clutch question

I had a discussion with a man who said if I run my grain blower with the tractor I have it will destroy my clutch because of lack of HP in the engine. Seems to me the clutch could be ruined when you try to start it spinning but once engaged it should kill the engine but the clutch shouldn't slip if adjusted correctly. What are your thoughts just for discussion?

Hi, I believe you are right. I don't know much about grain blowers but if the motor starts to bog down can you cut down on the feed? Ed Will

If it's a good clutch to begin with,once it's engaged,it should be as if it was welded together. Clutches wear out when they're being slipped to engage them.

you might cause the temperature gauge to rise and the radiator cap to start leaking if you are under powered, but if the clutch is good and adjusted right it's designed to handle the hp of the engine application and then some,slipping and full load start ups at full engine speed will eventually get one, what always made me cringe was someone engaging the separator clutch on a combine and the motor at full speed under a normal start up

We pulled our DC and 730 CASE tractors mercilessly for decades. Clutches were the least of our problems (zero). Not much other trouble either for that matter.

Glenn F.

I see absolutely no sense in the answer you were given.

A clutch should be able to hold any horsepower and/or torque an engine has. If not it's bad and needs an overhaul.

I assume that grain blower has a fairly low starting torque. That's when your clutch will get exercised, assuming your tractor doesn't have independent PTO.

Lack of horsepower is a different problem. If your tractor has insufficient horsepower to run the blower, it's not going to work. You won't be able to get the blower up to proper speed, so it's not going to work right. And the only fix for insufficient horsepower is to buy a bigger tractor.

Note that horsepower is the product of engine torque and engine speed. Tractor engines have a relatively flat torque curve, so if the engine has insufficient horsepower for its load, the engine will slow down until the torque of the engine equals the (reduced) torque of the load. Under this condition, there might be a slight rise in torque from rated horsepower, but not enough to tear out the clutch. The real problem is that you won't be running the blower at the speed it's supposed to run, and you won't be running the tractor at an ideal speed, either.

He may have been referring to slipping the clutch to get it restarted after plugging and a partial clean-out.

Can you explain why you say "assuming your tractor doesn't have independent PTO" I don't understand why there is a difference between the two. Is there a differents in clutch capabilitys? I've never taken one apart with a live PTO. This one is live PTO.

,uote="MarkB_MI"](quoted from post at 01:54:01 06/08/16) I assume that grain blower has a fairly low starting torque. That's when your clutch will get exercised, assuming your tractor doesn't have independent PTO.

Lack of horsepower is a different problem. If your tractor has insufficient horsepower to run the blower, it's not going to work. You won't be able to get the blower up to proper speed, so it's not going to work right. And the only fix for insufficient horsepower is to buy a bigger tractor.

Note that horsepower is the product of engine torque and engine speed. Tractor engines have a relatively flat torque curve, so if the engine has insufficient horsepower for its load, the engine will slow down until the torque of the engine equals the (reduced) torque of the load. Under this condition, there might be a slight rise in torque from rated horsepower, but not enough to tear out the clutch. The real problem is that you won't be running the blower at the speed it's supposed to run, and you won't be running the tractor at an ideal speed, either.[/quote]