PTO Chipper engagement / disengagement

[Bsavulis]

I am looking for advice on the proper way to engage and dis-engage the pto when using my Jinma wood chipper. I have many hours on it since buying it used but always doubt myself when I power it up or when I shut it down.
I have a Kioti CK25hst the chipper is a 6" Jinma with a large flywheel.

When I start the chipper I bring the throttle down as low as it will go, slowly ease out the clutch, and then bump the throttle up to running rpm (2300).

When I shut it down I now just push the clutch in, put the pto in neutral, lift the clutch and idle down the tractor.

I used to idle the tractor, then press the clutch, shift into neutral, lift the clutch.
I stopped doing this because someone told me it put a lot of strain on the PTO gears.

Are any of these methods correct, I don't want to break anything?

There is no clutch in the PTO shaft.

Thanks for the advice!

Brian

 

[slaveToHorses]

That sounds ok to me because you can manually put it in neutral.
My pto is electric and the chipper is 8". I typically slowly bring down the revs so the tractor is not actually slowing the chipper but allowing it to slow down on its own. When i get down to about a thousand rpm, i dissengage the chipper.

 

[Overtaxed]

Why do that on an electric PTO? I thought they all had overrunning clutches? On my chipper, I engage at near idle (otherwise it'll break the shear pin) and spin up slowly to operating RPMs. Then, when I'm done, I just push in the PTO (disengage it) and then either idle the tractor or not, depending what I'm doing next. Is that wrong?

 

[Agvg]

That sounds ok to me because you can manually put it in neutral.
My pto is electric and the chipper is 8". I typically slowly bring down the revs so the tractor is not actually slowing the chipper but allowing it to slow down on its own. When i get down to about a thousand rpm, i dissengage the chipper.

Why not put it in neutral and let it run free to it stops? PTO brake?

 

[TerryR]

Why not put it in neutral and let it run free to it stops?

For me the answer is the reason I am stopping involves me getting off the tractor. I'd rather have the machine stop before I'm on the ground to remove any possibility of my getting untangled in it.

So I leave the PTO engaged while reducing engine speed to idle. When it gets there I disengage the PTO and let it run down the rest of the way by itself.

But I'm luckier than most here - my JD 870 doesn't have any silly electric PTO clutch, nor a PTO brake whose only purpose seems to be to make hooking up the PTO more difficult.

 

[747driver]

Now you got me to thinking how I do it on my CK27 !! Engage pto at idle and slowly bring up to speed....just in case there is something hung up in the flywheel. Throttle down, engage clutch and go to neutral. I would rather it free wheel at lower rpms.

 

[aczlan]

Why not put it in neutral and let it run free to it stops? PTO brake?

Yep, good way to buy a new PTO brake...

Aaron Z

 

[Gary Fowler]

Regardless of having a PTO brake, the correct way to engage/disengage any rotating equipment is to do it at idle or in the case of engagement, as near to idle as you can without stalling the engine.
Why would you not want to use the tractors engine to slow down a rotating disc as slow as possible before disengaging the PTO. I certainly wouldn't want to be walking around near equipment that was slowing from 540 rpm for several minutes before stopping. Even at idle disengagement, it will take a bit for the equipment to stop rotating.

 

[CobyRupert]

If you idle it down at the same rate you ramped it up, isn't that the same torque on the PTO gears? Just in a different direction (CW vs CCW)?

....or just turn the key off with the PTO on if you want to stop it fast and save the PTO brake.

 

[oosik]

There is one other thing I alway do when firing up the chipper. There will always be small twigs remaining in the chipping chamber when I finish a job. They can/do become wedged between the wall of the chamber and the outer edge of the rotor.

This can make the initial "spin up" of the rotor difficult to obtain. I alway spin the rotor - by hand - prior to connection to the PTO shaft to clear these twigs, if necessary. Makes initial spin up go a whole lot easier.