Sleeve Hitch

[exeter_acres]

Hello... I have looked at a few accessories to tow behind my Craftsman Garden Tractor. They say they require a sleeve hitch. Does anyone have a picture of a sleeve hitch (better than what I have seen on the Sears site) that they might be able to post. Is it something that could be frabricated or is it worth it to just go spend the $130 to get it..

Thanks in advance

Curtis

 

[Argee]

Curtis,
This is the one on the back of one of my Case tractors. Hope it helps./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[John_Mc]

The Sears sleeve hitch looks quite a bit different from the picture Argee posted. It has a lever that you reach back for to raise and lower the implement. I saw a picture in the brochure in the local Sears store. Not very clear, unfortunately. I could see that it raises and lowers (manually) but not how the hitch itself looked. They had one in stock, but I chose not to have them dig it out. You might check your store and see if they'll let you look at one.

John Mc

 

[s1120]

Argee,
Nice tractor. You have good taste./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I was going to post a pic of my hitch, but I have seen a Sears one, and there is no compairason.

 

[Argee]

Paul,
Thank you. You have good taste in tractors also. When are you going to post some pic's of your latest addition?

I've never seen the Sears sleeve hitch, but have purchased a few of Sears attachments for mine. I'm sure the concept is the same. I don't think I'd want to manually raise the attachments though./w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif To much work.

 

[s1120]

No camera. When I can track one down, I will do an update. Hopefullly soon.

As for the sears hitch, its a real light weight compaired to our case one. Also it only has one pin hole, so you cant off set any of the implemts.

 

[exeter_acres]

Thanks for the info... Looks like it is just a thicker piece of metal than the spot you put the regular pin attachments...

Makes sense... thanks much

Curtis

 

[John_Mc]

<font color=blue>I don't think I'd want to manually raise the attachments though. Too much work.</font color=blue>

Is yours hydraulic? The Sears one just has a long arm you pull to raise and lower. It looked like it would give you some decent leverage, but I couldn't tell much from the small photo in the parts brochure the sears guy had.

All I really needed was a heavier-duty piece of metal where my hitch pin goes. It's starting to egg out a bit. I have a Compact tractor (NH TC33D) for the heavier work, but needed to pull a home-made rake over my septic mound, and didn't want to drive over it with 3000# of equipment and risk compacting the soil (a great way to shorten the life of a mound system).

Exeter Acres - do you actually need to raise and lower implements, or just pull something with more drag than your present hitch will handle?

John Mc

 

[Argee]

The Case (Ingersoll) has a belly mounted hydraulic cylinder that can be used to lift front mounted attachments (snow blower, snow blade), the belly mounted mower deck and the rear sleeve hitch. Heavy attachments like the rototiller or the moldboard plow require lifting at the end of a row. I probably use the hydraulics more in the winter for the snow blade. I start lifting the blade as I go into the banks, allows me to push snow up to about 5' tall. A definite plus when your running out of room towards the end of winter. But then again half of my driveway is in my grass this spring. Think I 'll definitely use the blower next winter.

 

[exeter_acres]

I think probably just dragging.. lifting would be nice at the end of rows.. but I could deal with it as I am sure it is a bit more expensive for the lifting kind.....

Sounds like I could fabricate something with just a block of metal with a whole through it bolted to the frame. Sound right?


Curtis