Just the way we do it!

This is something that OJs post about feedimg cattle got me thinking about today.....You guys never use autohitches on your tractors....nearly all the tractors in the British isles are fitted or retrofitted with these hitches. We hardly ever have jacks on our trailers or trailed machinery, if we do they are usually seized up due to not being used! All trailers are simply fitted with a stand to set the trailer down on so as to keep the tongue off the ground

Ferguson engineers invented the first Pick-up hitch(PUH) for use with the trail manure spreader. So the loader tractor could drop off the spreader and fill it with the front end loader then pick up the spreader and cart it to the field without getting dirty boots! It was more of an add on accessory than part of the tractor back then, but many are still being used today on small farms

This is the American made puh for the manure spreader

Here is a hitch fitted to a 4040 deere....

And one on some type of Case IH......?

This type is made by Dromone engineering in Ireland to fit the new JCB tractors
You will notice some pull bars have a hook on one end and a clevis on the other.....So we can pick up either a ring hitch or a clevis hitch

This is just something I would hate to have to do without. It saves so mach time and effort and yet every time tractors are exported to America the hitches are removed and sold on pallets as spares.

I just thought some of you may be interested in what we do different over here?
Sam

Didn't disc mowers start over there as well? My dad
says he remembers every farmer he saw over there
back 1971 using a disc mower. Took 20 years to
start seeing them take over on this side of the
pond.

This auto hitch looks like a very smart idea. Maybe
in another 20 years we'll have them over here!

Do they run off a separate remote?

I've had tractors on both sides of the pond and have always
wondered the same. In the UK I had PUH's on both tractors yet I've
never seen one here even with all the British imports. I'll be
interested to see what the thoughts are. Sam

They're usually tied in to the 3 point lift arms via a mechanical linkage for lifting. Sam

Yip, we had disc mowers from the very early 70s....and we hardly ever use a disc harrow now....all rotary harrows (power harrows) driven off the PTO. But our conditions are different, We have very short weather windows and have to work real fast to keep in front of the weather!
Sam

I had that on a B-275 IH back in the 60s, as I remember it interfered with the 3PH, leaked off and let the wagon loose and on a sharp turn the tires hit the wagon hitch. We may have been too dumb to use it. That was the only tractor with 3PH so it was the oddball then.

Sam: A tractor without a swinging draw bar here is useless. Almost all of our towed implements are made for a swinging draw bar. You can turn tighter/sharper with a swinging draw bar. The pivot point is 18 inches or so back further. Those pickup hitchs like you guys use do not turn very short. Most guys over here would have the tongues torn off in the first week.

You use more three point mounted implements than we do. Most tractors over 150 HP here rarely use the three point. Many of the tractors I used to sell would have the lift links taken off and laid on a pallet when we delivered them. When they were traded in years later the same pallet would have the lift links still on it. A bare back tractor, no three point, will bring thousands less on resale. Go figure that one out.

Also we used semi trucks and trailers here to move grain/forages moire than you do. We hual more miles on average than you do. It is common to haul grain 100 miles to a better market here. Even the larger dairies are hauling silage miles back to the farm now. So the distances traveled are greater.

Also most tractors over here do not have the high road gears your tractors do. A matter of fact most states here limit the legal road speed to 25 MPH.

A fellow here had a JCB he used in a custom hay buiness. He has gotten tickets for speeding with it.

So it is different equipment for different uses.

I've got two kicking around here like the one in the third pic. I might have to rig one up and try it out. I always thought they were for skidding logs!

I hear you JD, These hitches do have the swinging drawbar facility. I know what you are saying about haulage distances, and if we took a truck into our fields to haul stuff it would take all day to get it out again! LOL .....But they are still one handy piece of kit!
Sam

I dont think I will be doing that to my tractor any time soon. Why not go to Harbor Fright they sell a hitch that hooks to 3 point and you can use your reciver hiths in it friend of mine make one and it is hander than a pocket on a T SHIRT LOL Dale

Probably one reason Europe has that type of hitch is all the wagons are tandem or single axle with tongue weight on the tractor. The closer the tongue is hitched to the center of the rear axle, the more stable the tractor will be at speed. Jim

So how, pray tell, does a roto-tiller work ground faster than a disc harrow?

Bill one pass of a power harrow in our stiff ground is better than four passes with a disc! Go Utube and enter power harrowing....
http://youtu.be/USwrObwsMEw
Sam

When I got to Germany the 1st time in 76 I was very interested in what they were doing different than us. I was amazed at the number of MFW tractors for an example. Green chopping hay n the summer to feed each day and other differences. Then when I went to Korea in 1980 and saw the poorer Korean farmers tilling with water buffs, well it's kinda different. I think a large part of what's going on in AG around the world depends on what the needs are. Some of the great ideas coming out of Europe don't really work well for the guy farming 6,000 acres in 640 acre chunks in ND. But a lot of the smaller farmers could use some of those ideas here.


Rick

I use a 3pt hitch hookup all the time that can be used to move gooseneck trailers and the lower hitch is really a trailer type hitch receiver like is on a truck.Just change the slide in hitch for a pin, different balls or hook for log chains.Even lifting the trailer with the 3pt I still need to get the jack out of the way somehow to keep it from dragging on the high spots.

Sam,I have said it before and to backup JDs remark,the Ferguson type system farming never did fly much over here and my guess is the three point hitches on our tractors are only used less then 10% or less in a tractors life.(50HP and up)Semi mount plows and blades is about all if at all.Even my MF(yes I have one)has never had more then a blade and post hole digger on the 3 point.

It must be the difference in the ground. In my ground, which varies considerably, I deep rip once in the fall and make one pass with a 13' Sunflower tandem disc with 24" blades pulling a 16' J&M soil conditioner. One pass at about 7-8 mph does it. I'm ready to plant! It doesn't seem possible to do something like that with a roto-tiller. I can do about 100 acres per day (good long days).

Those hitches like in that third picture are designed for a manure spreader or 2 wheel trailer (never seen one but in axcessories book for Ford 2N tractor). They will only fit on the older smaller Fords due to the size and shape of the lift arms. And due to the hitch location the hitch does not have much movement but being that close to the rear axle do not want to piviot the tractor on the rear wheels. One dissadvantage is an unloaded spreader or trailer if you hit a bump they could easily unhook from tractor, Just weight of toung holding down and not legal on roads here. I had one of those hitches for a while, no spreader, and sold to a person that wanted it to complete his spreader outfit I think just for show. Good and bad points with them and bad usually outweighed the good. If you only had one tractor and a loader and had to use it for both loading and hauling then they were easier to hook up but then most had a second tractor for spreader so it was not that usefull especially if your spreader tractor was not a small Ford or Ferguson as with that hitch you could not hook to a straight drawbar.

Is that a license plate on the back of that 4040?

We have tried power harrows here. I know of at least two being used. Both are used to groom race tracks. We use Disk-vators, Do-alls etc. Tools that have a reverse disc gang on the front then 3 or 4 rows of cultivator shanks then a rolling baskets then maybe a heavy harrow last. There can be a lot of variation of these tools. We pull ours 7 mph. Is generally one pass. But we no-till when we can. Level and no ruts from the combine. Haven't did any deep tillage in over 20 yrs. We just use the 3 point on larger tractors to mow hay and put anhydrous on corn. Little tractors all 3 pt tools, have a cat one quick coupler and hyd top link. Also quick coupler on large tractor. We don't let the drawbar swing. Simple pin to hook pull type implements. jaws are on the tool.

remains of one!
Sam