Pat's Easy Change System - Order Online!

[plaindave]

Does anybody have any thoughts on how the Easy Change system would work with implements that are angled?

Most things I use are just hooked up straight on and stay level, but I use my box blade for cutting drainage trenches and to do that I angle one side down.

What I am concerned about it how that changes the loading on the implement pins. With a standard ball socket it swivels and the whole pin stays supported. With Pats system since it is in a fixed plane it can't swivel and you will now be loading only a small surface on the pin.

Maybe I'm overly concerned, but if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

[Bob_Skurka]

My experience with the Pat's system is that there is enough play in the system for SOME vertical adjustment to allow for SOME adjustment of the angle of the implement.

I have not played too much with that because I bought a blade that angles, tilts, & offsets before I got my Pat's system. I think the bigger problem is if you have some really wide and some really narrow implements as measured at the lower pins, then you must figure out a compramise, readjust your pins on your implements, or adjust your Pat's system slightly for some implements. But vertical play to allow for a few degrees of tilt really shouldn't be too much of an issue with the design.

[zuiko]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Does the Pat's system allow the bar-bell shaped adaptors to work, as from a quick-hitch setup? )</font>

That's what I was thinking would work pretty good. I think I've seen a picture of them somewhere, but haven't seen them for sale. If the pins were bigger on the end then in the middle I think it would mean less fiddling with the pins and the arms. And no pins at all.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Pat's uses a special disk in conjunction with the lynch pin, I think they provide you with 8 or 10 of them with their system.)</font>

Those are those weird bent washers right? I got a couple of those but I had no idea what they were for. Not a bad idea but I think a barbell thing would work better.

[Bob_Skurka]

zuiko . . . yes "the wierd bent washer things" are what prevents the pins from slipping off Pat's hooks on the lower arms.

The biggest problem wit Pat's system is the instruction sheet that comes with them!!!

[RonR]

Well I'm confused. Got Pat's system today and being very mechanically inclined, I have NO CLUE how those bent washers work or why.

If someone can post of pic of theirs completed, I'd appreciate it.

I'll go look at his website and see if that helps.

Thks.
Ron

[RonR]

Nevermind posting pics.... I saw Milkman's post.

THANKS.

Ron

[Bob_Skurka]

Slip the bent washer thingy onto the lower pin of your implement, with the flat side facing the implement and the bent part facing away from the implement. Have the bent part on the top of the pin facing away. Line up the cut in the bent part with the lynch pin hole in your implements pin. Then take one of your lynch pins and slip it into your implement so that it also slips into the slot on the bent washer thingy and locks the washer thingy onto the end of the implement pin. The washer thingy should be held in place so it cannot slide off the implement pin, and is should also NOT slide on the implement pin back toward the implement itself.

If I described it reasonably well, and you have the bent washer thingy in the right place, then you can simply back up the tractor and lift the lower arms and they will attach to the implement BETWEEN the bent washer thingy and the implement itself.

[RonR]

Thanks Bob.

Got it on fairly easily tonight. Most of my implements are the same width at the lift arms, so that is nice.

Thanks.

[zuiko]

The bent washers do work pretty well, but I only got 6 of them and I needed a bunch more.

I found some 7/8" (inside hole) bushings that are maybe 1-3/4" diamer on the outside and about 3/4" thick with a set screw to hold them on at Mill's Fleet Farm. Haven't tried them yet but I think they will work pretty good as a replacement for the pin/bent washer arrangement. They were about $2.80 a pair.

They are in the tractor/implement parts area... not sure what they are supposed to be used for, maybe some quick hitch setup, but they come in a lot of sizes beyond the cat 1/2/3 pin sizes.

[rambler]

Does Pat or anyone sell the bent washer thingies seperately? I'd like some; don't currently have a Pat's system, but could use the retainers.

---&gt;Paul