Bruce
Herd Master
That is downright scary and dangerous! If the PTO lever/button/whatever is disengaged, the PTO shouldn't be engaged. Others with more knowledge can chime in but I think I'd be having a mechanic looking at it ASAP.
Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you
- Thread starter Senile_Texas_Aggie
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farmerjan
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Sorry I didn't address the PTO question. No, I do not know of any reason why it should continue to turn if it is "off". The lever system on our old Farmall H does not stay in the off position, so the pto will turn alot of time. Know it, watch out for it. Someday, we would like to redo this old tractor, and at that time it will get fixed. Also understand this is a "dinosaur" as tractors go, (40's era maybe) and it has very little power in comparison and the pto can be turned off , just doesn't stay off. Not ideal, but no one uses that tractor but my son and I and it is mostly just me. I don't know the difference in a "wet" pto or other.... Maybe my son would know. But I agree with @Bruce , I would have it looked at. The new tractors are so complicated and involved, and there are sensors and all sort of stuff that just aren't on the many "ancient" tractors we have. The couple of big tractors, and the newest, are practically beyond me as far as running them.
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Senile_Texas_Aggie
Herd Master
Thanks to all for the advice on the PTO. I will probably have it checked out some time this summer. Unfortunately, right now, because it is hay season, the shops are backed up with work. But I will get it checked out. Thanks again.
Mike CHS
Herd Master
My Kubota got to where I started having issues shutting off the PTO. Mine has a lever attached to a cable that runs through a shaft and down to the actual shut off. It turned out the cable had gotten corroded and the result was that the cable would not go through the shaft but bent just down from the lever. The fix was to change the cable plus I now park that part of the tractor under shelter and it doesn't get any rain on it.
Bruce
Herd Master
Looks like a good place to start Mike. I know some PTOs are electronically controlled, those would present a whole other bags of worms to look in. But if it is purely mechanical, like mine is, there should be a visible "foot bone connected to the leg bone" path to follow.
Bruce
Herd Master
Here is a new video for you STA
At the end he talks about the hammers he is using to beat all the bigger stuff up. One can, of course, have a set of hammers and a set of knives and install the ones appropriate for the upcoming task. Of course it takes time to get the swapped. One of the things I like about the WoodMaxx is that the rear has an operable door so you have really good access to the parts inside. It comes "locked down" with bolts and nuts, I replaced them with clevis pins. No need to break out 2 wrenches if something gets caught up while out mowing.
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- #1,337
Senile_Texas_Aggie
Herd Master
Thanks for the comments about the PTO. I will look into it soon. And thanks, Mr. @Bruce, for the YouTube video. I watched another video of his where he mowed around different objects, but did not notice this video, so thanks for posting this. I now see that flail mowers are not as fragile as I somehow thought they were. As for how you modified your flail mower, if you are willing, please post pictures of your modifications. I may want to do something like that to some of my implements as well.
I have been offline a couple of days due to having to deal with our truck being in the shop to replace a front camera that had gone bad. Once I got the truck back, then the shredder was finally ready, so I got that back from the shop. While I had the trailer hooked up to the truck, I decided to take all of our scrap metal that I had picked up from the garbage dump in our woods to Van Buren, where there is a scrap metal place that will buy it. It was 1800 pounds of scrap, so at $0.035 / lb, I got a little bit of diesel money for my trouble. Better that than having to pay to dump it.
This morning I hooked up the shredder to the tractor and mowed a strip along the driveway. No issues with the PTO clutch staying engaged. Maybe that only happens when the PTO clutch gets hot such as when the shaft stops rotating the way it did with the wood chipper. I hope that is the case.
I promised to get a picture of the wood chip pile after we finished, so here it is:
Senile Texas Aggie
I have been offline a couple of days due to having to deal with our truck being in the shop to replace a front camera that had gone bad. Once I got the truck back, then the shredder was finally ready, so I got that back from the shop. While I had the trailer hooked up to the truck, I decided to take all of our scrap metal that I had picked up from the garbage dump in our woods to Van Buren, where there is a scrap metal place that will buy it. It was 1800 pounds of scrap, so at $0.035 / lb, I got a little bit of diesel money for my trouble. Better that than having to pay to dump it.
This morning I hooked up the shredder to the tractor and mowed a strip along the driveway. No issues with the PTO clutch staying engaged. Maybe that only happens when the PTO clutch gets hot such as when the shaft stops rotating the way it did with the wood chipper. I hope that is the case.
I promised to get a picture of the wood chip pile after we finished, so here it is:
Senile Texas Aggie
Bruce
Herd Master
That video was so new when I posted, it was still wet 
YouTube makes you look like a rank amateur stalker! Watch something from someone, more of their stuff will show up as "suggested for you". Watch a video on a topic and more of that sort of thing will be suggested.
YouTube makes you look like a rank amateur stalker! Watch something from someone, more of their stuff will show up as "suggested for you". Watch a video on a topic and more of that sort of thing will be suggested.- Thread starter
- #1,339
Senile_Texas_Aggie
Herd Master
All,
Yesterday my Beautiful Gal and I took the day off, as it rained most of the day. Today she needed to do laundry, so I decided to mow the overgrown south pastures, at least the part of them I have yet to mow this year. Here is how tall the grass was after I had cut a few rounds. It was so thick and lush that I had to mow in 1st or 2nd gear (on a 12 fwd, 12 rev transmission) so the mower wouldn't bog down):
Even then the mower would bog down sometimes. I finally decided to raise the front half of the mower some, and the mower went to cutting better. Here is a picture of two rows on the right where I had the mower lower, and two rows on the left where I raised the mower deck. Notice how the grass is clumped in the right two rows and not in the left two rows:
My question to you folks who have a rotary cutter/shredder/brush hog: how do you set your mower? With the front end lower than the rear, higher than the rear, or the same level?
As for the PTO shaft, it was not turning when I started the tractor this morning and drove to the south pastures with the clutch in the off position. But by the time I had finished mowing, drove back and then put up the tractor, it was spinning with the clutch in the off position. I looked under the tractor to see the mechanism from the PTO clutch lever. This was simply a crank that fed directly into the transmission housing, so I could not see anything wrong on the outside (which means that the problem is on the inside and will cost a lot of money to fix!
).
Senile Texas Aggie
Yesterday my Beautiful Gal and I took the day off, as it rained most of the day. Today she needed to do laundry, so I decided to mow the overgrown south pastures, at least the part of them I have yet to mow this year. Here is how tall the grass was after I had cut a few rounds. It was so thick and lush that I had to mow in 1st or 2nd gear (on a 12 fwd, 12 rev transmission) so the mower wouldn't bog down):
Even then the mower would bog down sometimes. I finally decided to raise the front half of the mower some, and the mower went to cutting better. Here is a picture of two rows on the right where I had the mower lower, and two rows on the left where I raised the mower deck. Notice how the grass is clumped in the right two rows and not in the left two rows:
My question to you folks who have a rotary cutter/shredder/brush hog: how do you set your mower? With the front end lower than the rear, higher than the rear, or the same level?
As for the PTO shaft, it was not turning when I started the tractor this morning and drove to the south pastures with the clutch in the off position. But by the time I had finished mowing, drove back and then put up the tractor, it was spinning with the clutch in the off position. I looked under the tractor to see the mechanism from the PTO clutch lever. This was simply a crank that fed directly into the transmission housing, so I could not see anything wrong on the outside (which means that the problem is on the inside and will cost a lot of money to fix!
).Senile Texas Aggie
Bruce
Herd Master
That is a bummer! But I'd rather you pay the money than lose limbs, or your life!!
At least it does shut off when the tractor motor is off.
On a practical note, even if you never get your body close to it when it is turning on its own, it means you can't stop it if you need to like if you hit a rock or something. And what happens if you are in the thick stuff or find a hidden length of wire and can't shut down the blades? Will the tractor stall out in an inconvenient (or potentially dangerous) place?
From the looks of it, that stuff doesn't look near as tall as the stuff I was cutting. But then I had the mower set to its highest position, 4". You were a lot lower. I can't see me wanting to cut the field any lower than that anyway. I think brush hogs will cut as high as close to a foot which would be useful if you have tall thick stuff and need to whack it to a reasonable height before going to the final level on the second pass.
At least it does shut off when the tractor motor is off.
On a practical note, even if you never get your body close to it when it is turning on its own, it means you can't stop it if you need to like if you hit a rock or something. And what happens if you are in the thick stuff or find a hidden length of wire and can't shut down the blades? Will the tractor stall out in an inconvenient (or potentially dangerous) place?
From the looks of it, that stuff doesn't look near as tall as the stuff I was cutting. But then I had the mower set to its highest position, 4". You were a lot lower. I can't see me wanting to cut the field any lower than that anyway. I think brush hogs will cut as high as close to a foot which would be useful if you have tall thick stuff and need to whack it to a reasonable height before going to the final level on the second pass.
