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Is it really 540 rpm?

W

wolfman

Well-known Member
Any easy way to measure PTO speed? Used the same tractor for 8 or 10 years on the discbine, set the rpms to where the tach needle said 540 PTO. Needed to use another tractor to mow, set its tach needle to 540 PTO and I'm sure the PTO shaft was spinning faster. Any way to measure?...like a hand-held laser gun or???
 
(quoted from post at 23:03:23 05/06/18) Any easy way to measure PTO speed? Used the same tractor for 8 or 10 years on the discbine, set the rpms to where the tach needle said 540 PTO. Needed to use another tractor to mow, set its tach needle to 540 PTO and I'm sure the PTO shaft was spinning faster. Any way to measure?...like a hand-held laser gun or???
Click to expand...
here are optical tachs and contact tachs.
 
Not to worry there are no RPM police hanging around. There is a probability that there is a noticeable difference between any two tractors. 100 + or- won't matter. A shaft tach or a strobe tach can be used, and are cheap. Jim
 
This and a watch will tell you!
a267018.jpg
 
About $40 will get you a photo tach at Harbor Freight. Put a piece of reflective tape on the shaft and point and click.
 
More, I have one of those. Amazingly accurate for a cheapy. WD pto on my power unit shows right at 540.
 
I picked up an old Stewart Warner(?) hand held mechanical tach from fleabay awhile back for about $20 It has a rubber whel that contacts the PTO and will show you RPM.
 
The HF unit is cheap and for the occasional use seems just fine. Bought one to verify the engine speed on my chipper. I've checked it against the tach on 2 cars using my OBDII tester and it was real close even at ~3500RPM.
 
I bought a real cheap tach off ebay (new), non contact....nothing to hook up. Comes with metallic tape strips you put on something moving and it reads the strip as it goes by. I bought it to check rpms on a Gator engine. Just stuck a piece of tape on the fan (air cooled). Digital and works great. Forget the price but not much. Just put a piece on the shaft and have at it.
 
Yep, one on EvilBay for $11.98. Easy way to test them, point & shoot at a flourescent light, should show 3600 if your power company is supplying 60 cycle per second AC. I would not mess with a contact tach.

I would recommend you remove the batterys when you store them, the cheap imported batteries eventually leak and will ruin the tach.
 
(quoted from post at 20:08:40 05/06/18) Not to worry there are no RPM police hanging around. There is a probability that there is a noticeable difference between any two tractors. 100 + or- won't matter. A shaft tach or a strobe tach can be used, and are cheap. Jim
Click to expand...

There certainly are RPM police hanging around. When I was just getting started at tractor pulling, a puller who was one of the few that I had previously met, came along to check my RPMs. I had never checked or adjusted the throttle stop, but he told me the my tractor was turning too high, and that I needed to adjust it down or get DQed. I found out 2-3 years later that he had a flip away throttle stop and nearly unlimited RPMs.
 
I have a SWs hand-held, too. 4000 RPM in either direction but it's a little dangerous to use on a crankshaft. Problem is the stem comes out the center of the back. Makes is hard to read.
 
How about 12 bucks? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Tachometer-Laser-Photo-Non-Contact-RPM-Tach-Meter-Motor-Speed-Gauge/253603636762?epid=2221791086&hash=item3b0bf4661a:g:vy8AAOSwKWha7T~4
 
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