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Farmall H, how to know PTO speed to run mower

M

michaelr

Member
Hello,
How do you guys know what is the proper RPM and gear to use a shredder with? My brother was pulling a shredder with his H in first gear, and he only had the throttle at half. The mower was not nearly spinning fast enough. Is there danger in putting engine RPM closer to max on the 540 PTO with a shredder?
 
First off that 540 is a magic number as in it does not need to run exactly at 540 it can be 500 or 600 pretty much all the same. Most tractor 3/4 throttle is close to that magic number of 540
 
On these older tractors that don't have a PTO rpm guage, how to tell what RPM the shaft is spinning at? Is there an aftermarket device, or simply run at 3/4 throttle and observe the mower or what not and see if its getting sufficient spin?
 
You need a Starrett revolution counter, I could bring mine over!
a186061.jpg
 
The magic 540 speed is reached at rated load speed of the engine. In other words if your tractor is set to run at the correct high idle speed of I believe 1815 on an H it will run 1650 at full rated load . Like others have said, pull throttle wide open and go. You may be able to throttle down some if you like as long as you do the job you intend. The way to tell if you are overloading it when running in a throttled down speed is to just pull back on the throttle and if it does not respond with a little more rpm's you are exceeding the power of the tractor. The reason I added this is because there is a great tendency to overload and engine when not running at full throttle especially if you do not have a tach to watch on the tractor.
 
If the governor is set correctly then wide open throttle will pull down to 540 RPM PTO speed at a full load. I'd consider a shredder a full load for a Farmall H.
 
They are as accurate as the person using it! I have used mine on many slower speed shafts, works good. I would not recommend using one on a 3600 shaft as they have no bearings. As I remember our Farmall C is almost 600 at full throttle. I think most tractors will rev a little higher than 540, but certainly not enough to be a problem. My Father had a nice Stewart-Warner hand tach for setting the fan speed on the combine, don't know what happened to it, wish I had it.
 
Almost NO tractor ever had a gauge of any sort to give you PTO speed. Ya some have a Tack that gave you an idea but that is it. Yes there are gauges that you can hold on the PTO to tell you the speed it is turning but you can not use them and the brush hog at the same time.
 
When the H was built, 540rpm PTO speed was pretty much standard on 99% of the tractors built, so you really don't need to worry about it. Just run it with the throttle pulled back and let it go.
 
some people must look at a pair of socks and try to figure out which one should go on the left foot and which one should go on the right foot.
 
If Farmall H's or M's have the throttles and governors adjusted properly then the PTO shaft will spin at right around 594 rpm (call it 600 rpm for easy visual on most handheld gauges) at WOT with absolutely no load.

I actually use a handheld stewart warner type tach on the PTO shaft gauge to adjust my throttles to proper spec for both WOT as well as idle speed prior to doing timing sets etc. I have no way to use the handheld on the engine safely since no access, but it is real easy to use on the PTO as long as you know the target PTO rpms for each setting. Thanks to Pete23 and Owen A..land those have been mentinined in some of their posts and I have mentioned it some of my posts as well.

So the answer to your question is pull it wide open and you will be real close to the 540 rpm when there is some load on the PTO. (assuming your throttle is in proper factory adjustment). Only sure way to know is check it especially if you suspect some puller has oversped it in an effort for a couple more hp).
 
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