Is it weird that I feel bad for the guy… 
Olpea I am just always in awe of your peach orchard. It is beautiful!
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Good job, looks clean. I sometimes mow between my apple trees with my 48in Husq, but I worry about hitting something that’ll damage my blades. That area’s kinda scrubby and has plenty of stones and roots that aren’t in a normal lawn. So, I usually just bush hog between the rows.
Actually, I was out there yesterday and today doing some bush hogging of the south pasture and some by the barn. I mowed down my corn patch that had turned into a forest of 5ft tall burr and briar weeds. I got showered by burrs, and it took me ten minutes to flick/pull burrs off my clothes and boots!
The pasture looks good now, I wanted to get it mowed down before deer season starts next weekend, we’re planning on setting a blind up out there.
I did the mowing in the late afternoon, and with the late sun hitting the opposite hillside with all the trees changing colors, it made for a beautiful scene.
Before I did any mowing, the PTO shaft on the bush hog got stuck, I couldn’t get it loose enough to hook up to the tractor. Guess the grease had dried up a bit where the the shaft segments meet. Could not break it loose, even with the help of my bro in law.
I finally got it to pop loose by hooking a chain to the end of the shaft and giving it some tractor HP. But now the shaft cover is jacked up and will have to be replaced. I checked online for a new one and they run from $50-100. But, it’s gotta be fixed, the shaft will collect dirt and grit, and it’s a safety hazard as well.
Maybe I should’ve put this on the tractor thread…
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I’ve done things like that. Sorry to hear the shaft cover got messed up. Was the cover stuck together too?
If the shaft segments are stuck together be careful the shaft is also not frozen to the front shaft of the gear box, if yours uses a shear bolt. Many times those shafts will freeze to the shaft with the shear bolt and render the shear bolt ineffective.
If it has a slip clutch, sometimes the slip clutch plates will also freeze together, so they won’t work to protect against shock.
I think we may be talking about two different things? The PTO shaft on the bush hog is the issue, not the tractor’s driveline. Maybe you are talking about the bush hog, my mechanical knowledge when it comes to tractors and implements is not extensive.
It has two tight interconnecting shafts. One shaft segment end is attached to the gear housing of the bush hog thru a coupler. The other segment end fits into the other segment that attaches to the coupler that attaches to the PTO on the tractor.
Those are tightly fit together and are lubed with grease. The problem was that they were evidently jammed too tight together, and I couldn’t slide it out enough so that it could be hooked up to the tractor.
The sheath that covers that shaft is plastic, and I had to cut some of it off to get to that joint. Then when I popped it out with the tractor, the plastic coupler on the tractor side came off with it. I then re-greased that joint and adjoining areas of the two segments.
I tried to tape most of the sheath back together, and replace that coupler back on, but it didn’t work. The shaft turned with the sheath, and it’s supposed to turn inside it.
So, after I’m done with the mowing, I’ll put the bush hog in the barn, remove, clean and grease the shaft segments, and try to get a replacement sheath. I have to do a bit more mowing, but I’m mostly done.
Sorry for the long explanation, I’m not what you’d call a concise writer!
On a kinda related note, I was out in the newly mowed pasture at sunset watching and listening for deer. I heard a bit of snorting and a ruckus in the woods, so I imagine there was a buck and some does in there. Eventually they all came out into the field until they spotted me and ran back into the trees. From what I could see in the low light there were at least 4 of them. Time to set up the camo blind!
Subdood,
We were talking about the same thing, but I’m not very good at describing what I’m visualizing.
The implement PTO shaft should have a shear bolt somewhere to protect against shock load. That’s what I was referring to.
I’m not able to visualize what’s wrong with the plastic PTO shield, but I have repaired quite a few of those with things like self-taping screws, when the ends come apart.
I never allow the plastic cover to stay stationary while the PTO shaft spins inside (even though manufacturers instruct the user to do so, and provide little chains to hold the plastic cover in place). I don’t hook up the chains and allow the plastic cover to spin with the PTO shaft.
The reason I allow the plastic shield to spin is that I think it’s overkill to try to keep the plastic from spinning. Even when the plastic shield spins, it will stop easy enough before it could do any bodily harm.
But more importantly, what happens in practice if the plastic shield is held stationary is that it wears out where the PTO shaft spins against the plastic (even though there is a little grease zerk there). That cheap plastic just isn’t designed for the PTO shaft to spin at high speeds inside it, and it will wear out that little plastic bushing really quick. Then the plastic shield won’t fit on there anymore, so people just remove them and then the PTO shaft has no protection.
Guys, If I remember right(??), On most pto shafts, you have a knuckle at both ends with a spring loaded lock pin at each end, a plastic shield which always spins no matter, and the two one way, triangular ends of the shaft slide together mid shaft. That slide joint gets stuck frequently and tractor hp puts strict limits on pto shaft life. I always would find a pry bar and stick it into the gaps of the knuckle and pry against the mower deck or something equally sturdy. A soak with wd40 helped. If memory still serves, the shear pin is at the gear box on the mower.
Olpea, your orchard is impressive!
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Thanks @Olpea and @Chikn for the responses. I might just find some kind of long plastic tube to put over the shaft, and not worry about how it spins. A 4ft long, two or three inch wide PVC tube might do the trick. I just want to protect the shaft from dirt/grit and other junk, since it’s covered with grease.
Will have to do a little “Aggy engineering” as my friends in Texas would call it.
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That’s right Chikn, except that somewhere along the way manufacturers thought it was dangerous if the plastic shield spun, so they have little chains now to hold them in place. It’s a good idea in principle I suppose, except there is no bearing for the plastic shield to remain stationary while the PTO spins inside. Instead there is a little plastic bushing built into the plastic shield, but it’s not made to last very long. Then when the plastic bushing wears out, the plastic shield won’t stay extended with the PTO shaft, it just rests on the PTO shaft all “floppy like”. The shield really doesn’t work when that happens, so people just remove the plastic altogether. As you can imagine, the PTO shaft becomes really dangerous then.
Subdood,
I’ve used PVC pipe as a cheap PTO shield once. I attached it on one end by drilling a couple holes through the PVC then running a heavy duty nylon tie through the holes into the U-joint of the implement PTO shaft. The only problem with this method is that the PVC pipe doesn’t cover the whole PTO shaft. You have to cut the PVC pipe a little short to allow for the telescoping PTO shaft. PTO shafts telescope because many times they need different lengths depending on how high or low you raise the implement on the three point. Or in the case of implements pulled with a drawbar, the PTO shaft will telescope when you go over a small terrace or ditch.
They break when you shove the mower into brushpiles.
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Been a terrible last 2 weeks for my family. The wife and kids get rear ended and her car gets totaled. Forced to find another car by Saturday. Daughter got a big knot on her head and wife got whiplash and a fractured hand.
Then to top it off I have the flu since Sunday. I feel miserable. Achy, can not get comfy, cant sleep very well and I’m coughing so much it feel like I took a hundred gut punches from Mike Tyson. Urgggg…
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Misfortunes multiply!
Speedster hope everyone went to the hosp. right after the car accident! You are now starting to heal and it will only get better!
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Speed, sounds like your bush hog got shoved into the brush pile of life. Hope every one is feeling better, admit it, you can whip Mr. Tyson!
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Speedster, I’m so sorry for you and your family. Wishing you all very “speedy” recoveries!!!
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Speed,
Very sorry to hear about the misfortunes. Hope all will be well and will everyone has a speedy recovery.
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Thanks. I went to the doctor because I was afraid I may have given myself a hernia. After probing around there is no hernia. But he believes there is a high grade lower abdominal strain. If It doesn’t start getting better I’ll have to get a CT scan to see if it’s torn. It’s ridiculously painful right now. There is no comfort level. My fever is back up to 101. He gVe me some of that cough syrup with codeine in it to try to help me sleep.
Hang in there, Dave, glad to hear you don’t have a hernia. Do you think you hurt yourself with that stump grinder? I developed a hernia about 3 years ago, and while it wasn’t too painful, my productivity was limited as I didn’t want to make it worse. To top it off, I got it right before we moved from Texas to here! Very bad timing. But, got it repaired later that year, and while the recovery for the first month was rough, it’s still good after 2 years.
Hope yer fam recovers from the wreck, those rear end collisions can be rough. I got plowed into about 15 years ago, and don’t think I ever fully recovered from it. It can be a real shock to the system. I still have lingering neck pain from it.
My wife has had the croop for about 3 weeks, even went to the doc for it. She doesn’t have a fever, but has had a deep cough for a while. They said she doesn’t the flu or pneumonia, but some kind of bronchitis. Seems like it’s going around in these parts.
Speedy recovery for you and yours…
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Thanks subdood.
That stump grinder, wow I don’t even want to think about that thing again. Lol.
Wife just got back from doctor with a shiny new cast. Another 6-8 weeks. I’m still feeling terrible. We’ve not even been able to get out and look for a new car.
Hope you all get better soon, it sucks when your life gets upended like that