3 Point Hitch

[gumtree]

In another thread on the subject of 3 point hitch equipment and attaching to. There were some folks who said what a PITA it can be to hook up to. Using older tractors it sure can be. I have a late 60’s International that I use for smaller stuff. Great tractor but a TOTAL PITA to hook up my small bush-hog to. I also have to use stabilizer bars to keep it from swinging around.

My main tractor is a 2005 JD 5525. Base model but it still has some nice features. A lot of people don’t read the manual through and through. I’m one of them. So I didn’t know it had nifty feature on the hitch arms that makes hooking up equipment to it SO MUCH easier. You don’t have to line up the tractor exactly just close enough.

Don’t know what other tractors brands offer this feature. But IMO it should be universal on big or small. So if you haven’t read your manual cover to cover. Might be worth checking to see if your tractor has it. I discovered it several months after delivery, lol.

This is how it works, looks.
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There is a little button on the arm that unlocks the “hitch end” to extend and gives lots of up and down “play” as in this picture
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Just line it up with the pin, Bob’s your uncle, slides right on. No need to keep getting on and off the tractor checking for alignment. Saves a lot of cursing also.
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When both sides are done you just back the tractor up until it locks into place.
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My hitch arms “telescope” by pulling a pin on the lower arm. It has lots of holes so all I need to do if find the one that lines up for the width of the equipment.
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[gumtree]

This is my preferred Top link, The adjustment is made easy by a stout long bar handle and it folds down to lock into place.

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[Jim_in_PA]

Mid-size Kubotas have feature that helps make things easer. I use the Pat’s setup on my BX22, which eliminates having to thread things through holes.

[Bluey]

For years now, we have used the frame quick hitch, that makes it easy to hook up, just back to it and it flips into place.

I have trouble getting the PTO all the way into the shaft until the collar clicks, my arms are not long enough, a crowbar doesn’t has enough place to push it in, nowhere to hammer that last inch in.

I need to grow longer arms.

[hosspuller]

Interesting pics… Looks like you can switch between cat 1 & 2 by swiveling the ball at the end of the arm. Sweet.

With similar Deere series tractors, telescopic draft links are a replacement item if you don’t have them. Expensive, but when I pinched a finger the cost was immaterial.

[Jim_in_PA]

Bluey, even with longer arms, those PTO hookups can sometimes spawn, um…bad words…

[Equibrit]

@Bluey

For years now, we have used the frame quick hitch, that makes it easy to hook up, just back to it and it flips into place.

I have trouble getting the PTO all the way into the shaft until the collar clicks, my arms are not long enough, a crowbar doesn’t has enough place to push it in, nowhere to hammer that last inch in.

I need to grow longer arms.

You put your knee up behind your elbow to help the arm push ! My Bush Hog has a collar on the shaft, that requires you to hold both sides while pushing the shaft on. The only way I have managed to get it on is to step between the links with one leg, get my knee behind the elbow of one arm(which is holding the shaft collar back) and shove with the knee.

Kubota extendable link arms; http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/build-yourself/217729d1308334082-extendable-lower-links-3pt-extendable-lower-3pt-links-png

[Guilherme]

@Jim_in_PA

Mid-size Kubotas have feature that helps make things easer. I use the Pat’s setup on my BX22, which eliminates having to thread things through holes.

I recently added a Pat’s system on the back of my JD4310. My mechanical skills have their limits and I was about to send them back 'cause they didn’t fit when, while removing them, I had that “Eureka!” moment and realized my error in the installation. I fixed it and they seem to be working as advertised. The “how to” video is pretty sparse, the directions more sparse, and that is a problem for us who are “mechanically challenged.”

My big JD has this type of hitch arrangement and makes life simpler, if not “simple.”

The biggest issue right now is that the “spacer” bar that holds the arms at the desired width is too long for some of my equipment (most notably the bush hog). I think I’m going to end up cutting it off about 4" to make it work right.

My analysis to date: So far, So good!!!

G.

[Bluey]

@Equibrit

You put your knee up behind your elbow to help the arm push ! My Bush Hog has a collar on the shaft, that requires you to hold both sides while pushing the shaft on. The only way I have managed to get it on is to step between the links with one leg, get my knee behind the elbow of one arm(which is holding the shaft collar back) and shove with the knee.

Kubota extendable link arms; http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/f…-3pt-links-png

My bush hog PTO shaft has a collar that just snaps on, you don’t have to hold it back, like the old ones.

I can’t reach that last inch, a crowbar fits inside the shaft connector but not for that last inch push, even with the guard up all the way.
All the WD-40 in the world won’t help either.
Don’t reach in there to get any knee even close, arms already stretched to the limit, shaft hanging level across with baling twine, just wiggle and push and it only goes so far for loooong time, until on one more shove, it finally slips in there and clicks home.

When it decides to go, it goes in like buttered.
Until then, it is a gargantuan effort to get it to move at all.

We were in a drought for some years, so no weeds to mow.
The last now into the third year of weeds, the battle has been renewed, against the weeds and the PTO shaft.

The 3 point, that is a breeze with the quick hitch system.
We did adjust everything to that first, including letting the arms out a little more.

[hosspuller]

@Bluey

…
When it decides to go, it goes in like buttered.
Until then, it is a gargantuan effort to get it to move at all.

.

With a single tractor and many different pieces of equipment during hay season… I am a PTO changing fool.

Sounds like a either the shaft or the connector has a bit of a burr … I would use a small metal file and touch up every front edge of both the shaft and the connector. It doesn’t take much of a ding to raise a burr that leads to much struggle. A light touch with a bare finger can reveal much that the eye misses.

[Jim_in_PA]

@Guilherme

The biggest issue right now is that the “spacer” bar that holds the arms at the desired width is too long for some of my equipment (most notably the bush hog). I think I’m going to end up cutting it off about 4" to make it work right.

G.

My BX22 had those “more fixed” width adjustment bars originally and that just didn’t work very well. Fortunately, there was an interesting hack posted on TractorByNet on how to modify some pieces from a slightly larger B-series tractor to make the adjustment easy as well as “floating” a bit in width. If you can replace the type you have with something that allows you to merely pull a pin and change the width to accomodate those attachments, that is worthy of consideration.

[Bluey]

@hosspuller

With a single tractor and many different pieces of equipment during hay season… I am a PTO changing fool.

Sounds like a either the shaft or the connector has a bit of a burr … I would use a small metal file and touch up every front edge of both the shaft and the connector. It doesn’t take much of a ding to raise a burr that leads to much struggle. A light touch with a bare finger can reveal much that the eye misses.

Will do that, thank you.

[Squirt]

I have the same telescoping arm features on my 1965 JD 2020, and yes, it makes hooking up the equipment MUCH easier. I wish that I had it on my estate sized Casethat I use more often. At least that one is small enough and maneuverable enough that the only problem that I have hooking up the mower deck is the fricken PTO. I hate that thing!

[Guilherme]

@Jim_in_PA

My BX22 had those “more fixed” width adjustment bars originally and that just didn’t work very well. Fortunately, there was an interesting hack posted on TractorByNet on how to modify some pieces from a slightly larger B-series tractor to make the adjustment easy as well as “floating” a bit in width. If you can replace the type you have with something that allows you to merely pull a pin and change the width to accomodate those attachments, that is worthy of consideration.

Not sure I understand but will go out tomorrow and look at the set up and make sure the error is not mine. Thanks for the info!

G.

[Equibrit]

@Guilherme

Not sure I understand but will go out tomorrow and look at the set up and make sure the error is not mine. Thanks for the info!

G.

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[TD] [IMG2=JSON]{“alt”:“Stabilizer Bar”,“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“full”,“title”:“Stabilizer Bar”,“src”:"http://www.pats3pointhitchsystem.com/bluegrass/image.img?color=000000&text=000000&accent=9ec1cc&compliment=edb964&navigation=62a1e0&heading=000000&title=000000&logo=000000&link=38ba73&picture.image.url=%2Ffiles%2F1790113%2Fuploaded%2FStabilizerBarr.jpg&picture.width.max=200&picture.image.mask.apply=false&stage.width.max=500&cache=1492217193062)
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Pat’s Easy Change 3 Point Hitch System
The stabilizer bar is adjustable so you can set your tractors lift arms to the width of the implement you are attaching to your tractor. You can use paint markers of different colors for different implements. Just draw a line around the movable part of the bar.[/TD]
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[Guilherme]

Even with the bar set at it’s smallest setting it’s still a couple of inches too big. Don’t understand why, only that it is!

G.

[JB]

@Jim_in_PA

Bluey, even with longer arms, those PTO hookups can sometimes spawn, um…bad words…

For me, the reach isn’t the problem, thankfully. The problem is how the grooves line up. For something like the seed spreader, it’s easy to turn things a little to make the grooves line up. But with the mower, well, you can imagine. Bad words indeed! If I could just figure out that solution, I’d be much happier.

Our mid-70’s Ford 4000 doesn’t have anything movable on the hitch arms, so yeah, we play that game a lot.

[Equibrit]

Can you turn the pins on the mower around so that they are inside the frame ?

[Equibrit]

[quote="![](uilherme,post:16,topic:433969"]

Even with the bar set at it’s smallest setting it’s still a couple of inches too big. Don’t understand why, only that it is!

G.

[/quote]

Have the pins been flipped to inside the A frame ?

Apparently you are not the only one with the problem.
https://tractorpoint.com/forum/kubot…int-Hitch.html

Hitch specs;
[IMG]http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o127/DonFbucket/124353.jpg)

[hosspuller]

G … Equibrit has posted my exact reaction to your post. If so a simple mater of removing the nut and repositioning the pin. I have found a rod through the linch pin hole keeps the pin from turning as you unscrew the nut.