Towing a trailer with the tractor

[bja105]

I bought a dump trailer to haul manure and sawdust for making compost. It would be more convenient to use the tractor for these short trips, instead of the truck. I can haul the trailer to the sawmill, drop the trailer, load it with the tractor, then haul it back to my piles.


I can probably just mount the ball on my swinging draw bar, but it would be easier to hook up with my three point hitch. Then I can skip raising and lowering with the jack, speeding the process.

I also don't want to get killed, or break stuff.

What am I missing? This is mostly off road, and some dirt roads to neighboring farms. I think can weld a receiver to my bale spear frame, and remove the spears pretty easily.

 

[George2615]

You can surely tow the dump trailer with your 3 pt. Just make sure you have plenty of tongue weight to keep the 3 pt. from raising or some check chains to prevent the arms from lifting. The 3 pt. arms won't go down until you lower them but there is nothing to prevent them from lifting.
Mounting a hitch on the swinging draw bar would be a better choice since it won't raise or lower. Just pin it to stay centered.

 

[jpm1]

I use my dump trailer all the time that way. I haul a lot of wood out of the woods and my dump trailer and tractor are my go to combination. I have a dump truck but the trailer works out better than the truck. I have a quick hitch on both of my tractors 3PTH and (2) 4 way receivers, Using the 3PTH i very seldom touch the jack.
When i say i move a lot of wood, im talking almost 2000 face cord last year. Glad some one thinks like me ::dance1:, John

 

[GManBart]

Many/most trailer mover attachments for the 3pt have a check chain that bolts to a draw bar so the arms can't raise more than a few inches.

 

[varmint]

Good point about the unintended lifting! There are lots of 3 point hitch tow bar arrangements, from the cheap to the expensive, but almost any of them would do what you want- raise and lower the tongue quickly.

 

[roadhunter]

I mounted a ball on my boxblade and use it to move trailers all the time without leaving the cab. I keep the box blade on the tractor most of the time so it's almost always ready to move a trailer.

 

[lilranch2001]

I did the same thing 15 years ago, when all I had was the 8N and boxblade. Have never taken the ball off of the boxblade

 

[bja105]

Thanks for the reassurance and advise, guys. I had wondered about the hitch floating up, good idea to chain it to the drawbar.


I have a hidden hitch a family member gave me, from a Chrysler Pacifica. It has vertical plates that will be perfect to attach category 2 pins. That leaves a toplink connection. I could weld some steel bar as straps to the toplink, or even use a strong chain. How is the load distributed on a three point trailer hitch? It seems that the lower links get most of the pull, and the top link gets most of the tongue weight. Is my thinking right?

 

[KennyG]

How is the load distributed on a three point trailer hitch? It seems that the lower links get most of the pull, and the top link gets most of the tongue weight. Is my thinking right?

Depends on how far behind the lower arm hitch point the ball is located. For example, if your ball is only 3 inches behind the lower arm hitch points but the top link is 18 inches above the lower arms, the upper link will have a horizontal load of about 1/6 of the tongue weight and the lower hitch points will support the bulk of the tongue weight. The farther back the ball is, the greater the load on the upper link. In any event, you won't seriously load the three point hitch unless you overload the trailer tongue.

 

[MHarryE]

I bought my 3 point hitch from John Deere - their Frontier line. With a data dared hitch the ball is not far back of the lower links so they take most of both the vertical and pull load. My dump trailer is heavy to the front so I don't chain it down - that would defeat part of the usefulness - back up, lift, latch and go. Yes, it will raise he 3 point to the limit sometimes when dumping but that actually helps in giving me an added dump angle. The only time I have anchored it down was when backing through muck to dump. Then the raising lift arms would have been a problem.