PTO question YM240/YM2000

[woolyAcres]

What type of PTO does the YM240 have? Because it has an overrun clutch built-in I assume it's a transmission PTO where the PTO is more or less directly connected to the tractor transmission. When the clutch is depressed both PTO and transmission are dis-engaged. And conversely when the clutch is released, but PTO and transmission are engaged. Do I have this right? By extension the YM2000 has the same setup but lacks the overrunning clutch.

My limited experience brush hogging with my YM240 suggests this IS the case. How do others handle the situation where you'd like to give the BH more time to 'grind' stuff up before continuing on? Or the situation where things are getting heavy and the tractor is bogging down so you need to down shift. Slowing the forward progress while keeping the PTO spinning isn't possible so I seem to end up trying to start the PTO with things already 'jamming' it even if I do so in neutral (no forward progress).

Tips/tricks? Thanks

 

[winston1]

The 240 does not have a "live" pto. It does have the internal overrun as you stated. Best way to grind something is by raising the mower, neutral, pto engaged, let out on clutch, slowly lower the mower.

The 2000 doesn't have the internal overun so with an external overrun in can be done the same way.

 

[clemsonfor]

YOu got it right. Or if its a really thick spot that you want to grind it down say wood saplings or lots of vines and briars just shift down a gear or two and go slower over said spot and the stuff will spend more time under the deck.

And like winston said i just have an external over run clutch which esentially amounts to a 6-8" pto extention that has the ratchet mechanism in it.

 

[California]

Tips/tricks? Thanks

Raise the rotary mower to lighten its load when you realize its getting jammed and before it stalls.

 

[clemsonfor]

Raise the rotary mower to lighten its load when you realize its getting jammed and before it stalls.

thats what i do.

 

[woolyAcres]

Raise the rotary mower to lighten its load when you realize its getting jammed and before it stalls.

Yeah, that should work but that's a bit of a problem the way it's setup. I'm not able to lift the rear wheel off the ground while also allowing enough slack in the top link so the mower can follow the curves of the ground. I think this has mostly to do with the way the brush hog is setup- deck needs to rise relative to the rear wheel. Doing this I hope will also make it cut better. Right now it appears the rear of the cutter is the lowest part. I'd prefer the front of the deck to be the lowest- cut it as you drive over it and blow it out the rear of the deck.

But I've also run into the situation where the sway-bar turnbuckles are one or two turns away from being snug which allows for a little bit of sway in the deck, but when raising the deck/3PT they bind up and cause the 3PT lift to activate the hydraulic relief valve. This happens well below full lift height. I'm not sure how best to handle this.

 

[Gunny]

Sounds to me like you may have your top link extended too far

And you're right, they cut better when the front is about 1 inch lower than the rear

 

[California]

From your photos it looks like you already have the top link attached to the tractor's lower attachment holes. If not - attaching to the lower holes tilts the back of the deck up steeper than attaching at the top holes.

As for the sway turnbuckles binding - that's impossible if the tractor end of the sway chains are attached near the outer axle bearings, since those attachment points and the the tractor's 3-point pins are all in the same plane. Simple geometry, they all hinge around the same (theoretical) axis. It sounds like something's set up wrong.

Like Gunny said and everyone will soon affirm - the front edge of the mower should be lowest. This will reduce the amount of hp needed to turn the blade.

 

[woolyAcres]

@California-

You are correct about the sway turnbuckles. On further inspection, they are mounted at the same elevation as the lift arm allowing both the turnbuckles and the lift-arms to rotate around the same axle. It was actually my top-link causing things to bind up. I still haven't solved that yet. Frankly, it was spitting a bit of snow today and I couldn't remove the bolts that allow me to adjust the deck/rear tire on the BH so I just continued to use it the way it is. It seems to run okay, but I'm still limited on how high I can lift the BH. Because I still have my hydraulic pressure gauge plumbed into the system I can see that when I raise the BH as high as possible, it activates the pressure relief- even though the BH isn't fully off the ground. I can see the pressure gauge spike at over 3000psi.

So far I've had the top link in the higher of the two pin locations on the tractor. I'll try moving it to the lower one (closer to the PTO) and see if that allows a greater lift range. Thanks for pointing that out. I'm not sure I've EVER used the lower location.