PTO drive shaft???

[Chad D.]

Evenin’ Fellas,
A good friend of mine has had a tiller that I’ve been eyeballing for several months now. A Land Pride RTA 1558. Nice heavy unit that can be shifted to the right as far as you’d ever want to go.
He came across an RTR 1558 (reverse rotation) at an auction, but it was missing the driveline. He’s keeping the RTR and we cut the shaft to fit it. I’m buying the RTA, and just ordered a new shaft.
I was amazed at the differences in prices for shafts that are, for all intents and purposes, equal. $715 from my local dealer, and have to order it. $203 from Agri-Supply, and it will ship out on Monday.
Both are the same series. Both are 6-spline. Both are slip clutch. Both are QD on The tractor end. Both will need cut to fit. One has a black cover, while the other was yellow. Not sure that warrants an additional $500...

I’d love to support my local Kubota dealer, but I cannot justify more than triple the cost for what I just cannot imagine being a significantly difference in parts.

 

[Dave_eng]

The difference is always in the not visible make up of the part, the metallurgy being the big one.

Rather than compare to a Kubota brand look at other shaft brands with a world wide reputation such as COMER.

Then you know the U joints and yoke metallurgy will be top notch.

Dave

 

[bx tractorjoe]

The land pride 60 inch finish mower i bought new from Kubota has a made in China drive shaft.. its pretty heavy.. but I was pretty disappointed when I saw the C word on it.. as well as the gear box..

wth.. 2200 and still has made in China parts... rant over.

 

[Chad D.]

I realize that not all shaft material may be created equally. I also realize that many of the ”high-end” OEM parts are likely just as cheaply manufactured as some aftermarket items.
My thought here is that this shaft will be in the 24-30” range. The operating angle will be within the appropriate range for decent joint life. It is not a commercially used machine and will not see much abuse. I have a whopping 19 PTO HP...

If many of these were to swing toward the other end of the spectrum, I’d give more thought to a higher end shaft. With my Setup and expected use, I do not believe the value would be there... Your mileage may vary.

I suppose I could always put my nice shaft from the flail on the tiller and use the cheapie on the flail. It should see quite a bit less abuse than the tiller shaft will.

 

[SidecarFlip]

The ASC shaft you are buying is Chineseum, I have a couple, they work. If you go over a couple pages, they also have Eurocardan shafts, more expensive, made in Italy. Cannot speak for your dealer's shaft. I do buy all my Kubota tractor parts from m y dealer but I don't consider PTO shafts a Kubota part. Don't think I've ever installed one I didn't have to cut. No big deal. Hacksaw. Cut equal parts from each end until it fits. May take a couple rimes depending on how well you measure.

 

[Chad D.]

The ASC shaft you are buying is Chineseum, I have a couple, they work. If you go over a couple pages, they also have Eurocardan shafts, more expensive, made in Italy. Cannot speak for your dealer's shaft. I do buy all my Kubota tractor parts from m y dealer but I don't consider PTO shafts a Kubota part. Don't think I've ever installed one I didn't have to cut. No big deal. Hacksaw. Cut equal parts from each end until it fits. May take a couple rimes depending on how well you measure.

You're correct. They did have the Eurocardan shafts on their site, but are out of stock. From the photos, that appears to be what I have on my flail mower. Biggest visible difference appears to be the QD type. The more expensive shafts have the slip collar style, where the cheaper ones are the push button QD.

Thabks for everyone’s input! I’m not trying to bash the parts that LP sells, rather just sharing the huge gap in prices on the parts that are available. For my current project, buying the LP badged shaft seems a bit like putting Corvette tires on a Kia.

 

[UpNorthMI]

I’ve enjoyed those savings on buying Agri supply, pto shafts as I’ve purchased some used attachments that either did not have a pto shaft or the original was bent, damaged or similar. I’ve had good luck and no issues to date. Some of these attachments were $500, I would not spend $700 for a new shaft, Agri supply is a sensible option.

Ive also paid the additional premium of buying US made pto shafts with new attachments, Woodmax offers US shafts for an extra $100, it’s good to have the choice.

If I was using my equipment full time to earn a living I make look at the situation differently.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I'm a big customer at ASC myself. Big enough I have a blanket tax exemption on file with them.... Today with the Covid and supply chain disruptions, you'll find a lot of stuff out of stock, just like groceries.....

Myself, I use (have on my implements), 3 different manufacturers of PTO shafts. Weasler, Euro-Cardan and ASC's economy line and they all work just fine because I size my shafts according the the input loads they receive (Series 1-5) and I keep them greased, not just the U joints, but the sliding halves as well. The higher buck shafts will have grease fittings (and access ports in the shaft covers) whereas the lower priced ones you need to take apart and grease. I just add a fitting midway between the end and the cross and bore a hole in the plastic over shield.

 

[Chad D.]

I’ve enjoyed those savings on buying Agri supply, pto shafts as I’ve purchased some used attachments that either did not have a pto shaft or the original was bent, damaged or similar. I’ve had good luck and no issues to date. Some of these attachments were $500, I would not spend $700 for a new shaft, Agri supply is a sensible option.

Ive also paid the additional premium of buying US made pto shafts with new attachments, Woodmax offers US shafts for an extra $100, it’s good to have the choice.

If I was using my equipment full time to earn a living I make look at the situation differently.

My flail is a WoodMaxx. I bought it used, so unsure of the driveshaft origin. Whatever it is, it works perfectly. Lucked out that it was only an inch shorter than I would have cut it...
If the tiller shaft needs to be shorter than the mower shaft,‘I’ll swap them around so they can both be cut to perfect lengths.

 

[UpNorthMI]

My flail is a WoodMaxx. I bought it used, so unsure of the driveshaft origin. Whatever it is, it works perfectly. Lucked out that it was only an inch shorter than I would have cut it...
If the tiller shaft needs to be shorter than the mower shaft,‘I’ll swap them around so they can both be cut to perfect lengths.

It seems the US pto shafts have a full round collar that pulls back, the shaft is a solid rectangle bar on one end and a rectangle tube on other. If the shaft is sized and rated correctly I believe they will all have a good working life if you just give them the correct maintenance. Do like to take the option to support US manufacturing where possible.