s219
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2011
- Messages
- 8,548
- Location
- Virginia USA
- Tractor
- Kubota L3200, Deere X380, Kubota RTV-X
Same applies to disengaging an implement...idle down for 5-10 seconds before disengaging the PTO. Makes for a much smoother transition and, undoubtedly, will extend the life of the implement and tractor.
I think it depends on the type of PTO (live, etc), type of clutches (main, overrun, etc) -- if the implement has a heavy flywheel or flywheel action, that easily can overdrive the PTO and transmission/engine after you throttle down. For example, on my wood chipper, it's far better to disengage the tractor's clutch, then throttle down, then wait for the chipper to stop spinning the PTO and transmission before finally disengaging the PTO. If you just throttle back, the chipper's flywheel inertia could over-run the engine and transmission if there wasn't some sort of over-run slip clutch.
On really old tractors, you could disengage the clutch to take load off the engine but of course the PTO and transmission would still be coupled. It was possible for the PTO implement to then keep driving the tractor forward if it was in gear!! I am sure that caused some pucker moments.