# 540 vs 1000 pto



## Waldershrek

What's the advantages/disadvantages of each?


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## Hoodoo Valley

Fuel economy!


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## Waldershrek

Anything beside that?


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## Hoodoo Valley

Engine wear too! Hey, are we the only tractor nuts here tonight?:dazed::dazed::lmao:


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## Waldershrek

Well I meant more in term of performance of the implement itself.



Lol, yeah I think we might be!


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## Hoodoo Valley

No, no gain at all. Just reduces the engine RPMs and consequently ....wear, and also fuel consumption.


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## Waldershrek

Well why the hell would anybody want 1000 then!?


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## Hoodoo Valley

Waldershrek said:


> Well why the hell would anybody want 1000 then!?


Well, if you were running something that didn't require that much power, you could throttle down the engine to where you were running 540 PTO RPMs and reduce the noise and wear and all. You could still run the engine full tilt for the 1000 RPMs but that would be pretty much tarded and cause the impliments gear box to heat up. The advantage is purely fuel consumption and wear reduction. Like using 2nd gear or 5th gear in essence, when the need arised. You still have the 540 RPM option as well.


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## Waldershrek

Well I wasn't aware you could order new equipment with 540, I thought it was pretty much all 1000 on the new stuff until today when I was tooling around on the New Holland website.


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## Hoodoo Valley

Yup! Some of them I guess have even a third speed.


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## farmerf

I think economy has very little to do with it. On high power demanding pto equipment the torque on the drive is almost halved by running at 1000 compared to 540 . On most tractors there is little difference in engine revs between 540 and 1000 it is just geared differently.


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## Hoodoo Valley

Welcome to the forum FarmerF! On all the John Deeres touting the higher speed PTO option, they chiefly cite fuel economy as the main advantage. I'll scan some info tonight.


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## farmergeorge

Some implements are made to run at 1000 rpms. I don't know why. My Branson has 2 speeds on the pto. If you run at the normal 540 speed the engine runs about 2600 rpms to get 540 on the pto and puts out a little over 36 hp. If you use the other pto speed you get 540 on the pto with the engine turning about 1600 rpm and about 20 hp on the pto. saves a lot of fuel when doing light work. Most of the stuff thats made to run at 1000rpms is realy big and probably uses the extra speed to build up enertia in the drive line.


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## Hoodoo Valley

Yeah, I only have a 540 RPM but like when I run my post hole auger, I run the tractor at 1200 RPMs and it sure does the trick just fine without pounding the engine. Not sure if it saves fuel or not though!


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## cyrush

It is more to do with power (Torque) transmission 

From the ISO & SAE stadards:-

These figures are from memory and are approximate

540rpm 6 spline 1 3/8" shaft should be used upto amaximum of 70HP

1000rpm 21spline 1 3/8" shaft should be used from 65 To about 180HP

1000rpm 20 spline 1 3/4 shaft should be used over 180HP. 

The reason 6 -21 & 20 splines are used is to stop operator error connecting to the wrong speed, It is the manufacturers / suppliers legal responsibility to supply the correct combination (s) for the intended application.


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## Country Boy

Most larger equipment is 1000RPM these days. Smaller equipment still uses the 540, though some is available with both. The thing with 1000 RPM is that if the unit is designed to run slower, you gain more torque due to the gear reduction in the drive line. Or, in the case of a forage chopper, you lose less torque because you don't have to gear the drive line up for sufficient speed on the cutter head. In a 540 RPM pull-type chopper, the gearbox is about 1:2 ratio, with the output of the box spinning faster than the input (540 in 1000+ out). This allows the cutter head to spin fast enough to do a good job of chopping the feed. In a 1000 RPM chopper, the box is usually very close to 1:1. Therefore, you aren't losing torque by having to speed up the output. With today's high capacity machinery, you need all the power you can get. You are better off stepping the speed down to gain torque than trying to speed something up and losing it.


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## Upper5Percent

The advantage is that you can transmit 85% more hp through the same driveline by using the higher speed.


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