Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Well after quite a few PM’s about my install I was finally talked into doing a write up on the selection and installation of a PTO on the NV5600 transmission (though other transmissions are very similar). I will do this with a series of posts that will follow something along the lines of what is a PTO/ how to select the features you want/some tips for installing it/designing your hydraulic system.
I will start off this first post really simple by answering the question “What is a PTO?”. PTO stands for Power Take Off. It is basically a small gear box that bolts on the side of your transmission and provides a source of mechanical energy i. e. access to a spinning shaft that is powered by your engine. PTO’s can sometimes be bolted onto the transfer case, but not on our Dodge. The picture attached below is very similar to the one that I used. It is really quite simple in design consisting of one gear that interfaces with a gear in the transmission, a sliding collar and shifter fork that engages the intermediate gear which in turn spins the output shaft. The collar and shifter fork work exactly like the central axle disconnect on the 2nd gen Dodge 4x4 front end.
The output shaft can be connected to many items including, for example, a driveshaft that directly powers implements like a worm gear driven winch, an electric generator, but in probably 99% of truck installs a hydraulic pump is connected to the PTO.
When it comes to PTO’s that will fit the NV5600 there are really two players, Muncie at www.munciepower.com and Chelsea at http://www.parker.com/ead/cm2.asp?cmid=10477 . I went with the Muncie product and will thus provide the most data about this PTO. The reason I did not go with the Chelsea is that it is a slightly larger unit, and as you will find out it is already a tight squeeze on my truck (4x4).
On the NV5600 there are two PTO covers, one on the driver’s side and one on the passenger side (cover plate with 6 bolts). Your first decision to make will be which side you want to go with. If you have a 4x4 this decision is easy as you must go with a passenger side PTO, the front drive shaft is in the way on the driver’s side. If you have a 2WD I would go with a drivers side PTO to make install easier (no messing with the exhaust). The other decisions that you need to make are having the “shaft high” or “shaft low”. If you look at the PTO unit you will notice that the output shaft is offset. On the passengers side you have no choice but to go with a shaft low configuration because of the location of the exhaust. On the driver’s side (2wd) I believe you can go shaft high which will help to protect the unit better. Though to really figure this out you must take into consideration whatever device you are attaching to the PTO and the clearance it needs. Your next decision is whether to have the output shaft pointing forward or backward. Because of the close proximity of the PTO with the bell housing it is pretty much a given that you will be going with a shaft pointing rearward setup. This next figure shows the possible orientations for the PTO.
Now the nice thing about both the Muncie and Chelsea products for the NV5600 is that they are re-configurable. They are designed symmetrical so that the shop where you buy it can make any PTO shaft-high/shaft-low/shaft-back/shaft-forward pretty much by flipping the parts over in the unit so don’t worry too much if you buy it and later decide to change its orientation. This happened to me, the shop thought there would be clearance on the drivers side even with my 4x4, they were wrong and no less then 5 minutes later they had the thing disassembled/reassembled and configured for the passenger side. The basic model for the Muncie PTO that will fit the NV5600 is the TG series. If you go to their website and click on the M-Power link, it will take you into an interface where you can spec out your PTO. Just select “PTO Application” from the menu and select “New Venture” then “5600” then choose which side you want “right side” for 4x4, then choose an application (dump body, wrecker, miscellaneous), it doesn’t really matter which one, you get almost the identical list of PTO’s. The important thing here is that it points to the basic model of TG6S-xxxx-xx. Next you need to decide what you are going to attach to your PTO. The reason you need to do this is you need to decide what output shaft speed you want at what engine speed (i. e. decide the PTO gear ratio) and also what particular output shaft mounting flange options you want. For my own use I wanted to power my hydraulic winches. I checked with Milemarker and the max pressure and flow the winches can handle is 1500 psi at 3. 5 gallons per minute (GPM). If you do the math on these values you will see that assuming 100% efficiency that you would be consuming right around 3 hp. Even if the efficiency is 50% that is only 6 hp. What I really wanted was a system that would provide me with 3. 5 gpm with the truck idling (I do not believe you need to rev or high idle the engine to get 6 hp!). Another constraint for me (self imposed) was that I wanted to use readily available hydraulic pumps from my local farm supply store. I sourced one with a volume per revolution that would give me right around 3. 5 gpm at 750 rpm. This meant that I would need a gear ratio in the PTO of right around 1. 0. The closest gear ratio was 1. 06 so I went with that, which gives me a TG6S–N1012-C2-BQ basic part number. Now this part number is for the “standard” output shaft and flange configuration. Because I was going with an agricultural type hydraulic pump I needed a female 3/4” keyed socket and a SAE Type A 2 Bolt flange on the end of my PTO. The flange I have on mine is very similar to this photo (this is the PTO for the Superduty).
If you go back to the original Muncie web page you will notice a link in the menu “Quick reference” there is a link from there that is titled “Part No. Construction Chart” click on that and it will give you all the part number info you need to meet your mounting needs (you may have to refer to other documents in this “quick reference” section depending on what options you choose).
As far as choosing a PTO that is about it, choose transmission side, choose gear ratio, choose output shaft and flange options. Don’t sweat it if you mess up because your local stocking dealer can reconfigure it pretty easily.
Some more things you need to consider as part of your overall system include the direction of rotation and how you want to actuate the PTO. You must make sure that your chosen device can accept rotation in the direction that the PTO will spin. For the TG series PTO on the NV5600 the PTO shaft will spin in the opposite direction from the crank shaft rotation. My chosen hydraulic pump is “reversible” by making some small modifications to the internals, but not all pumps have this feature. As far as actuation goes there are many options including lever, cable, pneumatic and electric. If you are mounting this on a 4x4 then there is really no room to mount anything but the cable actuated system unless you want to modify your exhaust to accommodate the actuator. More next post, but I will answer any questions you have so far, I am “on the road” so may not respond instantly. I will snap a few photos of my install this weekend.
Jonathan
I will start off this first post really simple by answering the question “What is a PTO?”. PTO stands for Power Take Off. It is basically a small gear box that bolts on the side of your transmission and provides a source of mechanical energy i. e. access to a spinning shaft that is powered by your engine. PTO’s can sometimes be bolted onto the transfer case, but not on our Dodge. The picture attached below is very similar to the one that I used. It is really quite simple in design consisting of one gear that interfaces with a gear in the transmission, a sliding collar and shifter fork that engages the intermediate gear which in turn spins the output shaft. The collar and shifter fork work exactly like the central axle disconnect on the 2nd gen Dodge 4x4 front end.
The output shaft can be connected to many items including, for example, a driveshaft that directly powers implements like a worm gear driven winch, an electric generator, but in probably 99% of truck installs a hydraulic pump is connected to the PTO.
When it comes to PTO’s that will fit the NV5600 there are really two players, Muncie at www.munciepower.com and Chelsea at http://www.parker.com/ead/cm2.asp?cmid=10477 . I went with the Muncie product and will thus provide the most data about this PTO. The reason I did not go with the Chelsea is that it is a slightly larger unit, and as you will find out it is already a tight squeeze on my truck (4x4).
On the NV5600 there are two PTO covers, one on the driver’s side and one on the passenger side (cover plate with 6 bolts). Your first decision to make will be which side you want to go with. If you have a 4x4 this decision is easy as you must go with a passenger side PTO, the front drive shaft is in the way on the driver’s side. If you have a 2WD I would go with a drivers side PTO to make install easier (no messing with the exhaust). The other decisions that you need to make are having the “shaft high” or “shaft low”. If you look at the PTO unit you will notice that the output shaft is offset. On the passengers side you have no choice but to go with a shaft low configuration because of the location of the exhaust. On the driver’s side (2wd) I believe you can go shaft high which will help to protect the unit better. Though to really figure this out you must take into consideration whatever device you are attaching to the PTO and the clearance it needs. Your next decision is whether to have the output shaft pointing forward or backward. Because of the close proximity of the PTO with the bell housing it is pretty much a given that you will be going with a shaft pointing rearward setup. This next figure shows the possible orientations for the PTO.
Now the nice thing about both the Muncie and Chelsea products for the NV5600 is that they are re-configurable. They are designed symmetrical so that the shop where you buy it can make any PTO shaft-high/shaft-low/shaft-back/shaft-forward pretty much by flipping the parts over in the unit so don’t worry too much if you buy it and later decide to change its orientation. This happened to me, the shop thought there would be clearance on the drivers side even with my 4x4, they were wrong and no less then 5 minutes later they had the thing disassembled/reassembled and configured for the passenger side. The basic model for the Muncie PTO that will fit the NV5600 is the TG series. If you go to their website and click on the M-Power link, it will take you into an interface where you can spec out your PTO. Just select “PTO Application” from the menu and select “New Venture” then “5600” then choose which side you want “right side” for 4x4, then choose an application (dump body, wrecker, miscellaneous), it doesn’t really matter which one, you get almost the identical list of PTO’s. The important thing here is that it points to the basic model of TG6S-xxxx-xx. Next you need to decide what you are going to attach to your PTO. The reason you need to do this is you need to decide what output shaft speed you want at what engine speed (i. e. decide the PTO gear ratio) and also what particular output shaft mounting flange options you want. For my own use I wanted to power my hydraulic winches. I checked with Milemarker and the max pressure and flow the winches can handle is 1500 psi at 3. 5 gallons per minute (GPM). If you do the math on these values you will see that assuming 100% efficiency that you would be consuming right around 3 hp. Even if the efficiency is 50% that is only 6 hp. What I really wanted was a system that would provide me with 3. 5 gpm with the truck idling (I do not believe you need to rev or high idle the engine to get 6 hp!). Another constraint for me (self imposed) was that I wanted to use readily available hydraulic pumps from my local farm supply store. I sourced one with a volume per revolution that would give me right around 3. 5 gpm at 750 rpm. This meant that I would need a gear ratio in the PTO of right around 1. 0. The closest gear ratio was 1. 06 so I went with that, which gives me a TG6S–N1012-C2-BQ basic part number. Now this part number is for the “standard” output shaft and flange configuration. Because I was going with an agricultural type hydraulic pump I needed a female 3/4” keyed socket and a SAE Type A 2 Bolt flange on the end of my PTO. The flange I have on mine is very similar to this photo (this is the PTO for the Superduty).
If you go back to the original Muncie web page you will notice a link in the menu “Quick reference” there is a link from there that is titled “Part No. Construction Chart” click on that and it will give you all the part number info you need to meet your mounting needs (you may have to refer to other documents in this “quick reference” section depending on what options you choose).
As far as choosing a PTO that is about it, choose transmission side, choose gear ratio, choose output shaft and flange options. Don’t sweat it if you mess up because your local stocking dealer can reconfigure it pretty easily.
Some more things you need to consider as part of your overall system include the direction of rotation and how you want to actuate the PTO. You must make sure that your chosen device can accept rotation in the direction that the PTO will spin. For the TG series PTO on the NV5600 the PTO shaft will spin in the opposite direction from the crank shaft rotation. My chosen hydraulic pump is “reversible” by making some small modifications to the internals, but not all pumps have this feature. As far as actuation goes there are many options including lever, cable, pneumatic and electric. If you are mounting this on a 4x4 then there is really no room to mount anything but the cable actuated system unless you want to modify your exhaust to accommodate the actuator. More next post, but I will answer any questions you have so far, I am “on the road” so may not respond instantly. I will snap a few photos of my install this weekend.
Jonathan
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