Homemade pto?

I have a 6610 Ford, an 8N, a 543B Bobcat (no PTO), a 743B Bobcat (no PTO, but does have a rear facing male spline off engine pulley), a 33.5 HP Ferris diesel ( 2000 pound mower) with a 2" tow ball, and a nearly new "PTO driven, pull along manure spreader." Problem is transporting the real tractors to where the manure needs to be spread. The Ferris is strong enough to pull the spreader but I do NOT have a PTO option on the Ferris. I am thinking about welding a Vee shape tow ball hitch to an old Ford rear axle, and pointing the pinion'/companion flange back towards the manure spreader's PTO shaft. Ag Supply has 1 3/8" x 6 male splines that could be used to join the flange to a standard PTO shaft. Assuming I put little tires and wheels on the Ford rear axle, ( like the ones off one of my junk lawn mowers) and given the rear axle's ratio of around 3.50 or so, the rig might be turning a little slow, but it might still fling manure. Any thought and/or advice about a better way to do it?

Maybe a ground drive spreader instead?

Hydraulic motor and an adapter sleeve to the 6 spline PTO, thats what I use to operate a feed wagon so I can pull it with my pick up instead of a tractor.

Can you mount a horizontal shaft air cool engine on the spreader?

I didn't get to be 61 years old by thinking PTO and homemade were two things that belonged in the same sentence.

I dont think you will get the spreader to even turn, tires on ford axle will just slide on the ground.

I think your 8n would barely be enough to pull the spreader,let alone a zero turn that was not designed to tow things.I have spread manure with an 8n and pull type spreader,and it can be all it wants-power,and,traction wise.I think that your idea,the rear end,just like bigbob says,would slip.Then too,the amount of weight would make the zero turn slip/spin.Mark

Wet manure is heavy, unless your spreader is tiny towing it behind a lawnmower sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
1 yard of manure weighs more than your mower.

If you were to build the drive system you described how would you disengage it during transport to the field?

Small wheels will theoretically spin the rear end faster if they have traction but with only the weight of the rear end the whole thing will likely just slip, slide and drag around behind you.

A small engine and gear box or hydraulic motor as others have suggested along with a real tractor would be your best bet.

Maybe an option to see if you can add on a PTO to your tractor.

Sounds like the perfect excuse to use the '' Honey we need to buy another tractor" line.

I have to agree with Determined. Old tractor prices are dropping fast. From the information provided, spending $800 to $1200 for an old tractor to put on full time spreader duty might be the best solution (and the safest).

Well I would just find a good ground drive manure spreader.

Your idea is basically what the Amish use to pull some PTO implements. They are using horses that weight in at 1500-2000 each. They usually use 3-4 on these carts if they are pulling much weight.

Your Zero turn lawn mower is NOT some thing you want to use to tow this setup with. The main reason is safety. The second reason is the zero turn mower's drive line is not designed to pull anything but itself. You can very easily ruin the drive motors.

Your skid steer loaders could pull the manure spreader but may not be able to handle the tongue load with the spreader very full. Plus you will find skid steer loaders and wet ground do not mix very well. If your wanting to sue the skid steers they should have auxiliary hydraulics on them. You could make a hydraulic drive to run the manure spreader.

Your cheapest route would be to just buy an older tractor and leave it on the manure spreader. I was at a sale this week and two Farmal "M" tractors sold for under $1000. They both ran and would already have the PTO an hitch to use your spreader with.

I agree. Might have to put chains on the tires and/or add several hundred pounds of wt to the axle.

I agree that the best alternative is to either buy a 'cheap' older tractor or get a ground drive spreader.Next question is,is the manure at the field,or is it several miles away?Get a ground drive and spreadwith the pickup you transport the spreader with.Or just haul/drive....a tractor to the field and leave at the field for the few days you are spreading.But you can try the axle gruond drive thing.It is cheap,not hard to put together. If it doesnt work you're not out much.then there will be no way to turn off the 'pto' drive. that means you will be hooking and unhooking the pto shaft every time you need to stop/start. You never said how big the spreader is. A small one the 8N would suffice. a big one will need the biger tractor. As was said a spreader will pull hard in soft wet ground,they are heavy on the pavement,you will need sufficent power and weight to handle..

I am with those who say doing it right will cost less, take less time, work better and be less prone to cripple or kill.

What is the problem with not being able to transport a tractor to where you need the manure spread? distance, road and or access?

What am I missing here you say you have a 6610 Ford that is 60+ hp tractor that will go down the road 18 mph pulling the spreader and you want to try killing yourself trying to use a lawn mower?
GB in MN

Since no one addressed this I will. Engine RPM is going to be in the 1500-35-- RPM range and the PTO equipment is likely to be in the 540RPM range so trying to make a PTO adapter to run off the engine is going to have your equipment fly apart due to the RPM being way to high.

You could use a hyd motor for your applications and that you could set up for the correct RPMs

Here"s a drive system Dad made in the late 50s to power a HM bale loader. The transmission was shifted out of gear to disconnect power. But for your use, no way it could power a spreader, unless you had lugged tires and immense weight on the axle. Your skidloader or little Ferris could not move it. Better to buy an old tractor of adequate weight and power for your spreader.

Your Ferris might be powerful and heavy for a mower but it is wholly unsuited for drawbar loads, as is any zero-turn mower. If it is the model I'm guessing it is (a 5100Z?) the maximum trailer weight rating per the manual is only 300 lbs, about the loaded weight of a medium-sized hand cart. I would bet that your spreader weighs many times this when empty and at least ten times that when even partially filled. Dual-path drive mowers are just not designed for pulling anything of any size as you can easily end up with "the tail wagging the dog" which could end tragically.

First, how far away is it?

Second, how big is the spreader?

Third, what is your planned procedure for hauling and spreading the manure?

Everyone has ideas and suggestions here but without those details, any or all of those suggestions may make NO SENSE.

(quoted from post at 16:09:22 10/30/16) I have to agree with Determined. Old tractor prices are dropping fast. From the information provided, spending $800 to $1200 for an old tractor to put on full time spreader duty might be the best solution (and the safest).

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Agree. I keep an 8N hooked to a 125 bu. H&S PTO spreader. It's emptied at least once a week, sometimes twice, depending on the "production" of the critters. A newer spreader is not cheap but as some have said you can find a decent one at a farm sale. Ones like mine are going for almost $6k now. The spreader is the best investment I ever made, eliminates a major headache. I also use a 9N on occasion when I have to work on the 8N. I'm not spreading it but piling the manure for composting so a ground drive won't work, but I used to use a small one at our other place. I gave it to a friend and she's still using it behind a Ford N.

Still waiting for answers to my questions.

The way it sounds to me, either:

1. The manure and field are some distance away.
2. He needs to haul the manure some distance to spread it.

In either case he has plenty of tractors, just no way to get them to the field.

It appears to me that the plan would, if he could, be to haul a tractor to the field, and leave it there while towing the spreader back and forth with the truck. However, he does not have the means to haul a tractor to the field.

But, like all the rest of you, I am just speculating. So I ask again:

1. How big is the spreader?
2. How far away is the field?
3. What is the plan?

My distances are 17 miles between towns for the Ford 6610, and 400 miles for the Ford 8N. I shoved the 6610 front wheels together to clear my trailer's inner fenders, but am stymied about getting the wheel wheels far enough on the trailer to avoid rear weight bias of the trailer. I have to travel on 55 mph dual lanes US 1, and this IS NASCAR country. I am figuring the Ford 8" rear turned backwards, with a trailer type Vee section, and a two inch ball hitch to connect to my Ferris. Then welding up a clevis arrangement on top cener of the Ford's rear pumpkin, to attach the near new Mill Creek manure spreader. I believe the spreader is rated at something like 28 bushels. I am thinking that golf cart/lawn mower rear tires and wheels should speed up the spin rate to maybe half of a normal 540 rpm? And with an 8" Ford rear's weight and with it carrying the weight of the front half of a manure spreader, I expects decent traction. The rig will look like a car dolly with the front manure spreader sitting on it rather than the front of a car on it. The Ferris will be out in front not exposed to any lifting or roll over threat. I was hoping for some leads from you guys about hydraulic accessory PTO ( although I don' t know how much extra hydralic pump the Ferris has. Or some lash ups using gasoline lawmower engines working as auxillery PTOs. With no manure in it, I can turn the PTO drive by hand, and cycle the chains and sliding chains of the Mill Creek spreader. I have to claim total ignorance anout how to figure hydraulic pump volumes, pump cubic inches, rpm of pumps and motors, etc. The Mill Creek has two pullies and a 1/2" belt connecting the PTO to a rear facing shaft the runs it, so how much power does my homemade PRO need, if a belt is carrying the load now?

My 28 year old friend and I (79 years old) got a 4.11 gear ratio Ford Ranger rear axle welded to an old trailer tongue, and then mounted an extra set of Ferris zero turn wheels and tires. The overall gear ratio worked pretty well as the PRO spins pretty fast at ground speed. I had not transported my Ferris yet, to the site with the Millcreek manure spreader ( and mountain of several year old manure from the farm's previous owner) so I hooked my spreader to the homemade PTO mule axle, then hooked the whole rig to my 61" Skags Turf Tiger. The Skags towed the rig wonderfully well. It flings manure like a champ, and the Ranger axle is heavy enough to gain traction with out creating tire drag marks in the samdy paddocks. My rig might not work with some of your monster manure rigs, and great loads of wet manure, but it sure lets me use a PTO driven Millcreek manure spreader on a property with no real PTO capable tractor.