Down pressure on 2-3 point hitch

Which tractors from the mid 50's on to the present day had the ability to force the hitch mechanism downward.
I'm thinking that would work well on a post hole digger, maybe a rear blade or a box blade.
Seems like I remember an IH 560 had something like that.

Beagle

I have an Oliver 88 with an aftermarket 3 point that has down pressure

(quoted from post at 23:21:27 04/10/23) Which tractors from the mid 50's on to the present day had the ability to force the hitch mechanism downward.
I'm thinking that would work well on a post hole digger, maybe a rear blade or a box blade.
Seems like I remember an IH 560 had something like that.

Beagle

Click to expand...

ever seen one.

IH fast hitches had down pressure. after market 3pts that use a two way cylinder can have down pressure. using down pressure on a ph digger is not necessarily a good thing.

The IH Fast Hitch could apply downforce but it was not recommended to do so. There was a pin on the hitch that could be placed in one of two positions - locked and free - and for mounted implements the manual instructed it be in the free position. (Locked is for when the drawbar is installed.) While downforce on a hitch might sound like a good idea whatever force is applied down is weight that is no longer on the drive tires. Even worse, when the rear wheels go through the slightest depression you'd quickly lose traction. Stationary implements like the post hole digger you mentioned would be an exception.

The Monroe three point hitch that was available on 1950s-era Jeeps and the Dodge Power Wagon advertised up to 500 lbs of downforce. In this application the benefit of 4 wheel drive would have mitigated the above problem.

Aftermarket 'Saginaw' type 3 points can have down pressure with a pin placed in the lift cylinder. Early IH Fast hitch could also be pined. However that is not recomended.Down pressure on implements tends to take weight off the rear wheels,resulting in loss of traction.Down pressure is handy,but you need to be REAL CAREFUL.Easy to get hung up,or damage the digger.I do not know of any factory 3 points that have down pressure.Weight of the implement and the amount of 'suck' determines ground penetration.Not down pressure.

my racine 400 case has down pressure

The John Deere 420 and 430 crawlers with 3 point had dawn pressure.

Not recommended to do so? The operators manual tells how to use the hitch to jack up the tractor to service the rear wheels ....

Dad had a 450 Farmall with Fast Hitch from spring 1965 to fall 1968. Seems like it was around longer than that! One winter we had a light snow, 3-4 inches, not enough to use the 80 inch wide snow bucket on the Loader tractor to clean up, so we started the 450, hooked up to the 6 ft Service brand blade to clean up the snow. For whatever reason we didn't pull the pin on the Fast Hitch that let it float. I had to be REAL careful or the Hitch would lower a tiny bit too much and I'd spin out, had to constantly mess with the hyd valve for the hitch. There was a small slope in the barnyard that was enough to spin out on driving up or down the slope.
The FH was great to adjust rear wheel tread on the 450, we had a heavy wood block of a 8 by 8 about 2 ft long, set it on end and lower the FH and one or both rear wheels came off the ground.
We had an IH 4F-43 4-14 fully mounted plow but switched to a Case trailing 4-14 plow so we could use a Midwest plow harrow, also had an IH #25 rotary FH chopper or bush-hog, chopped a lot of corn stalks with it, 4th gear, 6-1/2 mph.
I think the Fast Hitch beats the 3-point by a huge margin. Once 1 & 2 bottom equipment became too small the new larger implements were too large to muscle into position to mount. We went back to all trailing implements with the 4010 we had after the 450.

(quoted from post at 07:21:43 04/11/23) Not recommended to do so? The operators manual tells how to use the hitch to jack up the tractor to service the rear wheels ....

Click to expand...

That has nothing to do with what he said. He said it usually isn't recommended when using implements.

Some Belarus models. The post hole digger tends to flop to the side and drill crooked when you push down on it.

(quoted from post at 20:21:27 04/10/23) Which tractors from the mid 50's on to the present day had the ability to force the hitch mechanism downward.
I'm thinking that would work well on a post hole digger, maybe a rear blade or a box blade.
Seems like I remember an IH 560 had something like that.

Beagle

Click to expand...

I have never used down pressure on a post hole auger.

The case large frame eagle hitch tractors can but you need to replumb them as they are not plumbed to do so from factory. To use one you will need to fabricate a third arm bracket as the factory bracket covers the pto. The DC, 400, 7/800, and 7/830 would all work.

I have it on my Farmall C with a Saginaw 3 point. I only use it on my post hole auger and then only when I use the big auger in hard dry soil. The rest on the time I disconnect the down pressure as it can get you in trouble as I learned the hard way.

I did too. I was using a Farmall C in some muckie soil, hit some clay and had the tractor looking at the moon. Took a while to get it back down with a pipe wrench turning the PTO backwards.

That's true. I was referring to operating an implement in the field - for that the manual instructs to be in the float mode.

The Worksaver hitch on my SMTA has down pressure by moving a pin. I used it once with a disc. Seemed like all it did was take the weight off the rear wheels so they spun.

Once you try it, you will find it actually rarely works very well at all.

On post holes, of the ground is too hard or dry or the digger too dull, more force just busts things and then you make holes even slower...... buying or modifying the digger tooth to chisel into hard dirt or a 5 gallon bucket of water and waiting will get quicker cheaper results in the long run.

Scrapers when you use down pressure you lose all traction, so there you sit.

And so on.

Yes we used the down pressure on the IHC 300 as a really handy jack for switching wheel positions, loved the down pressure for that!

Really not as helpful as you think for anything else.

Advice you didnt ask for? Yea, but might still help you out. The others covered how to get it if you want it well.

Paul

(quoted from post at 20:21:27 04/10/23) Which tractors from the mid 50's on to the present day had the ability to force the hitch mechanism downward.
I'm thinking that would work well on a post hole digger, maybe a rear blade or a box blade.
Seems like I remember an IH 560 had something like that.

Beagle

Click to expand...

Everything here is why you don't see down pressure on factory 3pt hitches, even today, and one reason why the fast hitch didn't make it.

In fact the later fast hitches didn't have down pressure either. Those are the ones on the 06, 56, and 66 series tractors. This is because they use the same lift mechanism as the 3pt, which does not have down pressure.

Boring machines have down pressure but they're DESIGNED for it. 3pt post hole diggers are not designed for down pressure.