Newbie Questions About PTO, TPH and SH

Thanks for the responses.

In regards to the front pto, unless I'm missing the obvious I don't really think I saw anything much about it in the manual. Is there somewhere I could go to learn a bit more about it? The only thing I remember seeing a reference to was the electric clutch but iirc that strictly drives the mower.

I would have loved to have gotten a SCUT or CUT but the money just wasn't there. I looked at locally available used machines but the ones I found were either in rough shape or beyond what I could really pay. I could tell from running a neighbor's Husqvarna lawn tractor on my place that it was marginal at best. I almost went for a sub-$1000 MTD unit but fortunately I found these forums during my research and realized I really needed something more rugged if it was to last more than a year or two. I live back in the woods and wild hogs periodically run through and root things up. Not only does my tractor need to be able to handle broken terrain but it'd also be nice to be able to do some grading. My line of thought was that the garden tractor could handle most of what I need done and hopefully tide me over for a few years till I can afford a more capable machine. Alternatively it'll give me a working tractor to use while I fix up a an affordable used machine, then when the used machine proves itself I can sell the 6500 if I'd like to recoup some of that money.

D-Dogg said:

The electric clutch mounting to the engine crankshaft is your front PTO (power take off). This same clutch will drive the snowblower that you shouldn't need in Florida.

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Yeah, but if I could find a snowcone maker that ran off my front pto I'd be in business! :bannana:

Thanks a lot for the links and information.

I was thinking about liquid filling my tires but I wanted to try it out a few times and see how it handle first. On my neighbor's Husqvarna lawn tractor I've noticed that there are a few places in particular it liked to get stuck and a few others I could tell were really hard on the machine. Of course that's just mowing and I'm sure the picture changes when you're running ground engaging attachments.

I think a bercomac tiller is definitely on my list and probably a JBJR too. I get the impression that between the two I'd probably be able to smooth over most of the rough spots. They don't have to be perfectly flat as long as they aren't ankle twistingly rutted.

Consider some craftsman wheel weights in addition to weighted lug tires, as Florida can get muddy.

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Yeah, no kidding! In a really rainy year one or even two acres can be submerged under a few inches to over a foot and a half of water! That's ok, when it floods I'll just grow rice. I don't really have a lawn, just a "field."

For an affordable used machine, I'm kind of partial to the John Deere 318. They go for $1000-$2200 for the tractor with a deck and are beasts. Here's a little video of some of the stuff I do with mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKVIJveMn4k

Look at my signature and see the goodies I have for mine (a bit over $5000 total invested).

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I'll be keeping an eye out. Honestly the more I read about this stuff the more I'm afraid it's going in the same direction as my guns and other man things. Right now I'm torn between either restoring an old beast of a machine or trying to assemble off the shelf components into a totally custom sub-CUT. In my other thread I was talking about comparing a few different new gt's in my price range. The more I looked at the frames the more I kept thinking to myself "hey, I could do better than that on my forge..." How hard could it be to hook a K92 up to a Kohler Command Pro or maybe one of their diesels?

Hopefully my Craftsman will put in a few years of good service to tide me over till I can move on to bigger and better things. Maybe I'll get to planting a mess of palms to cover the cost of an upgrade five or ten years down the road.