The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk What were PTOs used for?

My '48 had a power takeoff knob and cable in the cab when I bought it but the PTO itself had been removed. The driver's side running board has a 17" cutout.

It was originally an eastern Montana truck so what were the common uses of a PTO back in the old days?

Did they attach a water pump to fill a stock watering tank? Other?

Running Board with Cutout
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The SM420 tranny that I put in my '59 has a PTO.
There is a paddle grip that fastened to the stick shifter that appears to have had a cable attached at some time.
Since I have no idea what the tranny came out of and because it's incomplete, I have no history to venture a guess as to how it was used.
I've tried to google info such as diagrams, photos or illustrations for PTOs and I've come up empty.
I'm really interested in some inputs into this topic.
Glad you asked the question!
Jerry

The most common use for a PTO is to run a hydraulic pump which raised a grain box on the larger trucks. There are many other applications.

In Wally's case I'd guess it had a wheel to belt drive harvest equipment of some kind.

There were also PTOs with forward and reverse for winches. I have one on a 3 Ton with 2 forward speeds and one reverse.

Saw a truck with an air compressor mounted to the PTO with a regulator and hose in the frame mounted utility box.

Some of these trucks were used on the farm. We had a neighbour who used his truck (Power Wagon) to haul the manure spreader, used the PTO to operate the spreader. Granny low and use the throttle.

I saw quite a few trucks that used the PTO to run a winch/cable out in the woods back when saw mills moved from one tract of land to another..way back when.
In this modern world, and me working at Carolina Driveline, you'd be amazed at what a lot of the PTO shafts run/operate that we fix on daily basis. From oil pumpers to bush hogs!

We had a pto on our wrecker to run the winches. Also our gasoline delivery trucks had a pto to run the pump to deliver fuel.
They are still quite popular even today.
Jim

Does anyone have pictures or illustrations of the connections and controls?
I for one, would love to see an "aahhh" moment in my head.
Jerry

Since PTOs are aftermarket added the controls vary by installer. My yard dog uses a piece of bar stock mounted on a bracket under the floor that sticks through the floorboard.

Here is a picture of the controls from my Chevy '50 COE.

http://s1116.photobucket.com/user/1950Cabover/media/IMG_0966_zpssrvuu2up.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5

Attached to the under side of the left dash is a piece of angle iron. My PTO is used to drive the hydraulic pump to raise the bed. Both the PTO and valve of the pump are cable operated. The previous owner just bolted the angle iron next to the heater switch, drilled a couple holes through it and mounted the cables. I just cleaned and painted what was there and re-installed. As Cletis noted, some set ups use levers, which end up coming through the floor board. My cables go through the firewall and loop under the cab (remember it is a COE so the cab sits over the engine).
Kent
Kent

Just like on a farm tractor: PTO's were used for countless applications.
Here in the South you should have seen the pulpwood loaders back in the 60's that operated off the PTO.
The trucks just used the bare frame to haul 6 ft. lengths of pulpwood loaded crossways. There was an old car rear-end mounted on the rear of the frame. A long shaft ran to a car 3-speed transmission to give you 3 speeds. Then ran back to the pinion yoke on the car rear end. You cut out part of the housing and made a winch out of it, and used a master cylinder to lock the brakes. The cable ran up to a rig with a swinging arm. Thus...you had a loader with a couple hundred feet of cable to drag the logs out of the woods and load them onto the truck.

Careful what you ask for Jerry, your aaaaahhh moment might be " Why did I ask THAT question?

Can't add much to what's already been said. PTO related discussions come up occasionally on the Big Bolt forum. Some of you guys should stop over there once in a while!