2012 - Volume #BFS, Issue #12, Page #17
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Add-On Axle Pto Lets Semi Drive Farm Equipment
Low horsepower pto’s have been available for trucks for decades, but Harry Wallace has figured out a relatively inexpensive way to add 250 hp pto’s to semi tractors.“I sell the axle ready to go,” says the Galva, Ill., inventor of a modified power divider axle complete with parallel shaft gearbox and pressurized oil system.
“The secret for long life is a pressure-lube cooling system,” Wallace says. “Semi tractors have huge radiators, which is great for running a pto — lots of cooling. You can idle a large semi engine down and change gears in the transmission and use a third less fuel than a tractor.”
His truck is equipped with a vacuum switch so he can drive it where he needs to go, then flip that switch to disconnect traction drive when he wants to run the pto. He hits cruise control to set the speed he wants.
Wallace put the axle on one of his trucks to run a bagger machine. He and his son-in-law run a self-propelled forage harvester for their custom harvesting business. A lot of time was wasted arranging to get the tractor to run the bagger. Adding a pto to a truck makes the bagging operation self-sufficient.
Detailed do-it-yourself plans for the drive axle are available on www.GizmoPlans.com.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Harry Wallace, Old School, P.O. Box 57, Galva, Ill. 61434 (ph 309 259-9092; hwallace70@gmail.com).
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