PTO Drive shaft alignment

[professorburnout]

Hello

Hello,

I recently purchased this flail mower but it is not totally right for my tractor. I wanted to find out if the alignment of the PTO drive shaft is OK to be about 3-4 inches off alignment from the center line of the tractor PTO shaft? I was thinking of welding new mounts on the mower to get the PTO shaft aligned but I was not sure if this would be necessary.
Thanks,
Paul

 

[Gordon Gould]

That should be find. I have a BearCat chipper that is off-center more than that.

gg

 

[ericm979]

The manual that came with my wood chipper says to run the pto shaft at a 15 degree angle or less.

 

[jmc]

It's the angle, not the offset, that affects universal joint longevity. So if ericm979's PTO shaft was similar to yours with your 4 inch offset, than any shaft longer than about 15 inches (between u-joints) would be less than 15 degrees.

Angle=arcsin(offset/u-joint distance)

Also, that offset is the total offset, not just horizontal or vertical offset but their combined effect. That can be calculated too.