmmm, guess it's one of those things that's a slight pain to do. And when you are religious about doing it it would never make a difference. But that ONE time out of a million you sure wish you had done it.

By the way, I don't routinely shut mine down either. In fact, almost never. I know the owner's manual says to do so. The only time I have shut it down is when the PTO splines don't line up and I have to rotate the (tractor) PTO splines by hand. I may reconsider this practice though.

 

[em14]

When you wrap an arm up in the PTO shaft you may wish you had shut the tractor down down ...
Leo

 

[MtnViewRanch]

If it has to do with the pto, I turn the tractor off. Just how much time do you save by leaving it running anyway, maybe a few seconds? The consequences are to high of a cost for me to save at most 1 minute. If you get into the safety habit, you will be better off in the long run.

Sort of like drinking and driving, the price you have to pay if something goes wrong is to steep for me. A few years ago I was at the DMV to change the registration on my F600 and they had a sign up saying that if you were found guilty of DUI, the minimum fine was $10,000. Whether that is true or not I don't know, but I don't want to find out either. I always turn the tractor off when messing with the pto. I don't want to find out what happens when something goes wrong, it just is not worth it to me.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[IslandTractor]

If it has to do with the pto, I turn the tractor off.

Me too.

Check out the OSHA photos of farmers who didn't. Wouldn't want my family to have to deal with that as a last memory.

 

[john_bud]

Starters are a lot cheaper than the deductible from your health care ...

Probably 99.999% of the time, nothing happens.

And 99.999999999% of lottery tickets are losers, but people still buy them.

jb

 

[Bird]

Yep, I, too am among those who know the chance of something going wrong is slim, but just see no reason to take the chance at all. I'd prefer shutting the engine off while any part of my anatomy or clothing is close to a PTO shaft.