I just bought a new to me Farmall 460D. I can"t wait to cut hay with this tractor. While looking it over, I see a large adjustable handle type thing on the left side of the floor platform. It has 3 different settings that it could be set at. This tractor has fast hitch, is this some sort of adjustment for the fasthitch?

That lever is for the draft control. What it does is adjust the response to changing draft of a hitch mounted implement. In other words, the harder a piece of equipment pulls, the more the hitch will raise up to lessen the load. It was often advertised as traction control as raising an implement put more weight onto the rear wheels. Later years most manufacturers became a lot more honest and just reffered to all that kind of hitch controls as being draft control. Everyone except IH used hydraulics to do the job, IH said, hey, why put an extra load on the engine, asking hydraulics to lift hitch when a heavier load happens, just use the mechanical linkage of the hitch. Well, it didn't work out very well. IH went to hydraulic also. Latest is electric control over hydraulic. OK, so the farther up you pull the lever, the less draft it takes to affect hitch. You can look at the cam mechanism that it is pulling against and see what I mean. Best thing, just put lever down as far as it will go and leave it there. Also, there is a pin underneath, right below the pin on lower end of cyl that needs to come out for draft control to work, and is best left installed for all other operations. Lots of those pins are out and then the hitch can move up independent of the position of the hitch hydraulic cylinder if some thing hooked to hitch applies up ward force.

Its kind of a draft control. Its has the same usefulness as teats on a boar hog.

> Everyone except IH used hydraulics to do the
> job, IH said, hey, why put an extra load on the
> engine, asking hydraulics to lift hitch when a
> heavier load happens, just use the mechanical
> linkage of the hitch.

Or they just didn"t want to pay patent royalties.

You may very well be correct that they did not want to pay royalties, but I used to sit in the office and read all their advertising material at the time they were having their xxxxxxxx match with John Deere and that was in their brochures. Of course this was all taking place while they had the hydraulic hitch being tested on the 06 models soon to come out.