Hand throttle setting - faster clutch wear? - gears only, no Shuttle Shift

[goeduck]

Think I will continue using the foot throttle like I always have for forward/reversing, stopping/starting and loader work.
2100 hours , countless forward/reverses and hundreds of tons of loader work and I have yet to need the first clutch adjustment.
Look at a dry clutch for a car, truck and a tractor. Pretty much the same.
Nothing special about a tractor dry clutch.
Slip them they wear out faster, high RPM's while clutching will cause faster wear. Simple as that.

Exactly.

 

[KY Gun Geek]

I follow what you are trying to say.
But finish mowing and brush mowing in tight tricky areas I always use the foot throttle to slow down/speed up, forward/reverse as needed and it mows just fine.

I’m the op so I’ll hijack my own thread!

You guys started down a path with this discussion about mowing (more generally using pto equipment) and managing the clutch.

Well, as luck would have it (it is summer - we mow, and do very little stall mucking) this very discussion has come up.

So when using a batwing (rotary mower) on a gear tractor (not hst) how do you handle it? FYI These tractors have a lever to engage pto independent of trans clutch position. Competing approaches as follows:

Run hand throttle up to pto speed, engage pto, push in clutch, select gear and let clutch out, move forward. If you need to back up while driving, push in clutch, brake or coast to stop, pick reverse gear, let clutch out to back up (engine and pto still turning at rated speed).

Or

Engage pto at idle, push in clutch, select gear, let clutch out and move forward. Move hand throttle to full pto speed. To back up take over throttle control with foot, back down hand throttle. Back off foot throttle while pushing in clutch. Choose reverse gear, let clutch out, back up. If u need more pto rpm, pick a lower reverse gear.

My approach is the 2nd one. It minimizes the slipping of the trans clutch when the engine rpms are high. Ive heard 2 arguments for the first approach - cuz that’s the way daddy did it, and the pto drive line can’t take the speeding up and slowing down of the mower, so you want to keep it at a constant speed - constant engine rpm/constant throttle position - and manage the speed changes with the trans clutch.

Again, thanks a bunch for replies!

 

[crashz]

I've mowed for years in my 770 (little crash box trans) doing it your way (option 2). Mine has a dual stage clutch, but I could never feel comfortable trying to shift while only pushing part way down on the clutch. But the 2 stage allows the PTO to spin up a fraction of a second before you start moving.

I've never heard of the PTO drive-line not being able to spin up / down frequently with or without the throttle. The only exception would be when under full load (like dumping the mower in thick grass/bushes and trying to spin up to speed with a lot of resistance. I have stalled in in very heavy cutting, when trying to start the bush-hog. But the fix is not to throttle up first, its to find a clear area to start the mower and move into the heavy stuff.

 

[4570Man]

I engage pto clutches at as low as rpm is possible without stalling the engine.

 

[ptsg]

I also use a rotary mower with a shuttle shift tractor, however, we use chains instead of blades on the mower, which means that back down the throttle to change between forward/reverse will cause the chains on the mower to loose momentum, therefore won't shred the brush as good. So it's essential to keep the RPMs up.

I usually mow with the 540E gear on the PTO, which sets the engine RPM at around 1800-1900 RPM. I've now 100 hours on the tractor and I've yet to see any wear on the clutch and I do a lot of mowing that requires constant forward/reverse changes.

Most of the time, I change between forward/reverse with a quite fast movement of the clutch to prevent extra wear by keeping it slipping, unless I'm going in reverse close to a wall or ditch and I have to feather the clutch.

Here is an example of what I have to do sometimes. There is a big embankment right where I stop to move forward again.

Timelapse Branson mowing

 

[DK35vince]

I have been lawn mowing, brush mowing, tilling, Etc. for years using option 2.
Also been using the foot throttle to throttle up/down for years forward/reversing for snow plowing and hundreds of tons of loader work. 17 years 2140 hours and I haven't needed the first clutch adjustment yet.