Where to power an electric PTO

[ineedanother 2,577]

Hello all;

I can't run my ARK loader with a manual PTO so need to switch to electric. Does it matter whether it's powered from "I" or "A", or do something else. I'm going to fuse it regardless.

[ineedanother 2,577]

I could power it from "B" and use a relay from somewhere too.

[pfrederi 20,855]

You can power it from I or the battery they only draw 4-6 amps WH didn't use a relay ...a fuse might not be a bad idea.  To me relays add another potential  wiring failure point.

Edited Saturday at 03:28 PM by pfrederi

[peter lena 9,938]

@ineedanother would think about a soft start  electrical set up  to reduce violent starting  , would also manually try to see how much drag you have on that entire set up , COLLECTIVE  DRAG  is the issue , every stage , hand off has to be smooth / rotational , thats what  makes clutches scream , and belts fray , related pulleys with any form of  hang up . roughness, will ENHANCE DRAG , start . just my take on related conveyor set ups . initial start  would be heavy / yet  hang up free , advantage , soft start  , experiment  with it for effects , have a helper  to  also  watch what's going on . process of elimination , pete

[ineedanother 2,577]

33 minutes ago, peter lena said:

@ineedanother would think about a soft start  electrical set up  to reduce violent starting  , would also manually try to see how much drag you have on that entire set up , COLLECTIVE  DRAG  is the issue , every stage , hand off has to be smooth / rotational , thats what  makes clutches scream , and belts fray , related pulleys with any form of  hang up . roughness, will ENHANCE DRAG , start . just my take on related conveyor set ups . initial start  would be heavy / yet  hang up free , advantage , soft start  , experiment  with it for effects , have a helper  to  also  watch what's going on . process of elimination , pete

Right. I'm a firm believer in soft starts since putting one on one of my a/c units and dropping the LRA by more than 80%! I was impressed. This is for a hydraulic pump though with a very short belt. It worked well on one of my 16 Autos so I think it will be fine on this too. I did have to bypass the PTO switch though because I removed the manual PTO lever and that switch won't close without it.

[ineedanother 2,577]

I have a couple 4-position key switches so I think I'll go back in and use one of those now that there isn't a lock-out for the PTO. I'll change the dash plate to one from an Auto too so it will look original but won't be, not that most would even notice.

[ineedanother 2,577]

For those that have not seen one, I hadn't until I acquired a couple '73 Autos. This dash is not in great shape but you can see that "start" returns to "run" without power to the PTO. Counter-clockwise one step powers accessories which in my case would be lights and PTO (clutch). 

[953 nut 67,358]

On 7/18/2026 at 11:14 AM, ineedanother said:

Hello all;

I can't run my ARK loader with a manual PTO so need to switch to electric. Does it matter whether it's powered from "I" or "A", or do something else. I'm going to fuse it regardless.

          The electric clutch went out on my GT-14 and I had quite a bit of loader work I wanted to get done. I found a pulley that was about the same diameter and had a 1 1/8" bore to replace the clutch temporarily. That was about six or seven years ago, never replaced the clutch and everything works well without it.

[Handy Don 16,928]

5 hours ago, 953 nut said:

          The electric clutch went out on my GT-14 and I had quite a bit of loader work I wanted to get done. I found a pulley that was about the same diameter and had a 1 1/8" bore to replace the clutch temporarily. That was about six or seven years ago, never replaced the clutch and everything works well without it.

Makes sense as long as the hydraulics are not loading the pump when starting the engine 🙂

Lots of all-hydro systems drive the pump full time.