Safety chains on PTO shaft shields?

kybota · Apr 23, 2005

( Wow! What advice!

I think I'd call the mower manufacturer, and tell them that one of their dealers is publicly advocation bypassing a built in safety feature..one that may well save your life.. or your childs life.. I'd send it certified mail, and send a CC to OSHA. My bet is that guy won't be selling that brand of equipment a day after the equipment manufacturer gets the letter. After OSHA is done with the hot-poker prostrate exam.. maybee he can find a job in a position that he can't give advice out that will potentiall kill his customers!!!

I think your dealer should be ashamed for dispensing that kind of info...

It only takes a minute to hook those chains up.. and it only takes a second to get would up in a pto shaft... At worst.. you'l be dead, and your family will have to live with that.. at best you may die slowly, or just be maimed the rest of your life... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Soundguy )

Wow indeed. The way the dealer told me this he made it seem if it was a well accepted convention that you do not use the chains. He said that in the last few years people realized that the plastic wore out if you chained the shield, and that current standard procedure is to let the plastic shields spin free and if someone bumped against them they'd stop spinning. Needless to say, he did not furnish chains with the shaft.

I was puzzled because I have seen lots of pictures of equipment in brochures with the chains in use, and I mentioned this to him. He told me that this was probably because the literature was old and did not reflect new practices.

After reading peoples' experiences with the shields not wearing out real fast, I think I'll shoot 'em with grease frequently and get some chains and use them.

midlf · Apr 23, 2005

Thanks for this thread. I did not know these Shields were, or could, be greased. I'll have to look mine over for this fitting.

Dachshund · Apr 23, 2005

Well - after being hit in the back TWICE by flying pieces of CHAIN from the shaft covers - I took the chain off. Then had one plastic cover become shrapnel. I don't worry about it any more because I took them off before I really got hurt.

PineRidge · Apr 23, 2005

If you think the plastic can hurt you maybe you should see some pictures of the poor souls that have become tangled up in a spinning PTO shaft without plastic covers. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

I sincerely hope that this misfortune never happens to you or your loved ones.

Green4Me · Apr 24, 2005

Here's my 2C. These plastic gysmos are there for one reason and that is to cover the buts of the equipment maker. Same as the stickers all over your new ladder. On a CUT it's hard to wigglle yourself into position between the implement and the tractor to hold it and connect it. Someone would have to really try to get in there to get tangled up in it.
If these things are so important then why don't the tractor mfg. put a loop or hook to connect the lock chains to? The only way I have found is to loop them around something, usually the lift arm. The implement mfg don't even provide a place to hook these chains. They provide the PTO shield and chain but no place to hook the chain. Go figure.
I would like to relate a couple of things that happen to me with these guys. I have the TSC version of Imatch on my tractor. I was pulling a RFM and mowing. The Imatch clearence is such that, if the RFM raises, as in backing upgrade, the Imatch will rub a nice crimp groove around the plastic shaft and make it all but impossible to slipback and forth. I wound up cutting a section out of the center to get it off.
Another time, with this same setup, I had one of the so called safety chains break loose and wind mill, Like David's sling shot.
It managed to grab a quick pin from the lower lift arm link and throw it away. Before I discovered it the rest of the link, pin and washers fell out and were lost. Now if the tractor mfg. had supplied a snap loop for the chain on the tractor end of the shaft and the RFM people on the mower, probably none of this would have happened. Now as for as kids becoming tangled in my machine's pto when I am away.... Well if they got a key then there ain't much I can do about it. On the other hand, if I had been driving by them and that piece of chain had taken one of their eyes out, would I be any better off???
BTW I still use them, most of the time. I see no compelling reason to use or not use the chains. Merely my own experiences.

PineRidge · Apr 24, 2005

If you think that the PTO shields are there just to protect the manufacturer then you may want to take a look at these very graphic pictures of poor souls that were tangled in PTO shafts. PTO Injury & death

More nasty looking accidents tractor fatalities

This stuff can be avoided

frank_f15 · Apr 24, 2005

MIKE : That pretty much say's it all. but on another note WHY would anyone get off a tractor with the PTO ENGAGED?

NIXON · Apr 24, 2005

No doubt You are correct . The manufacturers are out to protect themselves . They need to ! No doubt about it there are folks "thick enough " to carry a ladder into power lines ,reach around an unprotected pto . ,or do 1000 other things that are frankly stupid . Then(if they suvive) they(or,their loved ones ) bring up a suit hoping to get rewarded for their own stupidity . Mind you , I didn't use the term ignorance . Most products have a lot of safety labels ,and literature concerning their use for that very reason. John

PineRidge · Apr 24, 2005

MIKE : That pretty much say's it all. but on another note WHY would anyone get off a tractor with the PTO ENGAGED?


Frank I have no idea. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

As a side note my uncle was killed years ago while driving to work. He was hit broadside and thrown out of his vehicle. The car then rolled over on top of him crushing him to death. He just didn't believe in seat belts and no one will ever have the opportunity now to ask him why.

Some folks unfortunately have to learn the hard way. I try to slow down a bit and think before I do something foolishly.

Sometimes it takes graphic pictures like these to make us think who is responsible for our own actions.

mangoland · Apr 25, 2005

( WHY would anyone get off a tractor with the PTO ENGAGED?)

I do so all the time, as that is the only way to run a PTO chipper. Doesn't seem to me to be a cause for concern though, as I am on the other end of the machine while it is in use.

For my part, I do use the chains.