Simple Drawbar question...

[Mcourchesne]

I wanted to use a Class 1 Cross Drawbar for my tractor and attach a Ball Hitch to tow around a utility trailer and to bring my pop-up around the yard. Looking at it now, I'm not sure the ball hitch will be useful because of the drawbar is free spinning. Is this safe or maybe I'm not using the drawbar correctly?

Thanks for helping the newbie...and hey, we all started somewhere.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[SPYDERLK]

YES> A very useful addition. There are devices sold that are made to prevent the drawbar spin. I fashioned one on mine from scratch - not hard. Maybe others have a line on the purchaseable product.
larry

 

[jdfire]

I think you need one (or two) of these to keep the drawbar from spinning. We had an old Ford 8N that had a ball on the drawbar that worked great. I think it had something like this locking it in place. Hope this helps.

 

[BarryinMN]

To answer the second part of your question the 3pt hitch has no upward restraint and should be chained to the tractors solid drawbar to limit movement. 2 wheel trailers are more fussy than 4 wheel in my experience.

 

[kthompson]

A good job for a fixed draw bar. Many tractors have those. Does not mean your tractor came with one but they are not generic as the 3 pth ones are.

There is those hitches built to use on the pth and sold many places. Don't miss Barry's safety point. Fixed draw bar solves that also.

 

[Mcourchesne]

Thanks everyone! This is exactly what I needed...

 

[Mcourchesne]

Well just when I thought it was easy..it got more difficult. I took your advice and went to TSC in town and bought the drawbar lock but it doesn't fit. I'm not sure if it's because I have a Massey 2400 and the subcompact are smaller than the other tractors but you can see where (i think it's called) the check chain bolt bracket interferes with the drawbar lock. Should I be looking for a swinging drawbar hanger? Or does anyone on the site sell those small drawbar locks that fit at the end?

I know the drawbar lock bracket is supposed to be brought up from underneath but wanted to show my dilemma in the pics.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[studor]

I had a similar dilema so I bought a bumper hitch receiver for $20 and had uprights welded to it for the toplink and bolted it to my existing drawbar.Or you could take your drawbar to a weld shop and have them weld a tab on the stop it from spinning. If you search on here for trailer hitches you will find pictures of many that the resourcefull TBN'ers have created

 

[LD1]

You can make something similar to these EZmover Tractor Hitch-Drawbar Hitch

Or what we did on an old 8n was take two peices of 2 x 2 angle and bolt them from the toplink attachment point on the tractor and them bolted them to the drawbar out toward the lower links. This kept it from spinning and also kept it from comming up.

I wouldn't reccomend welding anything to the drawbar. They are usually pretty hard steel and cause the welds to fail in no-time

 

[suncoast]

I had the same problem with my JD 4720.(My configuration is a bit diferent, but was still in the way.) LD1 showed and option that there a many similar items to that one or possibly cut off the lower portion of the wrap around, ( you would still have the upper tab to control the rotation)?