If you start taking about three point hitches you’ll inevitably hear “PTO” also. That’s “power take off”. The standardized way to connect the tractor engine power to the implement being towed to run stuff like mowers, snowblowers, etc.
My ancient Ford has a PTO thats attached to the manual transmission. It’s fairly annoying if you have to change direction or shift the thing. The implement slows down while the clutch is engaged.
Other tractors with automatic transmissions usually have a PTO that stays live while the tractor transmission does its own thing.
For me that means snowblowing is a pain if the tractor gets stuck against the snow pile. I’m already driving in reverse looking over my shoulder when the snowblower digs in and either the tractor almost stalls or the tires start spinning on snow in 4WD and you have to mash the clutch with a snowblower attachment full of snow that it’s trying to toss, shift to a forward gear, drive up a bit, clutch and shift again to get another run at the snow pile, and repeat for an hour in really bad heavy snow conditions.
The guys with the automatic just take it out of gear and let the snowblower munch on the snow it already injested until it’s clear and then reverse again. Some of those guys even have enclosed cabs, and the really well to do guys have heated ones.
But with an average of a single blizzard a year, I try not to get too jealous. It’s not worth $20,000 to fix the problem.
Another thing most three points won’t do is down-force. They only lift the implement off of the ground. Again, more money, you can have down-force and implements that need it on the rear. Like the snowblower that wants to ride up on top of the snowbank. Or the auger drill for post holes that uses big weights on the machines without down-force and just spin and do nothing in really hard ground.
(The post hole thing is why my fence contractor here at the house had to hire someone with a skid steer. I didn’t even try with a weighted auger on the tractor and he thought he was going to do it with a hand-held auger. He ate the costs of hiring a skid steer with an auger that could rock up on the auger and put most of the weight of the skid steer itself on the bit. The skid steer guy had to drill over a hundred post holes for our fence that way, and it took many hours.)
Mowing the airport today with this. It is not cheap; however, it is very effective.
You needed this...
