CV PTO driveshaft

[m16ty]

After hooking and unhooking dad’s 15’ Bush Hog with CV shaft several times, along with our New Idea disc mower/conditioner, I don’t think I’m sold on the CV driveshaft.

Their main selling point does work as advertised, you can turn as sharp as you wish and the driveline is smooth as silk, but the thing is heavy and unwieldy when trying to hook and unhook, and if you ever have to repair one you better get your pocket book ready.

My Woods 15’ cutter has standard joints and I can still turn fairly sharp without chatter. I’ve found that having the hitch setup right (the correct height and drawbar length) really makes a difference. I don’t think the little extra you gain with the CV joint is worth the hassle with it, especially if you hook and unhook a bunch.

I’m thinking about buying a new 15’ rotay mower, what is everybody else’s thoughts on a CV joint? Is their something I’m missing?

 

[wore out]

After hooking and unhooking dad’s 15’ Bush Hog with CV shaft several times, along with our New Idea disc mower/conditioner, I don’t think I’m sold on the CV driveshaft.

Their main selling point does work as advertised, you can turn as sharp as you wish and the driveline is smooth as silk, but the thing is heavy and unwieldy when trying to hook and unhook, and if you ever have to repair one you better get your pocket book ready.

My Woods 15’ cutter has standard joints and I can still turn fairly sharp without chatter. I’ve found that having the hitch setup right (the correct height and drawbar length) really makes a difference. I don’t think the little extra you gain with the CV joint is worth the hassle with it, especially if you hook and unhook a bunch.

I’m thinking about buying a new 15’ rotay mower, what is everybody else’s thoughts on a CV joint? Is their something I’m missing?

CV PTO drivelines are the best thing since sliced bread until the aren't, when they need to be repaired or replaced.

Setting up the length and height of the drawbar so the angles on conventional joints track the same is the next best thing.

 

[wh]

they are heavy and can be a bear to hook up. Would not want anything different on my 15 ft batwing. I keep mine greased and cleaned so it slides easy.

 

[Tx Jim]

Several yrs ago on JD rd balers JD engineers swapped ends of the telescoping shafts by "'''relocating the hollow tube to tractor end & solid, splined shaft to baler"""". This caused CV joint & hollow tube to be a little lighter weight & a little easier to attach CV joint to tractor pto.

I think CV type joint pto shaft is more user friendly than the Equal Angle hitch that JD engineers introduced back 50+ yrs ago.

Several yrs ago as an emergency experiment due to CV failure on a weekend I removed a worn CV joint on my JD 467 rd baler & installed only the tractor half of CV joint coupler to the splined shaft using regular u-joint kit. I removed timing indexing splines on solid splined shaft & installed ""spline shaft in time with hollow tube shaft"".

That regular type drive shaft operated very smooth when baling straight but when turning corners the chains & bale forming belts were very jerky from pto shaft/baler rollers speeding up/slowing down. I finished baling that field but Monday morning I acquired a new tractor 1/2 of baler pto shaft.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Years ago a young man dropped off one in bad shape and in a big hurry because hay was ready to bale. While standing beside the mechanic doing the work he asked what happened to it? Mechanic smirked "too much grease" the young man said good to hear it's not my fault because I've never greased it,,,,,,,,

I cut over 30 acres of lawn with a Bush Hog pull type finish mower that is 15 years old. The CV gets 6 shots of grease in each fitting every time it is used, about 6 hours. It's never been touched otherwise and works same as it did new. Granted it's heavy, I have no other issues with them.

 

[Tony in SD]

Since I’m mostly retired, I have no need for heavy duty CV drive shafts. In fact, at my age I do have the time to make wider turns if necessary but I do not have the strength to handle CV drive shafts easily anymore. So that makes my decision on CV drive shafts easy.

 

[showcrop]

I wouldn't want to be lifting one any more. Or maybe I should say "trying to lift one"

 

[m16ty]

My current Woods 15’ cutter without CV shaft does ok, you have to have the rear tire almost into the tongue before it starts to chatter. I’ve got it setup where the shaft is level horizontally and the drawbar pivot is right at dead center of the shaft.

At my day job I’ve done lots of driveline work on trucks. From that I’ve learned that to a point the total angle really doesn’t matter, just so the joints on both ends are the same angle. Only any u-joint driveline the joint will introduce a velocity change into the shaft at any angle, the more the angle the more the velocity change. What you want is the velocity change introduced into the shaft by the first joint to be canceled out by the second joint. This can only happen if both joints are at the same angle. That is all a CV joint is doing, it is basically just 2 standard joints in one, with some other stuff that makes sure both joints stay in constant angle relationship to each other.