"We have several tractors and several bush hogs from 4' to 10' and the only way to get one to "smoothly" engage is with a clutch or lever type PTO and even then smooth is a relative term...."
I've seen and read many a complaint over the years about sudden, abrupt PTO engagement on modern tractors resulting in harsh starts and/or broken shear pins. Not a chronic issue or a pandemic, but one that rears its head every so often. The one semi-modern tractor I've spent any serious time with (30 yr old MF) had autonomous PTO and its engagement would normally spin the PTO driveline clutch and produce a carbon cloud no matter how careful I was with it.
Oh well.
One thing, one thing if any, that I do enjoy about the older tractors is the non-Independent PTO. I can spin an implement up or down with the clutch and tractor RPM as I need it to be and see fit. This is just the way I was taught to run a tractor and tool. I do not "engage" or "disengage" one either. I engage the PTO and then apply the appropos amount of power or RPM to get them where they need to be via the clutch and throttle. And vice versa. The way things ought to be, so on, and etc.
Call it the