Swather Makes Great Pto Power Source

Swather Makes Great Pto Power Source POWER TAKE OFFS PTO S “I was putting too many hours on my farm tractor to run a firewood processor so I came up with a way to use an old swather as a pto power source ” says Allan Ritchie Silver Valley Alta Ritchie first removed the header from a 30-year-old Versatile self-propelled swather that he wasn’t using anymore to cut hay or grain “It had a 15-ft header and that’s way too small for what we need in this country ” says Ritchie He kept the frame wheels operator’s platform and engine intact The 60 hp Ford 4-cylinder industrial engine was in good working condition Ritchie says the driveshaft that powered the header turned at about 1 100 rpm’s so he had to buy a speed-reducing angle drive to bring the rpm’s down to 540 “I bolted a piece of channel iron to the frame to mount the angle drive ” Ritchie says “Then I welded a male pto spline to a length of shaft that I attached to the output end of the angle drive I secured that shaft with a pillow block bearing then attached a telescoping pto shaft from there to the firewood processor ” Ritchie knew the swather engine had plenty of power to run the firewood processor but he had no idea it would be so economical on gas compared to his tractor “The processor needs a 30 to 40 hp tractor to run it so the 60 hp swather engine wasn’t laboring at all ” Ritchie says “We did a gravel truck full of wood and only used about 3 to 4 gal of gas in almost 2 hrs of processing ” says Ritchie “The tractor I had on the processor before would’ve used twice that much plus the hours on the tachometer so I’m really saving two ways ” Ritchie says a neighbor helped him with the project so by the time he paid him for labor bought the angle drive and other materials the total cost for his power unit was about $1 200 His success with this rig has him planning a similar rebuild on another old swather “I plan to put a 3-pt hitch on that one along with the pto shaft I’d like to use it for a rough cut mower and to run and move grain augers ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Allan Ritchie P O Box 68 Silver Valley Alta Canada TOH 3EO ph 780 351-2289; allachar@gmail com

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