[AT] "Live" and "Independent" PTO's

[Brian]

Baled some with Dad's Super M and New Holland baler with PTO. To set the 
throttle I used my pocket watch with sec. hand to count the plunger.  
Maybe 55 or 60 plunges/min.  If the windrow got to heavy we would kick 
it out of gear and let it clear out.  Dad's first live power tractor was 
a brand new Allis D15.  D15 was really only semi live power. Push the 
foot clutch and it killed everything but the hand clutch didn't. Dad 
said the hand clutch ran in oil so we could slip it feeding heavy 
windrows into the baler so that's what we did.  Not sure if that was 
true but we did it for years and never replaced the clutch. Seldom baled 
with M after that. Another fun tractor to run was the DC Case with 
Sargent loader. Hydraulics ran off the PTO so when loading you had to 
kick it in and out of gear quite often and  one hand on the hyd controls 
and one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the gear shifter and 
one hand on hand clutch.  Got so we could kind of run the clutch with 
your foot sometimes. When digging Sugar Beets with the Super M and 
unloading on the go into the trucks Dad would push clutch in jam the PTO 
in gear and let clutch out hardly missing a beat.  Then there was 
chopping corn.  Come up to the end, stop, kick out of gear quickly then 
let chopper clean out.
Now we plant corn. One hand runs the throttle, shift button, auto steer 
engage button and 3 pt button.  Other hand holds the smart phone so you 
can bid on auctions and read AT...

Brian CO




On 2021-05-31 08:09, Indiana Robinson wrote:

> lot to further the move but so did forage harvesters, regular balers,
> corn pickers and combines. Anything that could load up on a slug of
> weeds or a big wad in a windrow. You have to remember that in those
> days good weed control was non-existent in some crops.
> That Roto-baler also put a hand clutch in the Allis C tractor and that
> and a few other nice changes made it the CA.
> 
> One early way around the problem of units jamming due to lack of
> tractor size or live PTO was implement mounted power units. With a
> power unit engine you could stop  the tractor and maintain power to
> the implement. If you had a big "slug" to deal with you could stop,
> let the implement clear and then inch into the slug. My father bought
> a new Allis Chalmers chopper and blower set in the late 1940's and
> didn't really have the HP to run it properly which was common on farms
> here at that time. He got by by using the McCormick 10-20 which moved
> slowly and if he hit a slug he could use his foot to kick the tractor
> into neutral not using the clutch and after the chopper cleared he
> then used the clutch to put the tractor back in gear. Not exactly how
> you want to do things but it did work and it was not done daily.
> Our first actual "live" PTO capability on this farm came in the early
> 1950's when a John Deere MC crawler was acquired (and with the 40C
> that replaced it in a few years) that had live PTO by way of the
> steering clutches. If you pulled both steering levers all the way back
> it stopped the tractor but not the PTO. Not a lot of HP going on but
> it worked fairly well.
> The combine of that time was a John Deere 12-A with its own engine
> (LUC). Worked pretty well, still not a lot of HP to spare.
> 
> Our first real "live" PTO came with the new Ford Jubilee which was
> bought with a hydraulic hand clutch behind the transmission. it worked
> well (but a bit jumpy unless you were very careful engaging it) and
> the HP of the tractor was enough to do the job fine even if it still
> didn't have a lot to spare.
> Our first "independent" PTO on the farm was on the IHC 300-Utility
> bought new in about 1956. It had both the independent PTO, the TA
> transmission and the "Fast-Hitch". I was rather fond of that 300-U and
> if there was more loose money laying around unused I would have one
> now.
> The use of power units on implements sold about a zillion V-4's for
> Wisconsin Engines. I once had an IHC baler with a Farmall Cub engine
> power unit on it.
> Tractors without either a live or independent PTO drive son Scott
> bonkers but they never really bothered me all that much, I grew up on
> them. The extra motions and sometimes extra planning were all just
> part of daily life. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate that
> live stuff though...  :-)
> One time an old friend decided to build a sprayer onto an old WC Allis
> (hand brakes) as a dedicated sprayer. He said that it was going fine
> until he got to the other end of the field. He said "All of a sudden I
> didn't have enough hands to do everything"...  :-)
> 
> --
> 
> --
> 
> Francis Robinson
> aka "farmer"
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson46176 at gmail.com
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