3-Point Hitch cat. 1??

[NHmitch]

Mitch, let me know if you can find a conversion for the tires.

The valve springs will never wear out and they are just the right bounce. 200 pounds of driver.

Thanks, I'll keep looking, I know that I have a photo of that type of set up somewhere, so I am sure that I can find the correct size. The valve springs seem like the way to go! Thanks!

[NHmitch]

Got the sway chains on the inside of the lower arms now. Much more rigid, stable connection. Like I said earlier though, you have to loosen the turnbuckles each time you change implements to get the lower arms to spread apart far enough to get the implement off. I did order a quick change setup like I linked to earlier to avoid that. It actually isn't too bad undoing the turnbuckles though and I would still rather do that than deal with the instability of sway chains on the outside of the lower arms.

For those that would like to do the mod, you'll need two "bushings" that are 1-1/4" O.D. x 11/16" I.D. and about 1" long. Mine were 1-3/8" long which gave more weld to hold, but cut me a bit short on getting a full nut's width on the 5/8" eye-bolt threads. It will have to do for now though.

I really like that set up. I also cannot weld, but I do have a mechanic that would do that for me for about $20. The question I had was, did you consider drilling through the lift arm, to put the bolt through, instead of the bushing. My only concern about that, is the bolt, or nut may hit the tire if the arms sway to far over, so it looks like you have the best solution. That looks like exactly the type of set up that I have been looking for. Where do you find the bushings at? I have bushings that i use on my 3 point attachments so my fast hitch will work, but those look thicker. Thanks, and nice job!

[Ilikeurtractor]

I really like that set up. I also cannot weld, but I do have a mechanic that would do that for me for about $20. The question I had was, did you consider drilling through the lift arm, to put the bolt through, instead of the bushing. My only concern about that, is the bolt, or nut may hit the tire if the arms sway to far over, so it looks like you have the best solution. That looks like exactly the type of set up that I have been looking for. Where do you find the bushings at? I have bushings that i use on my 3 point attachments so my fast hitch will work, but those look thicker. Thanks, and nice job!

Drilling a hole would be easier/quicker and probably be fine. There's plenty of clearance between the tires and arms for a bolt head or nut and once the turnbuckles are tight it doesn't move at all. I happened to come across those bushings in a junk pile from a past project so I employed them here. It looks like you could use 1" nominal pipe with double extra-heavy wall and you'd have to drill the I.D. out a bit. I'm not sure how hard that pipe is to find but it's supposed to be out there. If you look at some new cat. 1 three point set-ups that use the same turnbuckles, you'll see they just drilled a hole and put the eye-bolt through it (on the outside of the arms though but you could probably just flip it to the inside as-is). I also think it's stronger to have the eye-bolt more in-line than at a near-90 degree angle to the sway chain axis. I actually need to rotate the eye-bolts 90 degrees so the eyes lie horizontal instead of vertical as I have in the picture. Even little things like that can help eliminate some bending stresses (for the eye-bolts in this case) and allow more overall strength to be gained from the set-up.

[chupacabra]

Got the sway chains on the inside of the lower arms now. Much more rigid, stable connection. Like I said earlier though, you have to loosen the turnbuckles each time you change implements to get the lower arms to spread apart far enough to get the implement off. I did order a quick change setup like I linked to earlier to avoid that. It actually isn't too bad undoing the turnbuckles though and I would still rather do that than deal with the instability of sway chains on the outside of the lower arms.

For those that would like to do the mod, you'll need two "bushings" that are 1-1/4" O.D. x 11/16" I.D. and about 1" long. Mine were 1-3/8" long which gave more weld to hold, but cut me a bit short on getting a full nut's width on the 5/8" eye-bolt threads. It will have to do for now though.

Ilikeurtractor..............I have just come in from working on my sway chains (lubing them up where they turn easy) and I looked at my set up and can't understand why the chains on the inside would be better!! I tightened mine up and have very little sway. I am trying to justify moving them, but really can't see where it will make that much difference?

Thanks,

Chupa

[NHmitch]

Ilikeurtractor..............I have just come in from working on my sway chains (lubing them up where they turn easy) and I looked at my set up and can't understand why the chains on the inside would be better!! I tightened mine up and have very little sway. I am trying to justify moving them, but really can't see where it will make that much difference?

Thanks,

Chupa

The one advantage that I can see is clearance. When I have had a wide implement on, and a heavy load, I have had the turnbuckles hit the tires. I was able to adjust them so that dosen't happen anymore, but it was an issue for awhile when I was hauling heavy loads of gravel in my dirt scoop. You are right though, and if you tighten them well, you should not have an issue. I do like the idea, but I will have to see if I run into that issue again myself.

[Ilikeurtractor]

Ilikeurtractor..............I have just come in from working on my sway chains (lubing them up where they turn easy) and I looked at my set up and can't understand why the chains on the inside would be better!! I tightened mine up and have very little sway. I am trying to justify moving them, but really can't see where it will make that much difference?

Thanks,

Chupa

I orginally had a cat 0 setup with the sway chains on the inside and had no deflection issues with a trailer on. When I went to the cat 1 with the sway chains on the outside, I could push sideways and cause deflection to the main connecting shaft on the back lugs of the tractor. With a trailer attached, there was much more deflection when the trailer was at near 90 degree angles to the tractor. Now that the sway bars are on the inside, that has been pretty much eliminated.

If you think about it, there is much more bending moment with the sway chains on the outside of the arms imposed on the connecting shaft since it is farther from the pivot point which is the tractor lug in this case. With the sway chains on the inside, that force is transferred to between the lugs rather than on the outside end of one of the lugs. The bar is much better supported in this configuration.

[chupacabra]

I orginally had a cat 0 setup with the sway chains on the inside and had no deflection issues with a trailer on. When I went to the cat 1 with the sway chains on the outside, I could push sideways and cause deflection to the main connecting shaft on the back lugs of the tractor. With a trailer attached, there was much more deflection when the trailer was at near 90 degree angles to the tractor. Now that the sway bars are on the inside, that has been pretty much eliminated.

If you think about it, there is much more bending moment with the sway chains on the outside of the arms imposed on the connecting shaft since it is farther from the pivot point which is the tractor lug in this case. With the sway chains on the inside, that force is transferred to between the lugs rather than on the outside end of one of the lugs. The bar is much better supported in this configuration.

OK, I have been thinking about it and it does seem reasonable, but why didn't the engineers put them on the inside to start with? Maybe, like Mitch said, these tractors do have a factory set up for the swinging draw bar and it would get in the way? I don't know. Is there anyway we can go to level 5 and find out for sure??

[Ilikeurtractor]

OK, I have been thinking about it and it does seem reasonable, but why didn't the engineers put them on the inside to start with? Maybe, like Mitch said, these tractors do have a factory set up for the swinging draw bar and it would get in the way? I don't know. Is there anyway we can go to level 5 and find out for sure??

I would suspect the design on the cat 1 goes back to what I was writing about earlier - that with the sway chains on the inside and the pins pointing out for cat 1 implements, the operator has to loosen the turnbuckles each time to change them which is kind of a hassle especially since the turnbuckles should be secured with locknuts each time. That means you need to have a wrench handy to loosen the locknuts, back off on the tension in the sway chains, change the implement, retighten the sway chains and lock the locknuts.

Now I don't know how a true cat 0 implement has its pins pointed, but the same problem could exist there also. I know when I was using cat 1 implements on my cat 0 3-point hitch, I just flipped the pins to point inward on the implement and all was well. Unfortunately, I just acquired a cat 1 implement that I cannot flip the pins to the inside to make it work because a metal bar goes between the pins blocking them from being functional when flipped. Also, I would like to standardize to cat 1 on all tractors so I flipped the pins back out on everything and converted the cat 0 to cat 1. I immediately noticed the cat 1 with the sway chains on the outside of the arms was much more "flimsy" than how the cat 0 was set up hence the modification (I also noticed the connecting bar was bent on the tractor that came with cat 1 which is likely due to the weaker design). The quick-hitch should solve the sway chain tensioning and that's currently what I'm shooting for.

[Ilikeurtractor]

OK, I have been thinking about it and it does seem reasonable, but why didn't the engineers put them on the inside to start with?

Just to elaborate on this more - the engineers did do this with the cat 0 design and then the shortcomings of that design became apparent where cat 0 implements were not that popular in my opinion.

If you look at other cat 1 designs on tractors like shown here:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/i...ml#post2874176

you'll see that the sway chains/bars are not connected off the end of the shaft going through the lugs on the tractor for the reasons discussed in this thread. In my opinion, this cat 1 design for the smaller Iseki tractors was a quick fix to allow these tractors cat 1 capability.

[Vtjohn]

NHmitch, how much does the Field Tuff FTF-01FH fast change system extend the lift point? I am looking for something to extend my lower lift arms about three inches and it looks like this might do it and give the benefit of easier hook ups.