Things to avoid doing when using a I-match hitch

[smilingreen]

I bought my Deere 5055D tractor a couple of years ago. After wrestling the MX-7 brush cutter by hand, trying to get the 3 point to line up for about a year, I decided to get a I-Match 3 point hitch connection system. I absolutely love it! Back up to the implement, lower the I-Match to the implement, raise the 3 point and go. This spring, I went out to my field, which had tall grass in it and was going to connect the brush cutter. I dropped the I_Match down, back up to the implement, connected, lifted the brush cutter and took it up to the service road on my farm to connect the drive line to the PTO. Funny, I couldn't get the shaft to pull out to connect to the PTO shaft. I looked at it a minute or two and then realized the drive line shaft was BENT! How did that happen? So, I took the shaft to a machine shop, hoping they could straighten it out. No such luck, they wouldn't do it, said that they would just kink the tube. So, being that the grass wasn't slowing down in growing, I went to my local JD dealership and had to buy a new shaft, at a whooping $150.00 price tag. Came home, put it on, cut all my fields this summer and life was good. Later this summer, I disconnected the brush cutter from the tractor and did some other chores. About 3 weeks later, I needed to cut the fields, so I went down to the lot, backed up to connect to the brush cutter, connected and then lifted the brush cutter up and took it to the service road to connect up to the PTO shaft. When I went to connect, I was instantly horrified to see the drive line shaft BENT again. WTH? I started looking closer and then I saw what had happened. In my mad rush to get cutting, I didn't make sure the drive line shaft was sitting in the holder off to the side before I picked the brush cutter up. The universal joint part of the drive line slid forward and was sitting in the middle of the deck, which when I picked up the brush cutter, the universal joint caught the bottom side of the draw bar on the tractor, effectively putting those designer bends in the drive line tube. So, off to the JD dealership again, to part with another $150.00 for my second drive line tube of the year.

Now, when I disconnect the drive line from the PTO, I am double sure to put it in the holder and then bungy cord it to make sure it doesn't slide back over to the middle of the deck next time I connect. I-Match hitches are great for connecting and disconnecting heavy implements, but you have to make sure everything is out of the way before just connecting, lifting and going........

 

[joshuabardwell]

If there is one thing I have learned from working with my tractor, it is that the hydraulics will do exactly what I tell them to. The first time I installed my hay spear, I raised it all the way up on the three-point hitch and it bonked into the tool box that I have mounted behind my seat and put a nice dent in it. Whoops! You tell it to go up, it'll go up, and if something is in the way, it'll break! That's easy to forget when operating the tractor because it just sort of becomes an extension of yourself. But it doesn't have your instincts or concerns for safety, does it!