A different drabar lock solution

[Soundguy]

No criticism to you.. however.. i gotta say.. you got a pretty pi** poor CNH dealer and TSC dealer. Both list drawbar locks. in fact.. the CNH dealer also sells a kit to tun a drawbar into an 'A' frame to use the toplink on.. sells for 20-30$ down here in florida.

I think i'd write a letter to the regional manager at TSC and ask him why his sales people are not trying to sell products their store carries or can order.. Isn't that counter productive to a retail mind set? or are they actually there to -not- make money., ( I did this with a tsc regional manager down here before, after a few of his stores were playing -dumb-.. he was quite emvbarrised, and there were some management changes quite soon after that.. ) and also put in a call / letter to CNH corporate and as them why their dealer aren't training their counter people considering you, as a customer, bought one of their expensive blue tractors.

Your clevis idea should work fairly well in the mean time.


Soundguy

Hello all;
One of the first "implements" I bought for my new CUT (spring 2006) was a 7 hole drawbar. I am absolutely a newbie but when I saw the drawbar for $20 at TSC I knew it was just what I needed to pull my (max GVW) 1500lb trailer around the property. When I put it between the 3ph arms all seemed well until I I put the trailer on the ball and the whole thing swung upside down. I know this is a common problem because I looked for solutions and found that several of you have welded together drawbar locks or bought them at TSC. Well, I don't weld (yet...and please let's not start on the thread about "a guy with a tractor that doesn't weld????") and the TSC here had never heard of a drawbar lock, nor had my NH dealer where I bought the tractor. So I'd tried some things with stock angle brackets but they all bent out of shape quickly. Last week I was at my dealers and saw this U-bolt that looked about the right size. It was $16. I bought it on a chance...
The 3ph bar was about 1/16" too wide to fit in the "U" (see pics) so I had to angle grind a bit off the inside surface of the U-bolt, but other than that it worked great!
I just thought I'd share this in case anyone else was looking for a drawbar lock but didn't have access to the "real thing".