About five years ago we upgraded one of our tractors to the Mahindra 2565 Shuttle cab and was very pleased with its construction and performance.
So when I wanted to upgrade my wife's L245 Kubota with a 60" Woods mid mount we bought a Mahindra 1526 HST with FEL & Mahindra 72 mid mount mower.
Both the FEL and mower are made by Amerequip in Kiel, WI.
The mower gearbox was made by Superior Gearbox in Stockton, MO.
The gearbox input shaft is 25mm (.984") with an 8mm (.315") shear bolt hole.
The PTO yoke has a 1" (1.000) inside diameter with a 5/16" (.3125") shear bolt hole.
So what should have be a "slip fit" turned out to be a "slop fit".
It was impossible to get the PTO yoke tight to the shaft and the 5/16" shear bolt in an 8mm hole also permitted torsional movement every time the PTO was engaged.
Consequently after about 300 hours there was a catastrophic failure.
The shear bolt holes in both the yoke and gearbox shaft became so egg shaped as well as the inside of the yoke that it all flew apart.
I spoke with Superior Gearbox and at first they were going to sell me just the input shaft but then declined to do that and would not sell me the complete gearbox either.
Amerequip is the only source for the gearbox and although they have plenty they will not sell to the customer.
I have to go through a Mahindra dealer who orders from Mahindra who buys from Amerequip who have bought from Superior Gearbox.
The Mahindra price on the gearbox is about $800-$1,000+ depending on what the Mahindra dealer decides to mark up.
The yoke is about $140-$250 depending again on the dealer's markup.
To top it off the expected delivery for the gearbox is 16 weeks.
I can't remember what the retail price of the mower was be we paid $4,000 for it.
For such an expensive mower the PTO system is is VERY poorly designed and thought out.
Unfortunately for us the two year warranty on the mower system has expired.
If we had gotten the Mahindra 1533 it would have destroyed the PTO drive / mower input system sooner, perhaps even under warranty.
I am VERY disappointed in this turn of events.
H K