Ferguson TO30 lots of questions (1st Tractor)

1) Throttle: It is very hard to regulate. It seems to go way high in the rpms in just like a 1/4" movement of the throttle lever. Seems like I fight with the throttle, to keep it from bogging, to keeping it from going to high. Is this inexperience, or a problem?

2) I tried brush hogging today with the rotary mower (flail?). I broke the back wheel off. The wheel kept getting stuck dragging sideways until it just snapped off the shaft. I can weld, but I don't know why it would be binding in the first place?

3) When I set the height on the mower with the hydraulic lever, it slowly lowers on it’s own within minutes. How am I supposed to keep the deck at the right height/off the ground when it is lowering slowly on it’s own?

4) Once I got the deck too low and it was bogging the engine almost to a stall. But since the hydraulics and the pto work together, I could neither raise the deck or move forward, the tractor did not want to drag the mower deck while it was sitting flat on the ground.

This is so much harder than I thought it would be. I am starting to think I can’t operate an antique tractor. Frustrated.

Chris (TX)

Jeff

This question comes up so often, that there will be a demo of the set-up procedure at the FENA show this summer as part of their Technical Information Series.

Jeff

dear mister chapp. i have sold and serviced hogs for years and see this all the time. PLEASE don't take this wrong but it's a real common mistake that they are not beening mounted right.i know what your thinking how hard is it to put a hog on a tractor and go cut some grass? but!! your hog has a tail wheel right? your tractor has 2 lower lift arms right? set your hog on a 4x4 so it is level lower your tail wheel so it's on the ground. now put your tractor on but[[[[ DON'T]]] hook up the PTO with tractor running put the 3pt. control lever in the middle of the range and turn your top link so it will get longer and you will feel you 3pt. raise just a little and the stop but when you make the top link long it will raise a little more that because the control piston under the set is being pushed in and that makes you 3pt. lift untill the pressure is releasted.with a little fine tuning and a little setting of the tail wheel up or down for the height of cut you want your hog will cut at the height you want. if you have ANY questions call me i will help you set it right 1-920-446-3296 your hog should not be hanging on the tractor when your cutting but rideing on the tail wheel and the 3pt. at a set height and that is controled by your top link. good luck and if you need help call

So there you have it, just follow what he tells you and you should be ok, it could be that the tractor does want some resetting due to wear and tear in the lever and the spring, this will cause it not to respond to lever movements as it should, just email again if it does this.

You didn"t mention this but does your TO30 have the over running clutch adaptor on the PTO shaft? It slides onto the PTO shaft and the bush hogs drive shaft connects to it. It is a NECESSARY adaptor to have when running any kind of mower. What happens if you don"t is that the momentum of the bush hog will continue to drive the rear wheels even when the clutch is depressed. The adapter stops this as it allows free wheeling of the mower.

You will also need "check chains" inorder to keep your bush hog (BH) at a set level. The 3PH doesn"t have position control as it is mainly an up/down device. To connect the check chains to the tractor I had two brackets made up that connects on both sides of the top link pin. These brackets were about 4" long by 2.5" wide and have a large hole at one end to slide over the pin and a slot cut in the side so a chain can slide into it and lock.
The other end(s) of two chains bolt to the front of the bush hog onto the angle iron that the 3PH hardware bolts/welds to the frame. Once you connect the chains, drop the BH to where you want it and adj the chains accordingly.

The gov on your tractor sounds like it needs adjustment. Once you set teh throttle level to a set position the engine should try to maintain the rpm no matter the load, it shouldn"t hunt.

There should be other folks to answer your thread and theres a few that know The Fergies quite well, perhaps they"ll tell you how to adj the gov.
You can do a search and find a manual on your tractor on ths site also.

Good luck
Volfandt (former 1948 TE20 owner)