I will try to revive this thread instead of creating a new one. None of what I'm asking here involves using the PTO.
I was playing around with my tractor today and decided to use the foot throttle more since I've never bothered with it (always used the hand throttle and my dad's old Massey only has a hand throttle). I was using the FEL a lot and used the foot throttle to control ground speed, not power since I was only moving brush around. I found that in 1st or 2nd gear, using the foot throttle gives me more delicate control when I need it, but also lets me speed up a little bit when I want it. Also, I like to reverse around idle speed (without a load) since otherwise it's WAY TOO FAST. I can also go into 4th (in low range) and rev up for decent speed but let it down to idle and I'll creep along happily.
Is this hard on the motor?
Later on I went into the woods and since I was going up/down slopes more I set the hand throttle around 1200 rpm and used the foot throttle some when I wanted to speed up again. In only a few instances did I use the foot throttle for the purpose of powering the FEL, and at those times I was either stopped or already pushing against something like a big rock.
I just wanted to check mainly that I'm not going to prematurely wear out my engine by using the foot throttle to rev up and down like this. At no time did I rev it past 1800 or so, and I use the pedal gently. I never lugged the motor (even in 4th at idle) but I'm just slightly paranoid that by not setting the motor at a particular rpm and leaving it, I'm shortening the life of my engine.
Tried searching and several threads came back but none addressed my specific question.
Thanks!