How to Turn on a Bush Hog | A Beginner's Guide to Engaging PTO

hi it's Mike with asktractormike.com well sometimes I get letters that are so simple I'm like well I probably got a video that covers that and today I have a a letter from a viewer that's want to know how to turn their Bush Hog on and I'm looking back I've got all kinds of videos where I've talked about PTO I've talked about how to hook up a bush hog I've talked about how to unhook a bush hog really basic stuff I don't think I've ever gone this basic just how do I turn it on let's get to the letter and we'll talk about PTO or power takeoff and I'm going to go pretty in depth on this uh if you're a novice tractor owner watch it if you've been around tractors a while you might learn something so let's get to the letter letter comes from a Holly and Holly says I really appreciate your videos my dad died and left me the farm and the equipment I figured out how to check the oil fill the tires with air start and drive my Massie Ferguson 230 what I'm clueless about is the attachment on the back to mow the grass which is getting really tall I can't seem to find a basic operator manual so I don't know how to turn it on I've never used a tractor well hly I appreciate the question and we're going to talk today about PTO and what you're basically asking is how do I engage the PTO or power takeoff on my Massie 230 and really good question if you've not grown up around tractors you wouldn't have a clue how to do that and it's it's pretty easy but there's lots of different ways to engage a PTO and we're going to talk about all of them today well first off on the older tractors most of them had what's called a two-stage clutch to engage the PTO you would push the clutch down all the way and you'll notice in the middle is a little stop there and and what the two-stage clutch does if you push it down halfway you're stopping your ground speed in other words you're disengaging the transmission of your tractor if you push it down all the way you're disengaging your power takeoff or PTO and that Holly is how I think that Massie 230 is set up now I'm going to post a link to a video above here that shows a another YouTube guy adjusting the clutch travel on a Massie 35 and I think the Massie 35 and the 230 are real similar and in that video if you watch it you'll see the little lever to the right of the clutch right down by your uh left leg and and he's going to show that you'll see that lever and that's how you engage the PTO on your Massie 230 on a two-stage clutch you push the clutch down all the way you move a lever back nothing happens until you let up on the clutch and you let up on the clutch halfway the PTO starts spinning and you'll feel it with a tractor and then you let it up all the way if you're in gear off you go and that's how you turn on your PTO so that's on a two-stage clutch tractor and there's a big advantage of a two-stage clutch equipped tractor if you're out bush hogging and you hit a big rock and you're grinding it up under there and it feels like the wh's coming to an end or you get on top of a stump and it's bouncing up and down and you feel like everything's going to blow up on a two-stage clutch tractor your instinct is to cram the clutch in and if you cram the clutch in all the way down it stops everything I mean there may be a little inertia but it's going to disconnect the PTO so the tractor is not powering it anymore so the rock falls to the ground or you you stop grinding up the stump so that's what you've got Holly on the later tractors uh somebody I think it was maybe International came out with an independent PTO and on an independent PTO you either throw a switch if it's electric or you just move a lever back you don't have to touch a clutch and your PTO starts spinning and and a lot of most of the modern tractors if not all of the modern tractors that you buy today have independent PTO now I think it OSHA requires that there be a two-step process to turn on your PTO in other words you're not just flipping a switch because that way you could accidentally turn it on when you didn't mean to most of the switches you had to push down and move forward uh if they've got a dial you have to push it down and turn the dial to engage a PTO on the levers you have to move the lever out and then back to engage the PTO but it's a two-step process on an independent PTO powered tractor so that's what we have today is independent PTO I have a a tractor my dad had that I inherited a Massie 362 from 1994 and it was a two-stage tractor and some of the massis of that era had two stage available but they were phasing it out I think Massie was really about the last brand that moved away from a two-stage clutch some of the economy tractors of that era uh small compact tractors had a two-stage clutch but most everything now is independent PTO you throw the lever or you move the switch and and you engage your PTO so that's the basics how do I turn on my bush HW uh so Holly in your situation you've got a a lever it's not clearly marked it's by your uh left leg when you're sitting on the tractor seat and you push down the clutch all the way you engage that lever now at what RPM if you're not used to engaging a PTO do you do it at idle do you Do It full rated engine speed I like to do it somewhere in between I usually engage my PTO at oh somewhere between, 13 or, 1400 RPM depending on the tractor and uh you'll just have to experiment with that if you engage it at idle you you bog the tractor and it's really hard on the tractor as it gets those blades going on your cutter uh if you engage it at full rated engine speed it puts a lot of pressure on your drive line so you want to experiment with that but hly to answer your question rev your engine up to let's try 12200 RPM the first time push clutch all the way down move that lever down by your left leg back and then slowly let up on the on the clutch and you're going to feel everything engage it's going to shake but that's normal it's the tractor trying to get the blades up and spinning and once that's uh going uh put it in gear let the clutch the rest of the way up take off and mow you're good to go and I'm going to post a couple of videos at the end that show Basics more Basics on how to operate a bush hog but we'll get that in a minute so let's talk about your your PTO shaft that little stub shaft that comes out the back of the tractor I want to go over some Basics on it and especially if you're new to tractors and you're you're running an older tractor you need to watch this the first PTO shafts were inch and an eighth and they had six splines and the old n series tractors the very earliest ones were inch and an eigh today's tractors all of them the smaller tractors under 80 horsepower are inch and 38 six blind and it's called 540 540 RPM PTO so you've got a six blind ptoo shaft that that carries the torque load and it's an inch and 38 a couple things if you've got an early Ford like way early before around 1954 or any tractor it may have inch and an e PTO and any attachment you get it's a modern attachment it's going to have inch and 38 PTO so make sure you're you're matching them and if you've got inch and an eigh and you need to go to inch and 38 you can get an adapter uh from a lot of suppliers online to do that more importantly there's a safety Factor there's independent PTO and then there's transmission driven PTO and or or in uh there's independent or live PTO it's also called live PTO now let's talk about the difference the very earliest tractors had the transmission and the power takeoff hooked together so you disengaged both if you push the clutch down but the problem was if you had inertia from your cutter and if you've got an older 8 in Ford or the N series Fords they had a lot of them had TR most of them had transmission driven PTO so everything would work great until you were coming to the end of the field and there's a fence in front of you you're bushhoging and you push the clutch in the inertia from the blades would Propel the tractor and you couldn't stop it it would and a lot of people have been injured killed done damage to their tractors whatever with a older tractor with a transmission driven PTO none of the new tractors are like that that I know of hopefully they never be another tractor built that way and there's a very easy fix if you get what's called an overrunning clutch you put it on the back of the PTO shaft it's got the female end that goes on the PTO shaft and then a male end comes out and an overrunning clutch in between so if you push in the the clutch of the tractor the inertia of the blades will all stop right there with that overrunning clutch so if you're new to tractors and you're and you're running an 8 in Ford get an overrunning clutch or you are in danger so I want to make that real parent if you've got an older tractor with a transmission driven PTO you need that so that's PTO 101 for Holly it's a long answer to a simple question of how do I turn my bush hog on and uh lots of different ways to do that depending on whether it's two-stage or or independent PTO but that's how you do it Holly and that should get you started now if you're new to tractors and attachments and you're getting ready to Bush Hog for the first time here's a video video that covers that and here's a video that covers the basic maintenance to get a bush hog ready for the field here's place to subscribe to my YouTube channel which helps me out a bunch and here's a link to the tract ref Fund Store which helps support my channel thanks for watching

Channel: Tractor Mike

Views: 12,954

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Id: i3_eUGMfhzE

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 06 2024