4 Speed PTO Gear Ratios

nsmitchell

New member

Equipment
L1-38, loader, backhoe, plough, cultivator, Wood chipper
I have a L1-38 with the 4 speed PTO. I want to run a rough cut mower that operates at 540 rpm. The question is what gear is the 540 PTO rpm on the tach set for and what are the gear ratios of the 4 gears. My concern is that the tach indicates I need 2700 engine rpm to get 540. That's pretty high and I find the tractor has plenty of power at 1500 - 1700 rpm. I bought the L3750 manual but it is only for the 2 speed PTO. Thanks for the help.
 

Orange Tractors

Member

Equipment
L175 w/Woods L59, Allis Chalmers WD
Jul 19, 2009
323
4
18
Butler, MO
Just guessing, but the slowest PTO speed is probably 540 RPM, One of my friends had a small international with a three speed PTO the lowest was 540 on it.

On the speed of the engine, most tractors are engineered to run at rated speed all day long, as long as the cooling system is in good shape.

Robert
 

nsmitchell

New member

Equipment
L1-38, loader, backhoe, plough, cultivator, Wood chipper
Thanks for the info. Sorry for getting back late but was robbed and just getting our new computer back up and running. The second part of my question was what the other ratio were so I could run at a lower RpM. Any ideas?
 

stuart

Member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
B7001 with loader & tiller, 3 point hitch and 4' rear blade
Aug 9, 2009
280
0
16
Aldergrove, BC, Canada
Generally, run at the max governed rpm to get the power to operate any pto implement properly. Yes you can get 540 pto rpm at a lower engine rpm, but it may not be wise to do that. At lower rpm under load engines may burn fuel more efficiently, but run much hotter and with much more stress on moving parts.
Exception might be, say, with a 50+ hp tractor and a 4' brush cutter.
 

nsmitchell

New member

Equipment
L1-38, loader, backhoe, plough, cultivator, Wood chipper
No injuries. Just stuff but mostly the digital photos are missed. I did some cutting this weekend and found PTO speed 2 and 2000 rpm did the trick. She kicked around a bit but did a nice job along the trails with stuff up to 3" in diameter. Couple of times she bogged down a bit but I would just slip into neutral and chew it up for a bit. Again thanks for the info.