3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited

   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #1  

Soundguy

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I know we had a discussion about this recently.. My position was that the design of the 3pth hitch was, in itself a safety feature. many did not share this.. however there wasn't much 'in print' info for me to back up my thoughts.

I happen to be reading my 8n manual tonight, and on page 33, section 129, safety, under the topic of hitch construction and linkage, it specificaly states that the linkage and drawbar is designed as a built in safety feature.. then goes on to explain how/why.. as whent he tractor lifts up in a backflip, that due to geometry, the drawbar is lowered, thus decreasing the force and effectiveness of the force that is trying to overturn the tractor...

I knew I had read that somewhere that the 3pt linkage was designed as a safety feature.. etc...

Soundguy
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #2  
I gotta go along with that, even without seeing anything in print. To me, the 3-point hitch is about like having brakes on a car. No one needs to tell me they're a saftey item. Common sense tells me that.

Some of us are old enough to remember when 3-point hitches weren't the rule like they are now. There were many more "flip-over" related tractor deaths in those days. Sometimes, you can't just go by statistics. No one will ever know how many lives (and serious injuries) have been saved by 3-point hitch's inherent qualities. It's the numbers you DON'T see that tell the tale.
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #3  
In the past before the three point hitch was designed plowing was quite dangerous. Many a farmer turned their tractor over with other types of hitches because the way they were made, they caused the front of the tractor to rear up and turn over. With the development of the three point hitch, that problem was eliminated or almost totally eliminated because the third arm actually pushed forward keeping the front of the tractor down.
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Somewhere i have a pic of a fordson towing a plow that is sunk and stopped and the tractor is tipped up... looks like the owner probably had to change pants in emergency after that one..

Soundguy
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #5  
Post it if you find it. That would be a cool picture.
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #6  
I recall a lot of safety demo's when on the farm in the 50's of tractors flipping over backwards, and none of them included flipping when the load was attached to the tractor's drawbar (that not being the so-called 3pt hitch bar). All were where the drawbar was by-passed and the 'load' connected higher, such as on the axle or above axle height.
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( In the past before the three point hitch was designed plowing was quite dangerous. )</font> Never heard this before, /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif but doesn't mean I might have missed it being in central Iowa on the farm and around farmers who plowed mostly flat land. I've plowed where the front of the tractor gets light (mounted or semi-mounted plows, not pull type tho) but there was a point where the front end wouldn't go above and the only inconvenience was had to steer with the wheel brakes. Most of the time, it had to do with poor adjustment of the plow or the operator working the controls.
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #7  
I sold my mitsubishi to a local man 2 yrs. ago. Lately I heard that it flipped up on him and pinned him underneath. He was towing a log with a chain from the top link. I had a decal right next to the top link which states ( never tow from this point ) he was not seriously hurt but he was driven by ambulance to the hospital. Sprained back, hurt legs, broken nose, cuts, bruised . He still has the tractor but he's a lot more careful, and packs a cell phone with him while on the machine.
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #8  
Soundguy is right (again). In a book "Ford Tractors", available from Motorbooks International, the entire history of the Ferguson System is described. The hydraulic 3pt hitch was a revolutionary safety feature. I recently went to the Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. The prototype 9N tractor is there. It looks quite modern considering its age. It is described as the first tractor with a hydraulic hitch system. BTW, Motorbooks Intl has many very good books about tractors.
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #9  
It seems that tractor manufacturers all claimed some sort of victory on the hydraulic hitch. The 9N Ford was obviously the first with a SUCCESSFUL hydraulic hitch. (And first with 3-point) but there were others long before with hydraulic hitch's.

The John Deere A and B made in the 1930's had a "rock shaft" that would raise and lower mounted implements. Far from the ease of mounting equipment that the 3-point hitch brought, they were still very popular. I've heard Oliver claim theirs was the first Hydraulic hitch. Same goes for Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline, IH, Case, and a few others.

None LASTED like Ferguson's 3-point hitch.

By the way, during WW I, England was not in a position to build their own farm tractors, with most of their factory output going to the war effort. They still needed food as much as ever. Harry Ferguson became the importer for the Waterloo Boy tractor (The company John Deere bought to get into the tractor business) They were sold in England as "The Overtime Tractor".

Ferguson might well have been the single most important person ever in the tractor industry.
 
   / 3pt hitch = safety feature / revisited #10  
The critical point is the attachment point and it's relation to the axle centerline. So long as the attachment point is BELOW the axle (the further the better), the front end should not rotate around the axle. If you attach a load to the 3pt and have the hitch raised up, the tractor could still rotate around the axle. The only fail safe attachment point for pulling is the hitch bar, not the 3pt. Now I have seen tractors rotate even when pulling off the hitch bar. That was a pulling tractor who had extra hp and traction so the raw power caused the rotation. I doubt if most of us will have that much power in the field.
 
 
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