Why didn't

Why didn't the H or the M come out with fast hitch or at least have an after market FH? Ron

I dont know the honest answer, but Ill just take a shot at it.

My guess is that when the tractors first came out, lots of folks were using horses or oxen as their main power source. So, when moving to a tractor, lots of the time it would be to run stationary equipment off the belt pulley (supplemented for hit n miss engine) or to pull something like a plow instead of a horse.

Since horses didnt have a fast hitch, one step at a time. Once tractor usage became more popular and people demanded more than something that would just work, but work better, that became one of the next steps.

I may be completely wrong on all this, but it makes sense in my head anyway....

You're making me feel old. :>(

There was no movable hitch equipment back then. Everything hooked to the drawbar or to the side rails of the tractor.

Allan

Sorry Allen, unintended side effect of my youthful ignorance, I suppose.

But they did start making these at the end of the 1930's, so that makes them pretty old.

So the next question is, what came first, the moveable hitch implement, or the associated hitch on the tractor?

Gradual progress. It's like why didn't cars in the 1930s have automatic transmissions?

Both, I'd guess.

We started seeing the Fast Hitch stuff around '54/'55 on the 00 series? First time I ever saw a mounted plow and rear mount cultivator.

The Fast Hitch was Farmall's answer to the 3-point hitch wars going on at the time and they worked well until the equipment got just too darned big for that style of hitch.

John Deere also had to stay with the old square rockshaft lift until the patients ran out.

Allan

alan, i think the super c had the first fast hitch, followed closely by the hundred series.

Ford and Ferguson held the patent on the 3 point until the late 40's or early 50's, someone may know the date. IH, rather than use a 3 point when the patent expired tried to one-up Ford/Ferguson by putting fast hitch on the Super C, then the larger tractors, there was a 1 point version on the 100 and later Cubs. IH finally had to give up and install the 3 point. Deere wanted to use fast hitch and IH refused, or it could be the standard today. Fast hitch is a good system, but there are too many parts to wear out and cause slop. I spend about $500 to rebuild the one on my 460 HU.

Since a 300 was an updated H and a 400 was an updated M , I believe at the time they both offered fast hitch and could be used on an older H and M. We are only talking about a fews years transition here. When everyone was trying to figure out if mounted equipment was the way to go. At the time only Ford used 3pt from 1939-1949. Finally 3pt won out in about 55 or later and had many levels of strength and HP levels. That is what we see today, IH's bid at fast hitch did not survive.
So your answer is to find a 300 or 400 series and get the fast hitch. But putting on a 3pt would be more universal.

Sure could have been, Bill.

Smallest tractor I've ever been around is the H and John Deere B.

Allan

dad bought a super c new, with fast hitch plows, mower, cultivators front and rear, and a carryall. i'm not sure of the year, but it was about as soon as the fast hitch came out. he traded a farmall c for it. he had been farming only since 1950. i suppose the neighbors were taking bets on how long it would be before the new guy with the new tractor went out of business. they had to wait until 1988.

The rear housing of the Super MTA was drilled for fast hitch, the H, SH, M and SM rear housings were not, so fast hitch will not fit. The C and early Super C's were also drilled for fast hitch, and the 1 point fast hitch will fit the Super A and Super A1. There was all sorts of mounted equipment for the letter series, it was just hard to put on and take off.

Rich: Correction, Ferguson won the hitch war before IH sold their first fast hitch in 1953. Even Farmalls built in Europe had factory 3 point hitches before 1955.

I would think that BOTH the moveable hitch implement and the hitch on the tractor would've had to come about at the same time... What's the point of one without the other? You've either got an implement that can't be hitched to anything, or a hitch that nothing attaches to.

For example, I'm sure Ferguson's 3pt and the 3pt plow were developed together.

There was never an aftermarket fast hitch for the original letter series because there simply was no market for it. Fast Hitch never really got that popular. Those that wanted it upgraded to the newer tractors, and those that didn't stuck with their trailing implements. It was a patented device as well, so anyone making an aftermarket version would've had to pay licensing.

The nail in the coffin for the fast hitch was not selling the idea to john deere. Deere thought the fast hitch was the best system for under 100 horsepower and asked to buy it from IH, they refused and john deere went to the 3 point system. If IH would have sold the rights we would be using fast hitch still today.
I put a fast hitch on my mta and it's the cat's meow. You couldn't ask for a better loader tractor, joystick for the loader and a fast hitch on the back. The best is when you can back up to something drop a hitch pin in with a rope and drive away without getting off the tractor.

Rich: I'll bet close to 70% of all fast hitches sold were for SC, 200, 230, 240, 100, 130 ans 140.

Across North America big tractor users were not using fast hitch. Neither were farmers with other tractor brands using mounted equipment. Just look at plows, disks and cultivators, on big ones it often takes a larger tractor to move it in raised position, than it does to pull it in working position.

Pete: And John Deere probably bless that day at every shareholder meeting. World wide, Ferguson had won the hitch war before IH sold it's first fast hitch in 1953. Even back then, both IH and Deere were equiping tractors built for the European market with factory 3 point hitches.

The thing that killed fast hitch was not having an independadnt drawbar like 656 or 706 and tractor design. You can not get mounted implement lift clearence with operator sitting directly above the drawbar, doesn't matter whether it's fast hitch or 3 point hitch. I remember a neighbor with a Cockshutt 30, 3 point hitch with plow. Raised the plow was still draging on the ground. I've seen the same on 300, 350, etc. fast hitch plows. you might be able to drag trailer plow that way, but sooner or later these damn mounted plows draging on the ground in raised position, will hang you up.

I've never had anything to do with fast hitches on 656, 706, 806, etc., I suspect they were better, however I can tell you my 656 3 point hitch carried the semi-mount plow 18" off the ground in raised position.

You know that with a fast hitch the raise arms are lowered on notch than that of a 3 point hitch. That is so you can lift things off the grouns much easier. There's a heck of alot of 656's and such used as loader tractors and on feed wagons just for the fast hitch. I'll stand behind the fast hitch, in my opinion it's much better set up than a 3 point for anything under 100 horsepower.

Pete: I put 11,000 hours on my 560D, probably 500 hours of that on loader work and 9,000 hours of it without the fast hitch. As I said before I cut the fast hitch up for scrap at around 2,000 hours. Probably 50% of my work was on PTO implements like haybine, baler and forage harvester. In my opinion and for field work that fast hitch wasn't worth a tinkers damn.

I put 15,000 hours on my 656D, 3 point hitch, 98% of that was field work. I might add, I had very little mounted equipment, in the early days fast hitch corn planter, always had a 200 gal 3 point hitch sprayer and after I got 656 a seni-mounted plow.

If your looking for a good hitch, hooking and unhitching trailers or wagons a lot, we have on the east coast what is called a pickup hitch, and they make models for most 3 point hitch tractors. Basically it's a pintle type hitch lowers to the ground, with a V type receiver in case one is off couple inches. It raises to top under a big heavy plate and has a latch to take the weight. The only thing one must remove is drawbar tongue, top plate fits in same as drawbar. The pintle comes up probably 3" behind drawbar crossbar. Trailers or wagons have a pad under the tongue. A friend of mine has this on two of his 80 hp Deeres. He uses these on 20' tandem dump trailers for hauling silage from field. He has a set of tandem wheels on back of his forage harvester with same hitch. He fabricated the the harvester tandem undercarriage. The system is fast, I doubt if it takes them 60 seconds to change trailers in field. He said if he could figure out a quick hitch for trailer hydraulic hoses, the guy pulling trailers would never have to get out of the seat. Because these hitch so close to tractor rear end, front end weight even with big trailers is never a problem. One does not have to remove this for feild work only switch top plate for drawbar tongue.

I see a guy using one of these on potato harvest trailers. He uses tractors for pulling trailers alongside harvester, pulls them to road side where a single axle highway tractor with same hitch takes them to warehouse.

The fast hitch is still being used today on truck snowplows.