[tweivoda]

The delivery of the 1026R was delayed until tomorrow as the wrong engine block heater was shipped to the dealership. The correct one will be here today.

The 1026 is being set up with the 60" seven iron deck with the auto connect feature. I also ordered the front quick hitch and the front pto kit that runs the front broom or snow blower. I was visiting the dealership earlier today and we were looking at the auto connect hardware trying to find out what has to be removed to attach that pto shaft that runs to the front of the tractor. The technician who is setting up the unit was a lunch (the noon meal is dinner on the farm) so we couldn't ask him but the hardware looks to be in the way. I don't want to have to remove this if I want to use my sweeper for 10 minutes.

Any 1026R experts who can help me with this?

 

[bob]

I have the 54 inch snowblower and that pto/auto connect apparatus has to be removed to connect the blower---or a broom.

 

[ejb69]

The mmm pto shaft has to come off to put the front pto on. Its not hard to do.

 

[XSKIER]

If you plan on using the sweeper regular, skip the auto PTO option. It takes a lot longer than ten minutes to wrestle the MMM lift arms/PTO carrier assembly off, and then re attach it. It is tricky because to re attach you have to line up all four pins at once from laying on your side, or standing if you have a vehicle hoist. Much easier to simply reach under and un hook the MMM PTO manually, leaving the MMM lift arms in place. Sliding on the front PTO and quick hitch support bracket isn't much fun either. The auto PTO is really aimed at quickly going from MMM to FEL, and works beautifully doing that. When it comes to sweeping, I do it just to spend time with my R when there are no other chores left to do. The change over takes a while, and the tractor and broom require a thorough bath afterwards.

 

[HunterWare]

I originally had the hydro lift and manual connect and the dealer was nice enough to switch them to manual lift and auto-connect when we discovered a) how nice the manual lift is on the 1026R compared to 2XXX series, and b) how (for me) much of a pain the manual PTO connect was.

Maybe XSkier or someone else can comment on a nice way to set the manual connect PTO on the MMM so that you can easily hook up the PTO after catching the MMM but I couldn't find that magic place. It seemed I always had to get on and off a several times and sometimes drive-over a couple times to get things to a place where the PTO shaft on the MMM wasn't pushed into a position by the lift mechanism and drive over process such that connection as impossible.

If the auto-connect PTO isn't an option because of the sweeper then maybe someone can give you instructions or pics of how the MMM PTO should be sitting prior to drive-over than will make you life easier? I never found that spot... Otherwise the auto-connect really is nice.

 

[XSKIER]

I don't know about the manual PTO connection. I have the auto connect PTO option. At first I didn't order it, but after seeing that it was relatively inexpensive I asked for it and my dealer said it would be no problem to switch back to manual if I didn't like it. I speak from experience about wrestling the MMM lift/PTO carrier assembly in and out. On my previous tractor (425) it was pretty easy to hook and un hook the 54 MMM. So, I'm not sure how much further ahead I am with auto connect and auto PTO. I have so many other uses that nearly every time I mow the deck goes on and then back off, hence the move for auto PTO.

I would think that if the manual MMM PTO shaft was layed straight to the rear it would be easy to attach once the deck has been connected, but I don't know for sure. When I was demoing the 2320 at the dealer, he layed on his back at the rear of the tractor and reached under the transaxle to attach/detach the MMM PTO shaft.

The broom is a novelty for me, I really don't have a need for it. I did put up a video on YouTube the shows half of my total use on the broom thus far (I have about ten minutes total use on the broom)

This is a crappy pic but the pin with the figure 8 clip in the upper right, the pin in the clevis at the middle, and the clevis have to be removed to drop the whole assembly which is quite resistant to doing one side at a time.