houser52
Gold Member
This post is in no way bashing the actual steel fabrication or what it's designed to do so please don't take it as such. I'm just trying to make a good product better for me.
After placing my order a couple days earlier I received my EZ Hitch just this past Friday. Thanks for the fast shipping.
When opening the box, right away I noticed paint had smeared inside of the plastic bag that the hitch was in. The paint was not completely dry and had made a gooey mess of everything inside. The parts looked to have been dipped in enamel paint, let set a few minutes and stuck in the bag. When handling the parts paint got on everything they touched, hands, table and clothes. I scraped off as much of the goo as I could and will completely strip it and repaint everything later. I'm glad they shipped it to me so quick but I would have preferred the steel be left raw instead of such a mess.
The hitches went on easily and they fit perfectly. OK, here is where the mods come into play.
The first couple of hours of trying out my new hitch were very frustrating to say the least. It was 95 degrees outside with about 90% humidity. Nothing about this was "EZ" so I set out to make it better. I've been operating a tractor for 45+ years and this was by far worse than the stabilizer straps on the old Ford 8Ns and Jubilees.
>The pins that go through the EZ hitch stuck out too far and hit the supports on both my rotary cutter and grooming mower. They would just barely fit in the available space to hook up to the lift pins on either one. First mod was to shorten those pins and weld a flat piece of steel in place of the roll pin. This gave me an an additional 1/2"-3/4" of space at the mower's lift pins.
>The hitch was almost impossible to raise into place without binding on the lynch pins so I made some bent washers to go with the pins. It was still a PITA to get things lined up without hanging on a washer or lynch pin without them popping off. Another mod was to use 7/16" grade 8 bolts and nuts instead of lynch pins. That solved that problem.
>I also took the time to "ease" all of the square corners of where the hitch slides up onto the lift pins. Now when backing into the mower anything the hitch touches it just slides by and easily into place.
>Since I use PTO equipment most of the time I didn't get the spreader bar. To keep the lift arms from spreading apart I used a short chain and S-hooks just dropped over the lift arms. It works great and is easily removed after hooking up.
As mentioned earlier, Later, I'm going to strip all the original excess paint off, prime and repaint. Should come out looking nice.
Yesterday I jumped on the Kubota, backed straight up to the grooming mower, lifted the EZ hitch right onto the lift pins, secured the locking pins, removed my spreader chain, hooked up the PTO, top link and went to mowing. Everything went really smooth and quick. It's amazing what a few mods can do to make life easier.
After placing my order a couple days earlier I received my EZ Hitch just this past Friday. Thanks for the fast shipping.
When opening the box, right away I noticed paint had smeared inside of the plastic bag that the hitch was in. The paint was not completely dry and had made a gooey mess of everything inside. The parts looked to have been dipped in enamel paint, let set a few minutes and stuck in the bag. When handling the parts paint got on everything they touched, hands, table and clothes. I scraped off as much of the goo as I could and will completely strip it and repaint everything later. I'm glad they shipped it to me so quick but I would have preferred the steel be left raw instead of such a mess.
The hitches went on easily and they fit perfectly. OK, here is where the mods come into play.
The first couple of hours of trying out my new hitch were very frustrating to say the least. It was 95 degrees outside with about 90% humidity. Nothing about this was "EZ" so I set out to make it better. I've been operating a tractor for 45+ years and this was by far worse than the stabilizer straps on the old Ford 8Ns and Jubilees.
>The pins that go through the EZ hitch stuck out too far and hit the supports on both my rotary cutter and grooming mower. They would just barely fit in the available space to hook up to the lift pins on either one. First mod was to shorten those pins and weld a flat piece of steel in place of the roll pin. This gave me an an additional 1/2"-3/4" of space at the mower's lift pins.
>The hitch was almost impossible to raise into place without binding on the lynch pins so I made some bent washers to go with the pins. It was still a PITA to get things lined up without hanging on a washer or lynch pin without them popping off. Another mod was to use 7/16" grade 8 bolts and nuts instead of lynch pins. That solved that problem.
>I also took the time to "ease" all of the square corners of where the hitch slides up onto the lift pins. Now when backing into the mower anything the hitch touches it just slides by and easily into place.
>Since I use PTO equipment most of the time I didn't get the spreader bar. To keep the lift arms from spreading apart I used a short chain and S-hooks just dropped over the lift arms. It works great and is easily removed after hooking up.
As mentioned earlier, Later, I'm going to strip all the original excess paint off, prime and repaint. Should come out looking nice.
Yesterday I jumped on the Kubota, backed straight up to the grooming mower, lifted the EZ hitch right onto the lift pins, secured the locking pins, removed my spreader chain, hooked up the PTO, top link and went to mowing. Everything went really smooth and quick. It's amazing what a few mods can do to make life easier.
