Reid_in_QC

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Member for
11 years 3 weeks

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Stream of Forum Topics

In 50 characters or less... Posted by Post date Last comment Number of Comments # of Comments new to you
bilingual resource person for quick hitches Reid_in_QC Monday, March 4, 2013 - 9:09pm Tuesday, March 5, 2013 - 11:06am 1
another crimper variant from Quebec Reid_in_QC Monday, March 4, 2013 - 9:27pm Monday, March 4, 2013 - 9:27pm 0
Alternate metric conversion works great! Reid_in_QC Saturday, February 22, 2014 - 4:15pm Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - 9:54pm 1
successful adoption of quick hitch system Reid_in_QC Sunday, December 7, 2014 - 3:42pm Sunday, December 7, 2014 - 3:42pm 0

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Reid_in_QC's picture

Landpride quick hitches are not the same design at all. The inverted U-frame style sold by Speeco and Landpride and others is often unpopular with folks who have tried to adopt it. I've never met anyone who really likes it though I frequently see one leaning up against a shed wall.

Reid_in_QC's picture

Sorry I didn't see this question when it was first posted.

Machineries Agricole St-Césaire (http://www.machineriesagricoles.com), tel. 450-469-4081 These guys stock factory-built male quick hitches from Poettinger at about $450 Cdn each.

I bought three of these last year to convert our fleet and have been extremely happy with the quality and functionality of the male hitches. The locking mechanism is safe, secure and easy to use, I think these hitches will still be working fine when I kick the bucket and I'm 37.

The folks at St-Cesaire speak German, French and English. You'll likely want to talk to Urs Hoechli or Franck the parts guy. Both are excellent. Also stock hydraulic top links, both good quality Walterscheid for bigger tractors and cheaper Indian Cat II units for around $300 each.

Reid_in_QC's picture

Hi trianglists

I can't take credit for thinking of this myself but one of the Frenchman from the Adabio gang was at our farm a month ago and he reminded me that if I don't want to buy new (longer) PTO shafts for my implements I should be mindful to keep extra distance to a minimum when figuring out how to put triangles on my PTO-driven tools.

The flail mower shown above is a perfect example. Your hitch looks great and you haven't had to modify the mower's original hitch at all but you've added 12-16" between the mower's original hitch points and the tractor's 3-pt arms. Make sure there's still enough overlap in your PTO shaft halves. The alternative approach is to replace the implement's original hitch with a female triangle to keep the implement close to the tractor. Both approaches are valid. Yours conserves the implement unmolested but risks adding the cost of a new, longer PTO shaft while the latter solution maintains geometry from tractor to implement but requires cutting/welding of the implement's hitch.

The same considerations exist for rototillers, potato diggers, fertilizer spreaders, snowblowers and any other PTO-driven tool. Replacing all the PTO shafts would add significant cost.

Kudos to all involved on the fine metal work and robust design. I only mention this because it's a safety/cost issue that isn't immediately obvious – at least it wasn't to me.

~ reid

Reid_in_QC's picture

I think it's a very big job to translate the whole manual. I have a printed copy of my own and it's 245+ pages in full colour with hundreds of diagrams and a great deal of technical and farming-specific vocabulary.

I'm very comfortable in French and happy to translate excerpts or clarify things but I prefer farming to translation work so I'm not interested in translating the whole thing. I'm also not convinced that it's necessary. Would our energies not be better spent producing the North American equivalent? They've set the bar pretty high but I'd be more inspired to work on something new and build on what they've done rather than translate the whole tome.

I have met and had correspondance with several of the people at Adabio Autoconstruction in France and I'm happy to liaise with them if there's a need.

~ reid

Reid_in_QC's picture

my second tool conversion to triangle quick hitch went well. I welded a female triangle, constructed as described above, onto my logging winch so that I can switch quickly between snowblowing and logging because winter logging usually happens when it's snowy and we only have one 4wd tractor and it's responsible for both tasks. The snowblower's been triangle-equipped since the fall and works fine. The logging winch, it turns out, required more thought.

In fact, a forestry winch probably pulls like a 5 or 6 bottom plow but it does so slowly. The hitch doesn't care about speed but it feels those tons and tries to twist open at the bottom and break welds at the top. After a first excursion to the woods and a limp home I spent another half day strengthening the connection between the female triangle and the winch frame and It seems to have no problems now.

Just a heads up that with big draft loads (even slow acting ones) the triangle can seek to twist open at the bottom. Mounting of female triangles to tools that produce big draft loads should be designed to brace against this twisting force and keep the sections of channel straight and stationary.

The complexity of bracing to prevent twist depends on the tool receiving the triangle hitch. Some are dead easy and others require more complex solutions. My forestry winch proved to be the latter so I've posted a photo in case anyone has to deal with a mounting where a central column is all that's available for mounting a triangle hitch.

cheers.