I cannot seem to get the PTO to operate properly on my new Farmtrac 300 DTC. I use a 5 foot finish mower with no problem, but when I hook up to a 5 foot rotary cutter it engages like two freight trains colliding, whether in manual or independent mode. It shears the bolt pin on the cutter three out of five times it is engaged, especially when engaging it with the clutch. The cutter works smoothly on another tractor. Does anyone have any idea what I am doing wrong?
Farmtrac 300 DTC PTO Operation
- Thread starter rangerric
- Start date
- Views: 20938
EquipmentUser
Bronze Member
Are you engaging it with the tractor idling?
Yes! As I stated, it engages smoothly with the 5 foot finish mower, but is almost impossible to engage with the rotary cutter without clanging and clattering and I moved the cutter to another tractor and it engaged it smoothly.
Any other ideas.
Thanks,
Ranger Ric
Any other ideas.
Thanks,
Ranger Ric
barticus73
Silver Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2002
- Messages
- 220
- Tractor
- Cub Cadet 7272,Farmall 544
I think what he was asking is if you engage the PTO with the tractor RPM's at idle. I have a 27hp Cub Cadet and with my rotary cutter I need to engage the PTO with the RPMs low and after cutter starts, then I rev up the RPMs to PTO rated speed. If I try to engage PTO when already at full engine speed then the mower shakes violently like it wants to rip itself apart.
bluechip
Veteran Member
The 300DTC has fully independent PTO, when set to work with the clutch, it is operated by a switch in the clutch pedal linkage intead of the dash switch so should work about the same. You must be at a low idle to engage. if it is still a problem, you dealer can make an adjustment on the hydraulic solenoid valve which will engage the clutch more slowly. Another fix is adding a slip clutch on the mower, which will save a lot of shear bolts over the life of the unit. the nice thing about that is if you hit something, it will slip and you just keep going, no need to stop and change the shear bolt.
Slacker
Gold Member
Hmmm....I've got the backhoe on my brand new 360 right now and haven't used anything on the 3pt yet. Now I'm a little worried that I may have this problem with hard engaging of the implement. This sounds like it could be very hard on the gear. Once I remove the hoe and install the 3pt stuff I'll be sure to engage the pto in manual mode, at low idle, slowly. The PTO engaging smoothly is an absolute must for me.
If it snaps shear bolts at engagment...well, its going back to the dealer.
If it snaps shear bolts at engagment...well, its going back to the dealer.
My 270 is pretty lo-tech. The one thing I like is the PTO arrangement. No fancy electro-hydraulic stuff on this thing. Just a two stage clutch and a manual engagement lever on the right side. Push the clutch all the way down, wait a few seconds for all the internal gadgets to stop spinning around and engage the lever. Let the clutch out slowly and get your implement spinning and then throttle up. It took a bit of practice to get the hang of it but I really like it now. My salesman bought a 300 and he commented to me how the PTO kind of slams into engagement. I was unaware you had two options for engaging it on the 300's. I thought you just had the dash switch.Slacker said:
john
Slacker
Gold Member
Slacker said:
Quoting my own post.
I took the BH off this weekend and rough cut 5 acres of powerlines and ditches. No problems with PTO engagement w/ a 5' Howse bushhog.
I only used the BH in "manual" mode. The attachment did shake a bit if I let off the clutch fast, but thats normal for most tractors.
rogdan
Gold Member
I had been having the same problem with my 360 DTC after shearing the factory bolt. As advised here I adjusted the and cleaned slip clutch with brake cleaner. I have hogged 4-5 hours since without another grade 2 bolt shearing. I never payed attention before but the cluch does slip initially taking up the great clash from before. I belive the cluch had stuck because the adjustment on the springs is very close to what it was originally.