</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Another newbie question: Is the dual stage clutch on a gear tractor the method for obtaining the independent PTO or is this one of more ways to obtain the independent PTO on a geared tractor? )</font>
Techinically, a live pto is _not_ the same as an idependent pto.
The 2 stage ptos are considered live. They are not, however, independent.
A live pto allows you to change tractor gears while keeping the pto running. However, to engage the pto, you need to stop forward motion of the tractor - uses the same pedal to operate both clutches.
An independent pto uses a totally seperate lever to operate the pto clutch, so you may engauge or disengauge either the tranny and/or the pto at any time, totally independent of each other. Some are lever operated, as in a hand clutch, and others are hydraulicly operated, as in the lever you move changes the flow of hydraulics which apply the pto clutch.
If you are using the foot pedal to operate both the pto & tranny clutches, then you have live pto, not independent.
If you only have one clutch operated with the foot pedal, than you have neither live or independent.
--->Paul