What to do with a short PTO

[1700E Dreamer]

Check out ASC, Agri Supply Company, they ship fast, the stuff is really well priced. Yeah it's about 1/3rd Chinese, 1/3rd indian, and 1/3rd Italian, but a PTO shaft isn't rocket science; even Italy can make one work.View attachment 799550

That’s funny

 

[Tinhack]

Even Amazon has them and will ship free if you have Amazon Prime. I ran across them the other day. I think they were under $100 except for the longest. It was about $110.

 

[ismilelots]

If it's only a few inches short, you can get a pto shaft extender at tractor supply or family farm and home. It just slides onto the tractor shaft and then you attach the equipment shaft

 

[paulsharvey]

So, it's funny, my first advice, bite the bullet and buy a new one; now my old shaft is about 3" too short on new tractor, and I don't want to drop $300 for the PTO shaft to run a $150 Flail mower. I'm pretty sure I'm going to order either the Vevor one, or just pick one up at Rural King.

 

[dkmc]

I agree TSC's prices are too high compared to our other farm supply store, Rural King. I like TSC but find myself buying less and less there due to price.

Remember the old Quality Farm & Fleet? Anyone remember those from your area?

Never any F&F or RC in upstate NY unfortunately

 

[Mud2Money]

I have a few of those series 6 shafts for my implements. Local dealer had a a few I purchased for $170. These ones are not welded. They have a huge pin to hold them into the yokes. The tube sections were like $23 a piece online. Punch pins, install new tubes , cut to proper length and save half your hard earned money !

 

[OzarkChris]

Thank you for the replies. So the best solution is to start with a new PTO attachment?

I've read about things like PTO link, ideally I would like to use what was left here and question why the owner left this PTO if it wasn't for the mower. If I get something like the PTO Link I guess there's no guarantee it will solve the problem?

Would a new PTO shaft be less expensive than finding some sort of way to extend it. I see that the PTO Link is a few hundred dollars.

A lot of co-ops, supply houses, tractor supply places have the pto drive tubes. If you find a local one (not tsc, etc), they will usually replace the old tube for you (for a nominal fee). If you don't have the right tools, the removal of the u-joint from the tube can be a real pain.

If I were in that situation without tubes & tools, I'd take in the tractor side tube - easier than removing from implement side - (connector, ujoint, etc) to a place like this and let them replace it for you - make sure to get good measurements so you get a good fit for your application!

 

[tjandrews]

I have a few of those series 6 shafts for my implements. Local dealer had a a few I purchased for $170. These ones are not welded. They have a huge pin to hold them into the yokes. The tube sections were like $23 a piece online. Punch pins, install new tubes , cut to proper length and save half your hard earned money !

I once made the mistake of trying to set up a tiller to be used on two different tractors. One needed the PTO to be about 2 inches shorter than the other. It worked OK - for a while. But eventually, while using the tiller on the tractor that should have had the longer shaft, the tube split wide open where the pieces slide together. It never slid apart, which is what I was watching for, just split because there was too little of the two parts driving each other.

I fixed it using Mud2money's method. Bought the tube on Amazon as I recall, but it's been long enough that I'm not sure of that now. I can only use the tiller on one of my tractors, but that turns out to be a small price to pay.

 

[hunt4570]

So, it's funny, my first advice, bite the bullet and buy a new one; now my old shaft is about 3" too short on new tractor, and I don't want to drop $300 for the PTO shaft to run a $150 Flail mower. I'm pretty sure I'm going to order either the Vevor one, or just pick one up at Rural King.

Vevor is pretty good, I've just bought 2 pto shafts from them, the price direct from Vevor was cheaper than at amazon, AND free shipping

 

[pcustoms]

The tube sections were like $23 a piece online. Punch pins, install new tubes , cut to proper length and save half your hard earned money !

Where did you find them so cheap? Best I could do was around $50, but shipping was almost the same.

I once made the mistake of trying to set up a tiller to be used on two different tractors. One needed the PTO to be about 2 inches shorter than the other. It worked OK - for a while. But eventually, while using the tiller on the tractor that should have had the longer shaft, the tube split wide open where the pieces slide together. It never slid apart, which is what I was watching for, just split because there was too little of the two parts driving each other.

I fixed it using Mud2money's method. Bought the tube on Amazon as I recall, but it's been long enough that I'm not sure of that now. I can only use the tiller on one of my tractors, but that turns out to be a small price to pay.

Used stump grinder, the overlap on the tubes was "enough" until I used it on a slope and almost slid them apart. Pushed everything together and then this happened about 5 minutes later

Best I could find was $84 for a series 5 replacement tube shipped, farmer bobs via Amazon. Today's project is to put it back together, not sure how the mangled guard is going to work out.