Splitter Repowered With Pto Drive

Splitter Repowered With Pto Drive POWER TAKE OFFS PTO S After the Tecumseh gas engine failed on his old wood splitter Larry St Germain switched to a pto drive Salvaged parts and a local machine shop made the job relatively easy and low cost     “It’s a lot easier to start my V1600 Kubota when I want to split wood than it was with the old air-cooled Tecumseh ” notes St Germain     To make the pto drive he used a 15 1/2-in pulley off an old air compressor     He salvaged the pulley as well as a stub shaft from a pto-driven gearbox He had a machine shop make a tapered shaft for the large pulley and weld the stub shaft to it     The Tecumseh was connected to the splitter’s hydraulic pump via a coupler St Germain connected a shaft with a small double groove pulley to the pump     He used a straight edge to line up the pulleys and their shafts He used pillow block bearings to mount the shafts to an angle iron and square tubing frame he welded to the splitter He simply backs up to the splitter and hooks up     “A mechanic advised me to line up the shafts with a little angle making the bearings work ” says St Germain “If they are straight with no movement they tend to wear in one spot ”     Using the smaller pulley allows him to run the tractor at a lower rpm “The Tecumseh ran at 3 500 rpm’s ” says St Germain “If I run the Kubota at 1 000 rpm’s the small pulley runs at 3 800 This way I can run the tractor at half throttle and it works great ”     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Larry St Germain 165 Potato Hill Rd Enosburg Falls Vt 05450 ph 802 782-3556

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