jcri
Member
Hello all,
I wanted to see who out there has put one of these on their tractors. I just bought one, the “ATI” brand and am reasonably happy with it. I say reasonably because I wasn’t able to really do much comparison with other brands.
Maybe owners of older tractors like me are few in comparison to the guys with shiny new tractors with the latest and greatest technologies. But this project has been somewhat of a challenge to get information on.
Examples of what I encountered:
My local dealer told me “sorry, Kubota doesn’t make a quick hitch adapter for your model of loader, (LA681), have you considered upgrading to a newer tractor”
A couple of other dealers offered to find me an aftermarket one but would not share any information. They just told me things like... “Yeah, I got a supplier for these things, I can order you one for $1,400. Another had similar response, but the price was $1250. Neither would send me a pic, tell me the brand, describe it, or nothing. It left me with the impression that they aren’t willing to give me info for fear that I’d got around them and buy it elsewhere.
Another issue related to cost is the bigger picture of converting your other attachments from pin on style to SSQA. We can assume that it’s likely that if you’re looking into this, you may have an older machine and don’t want to spend a small fortune investing in it. Example... one dealer wanted to sell me the adapter, a 60” standard bucket and a set of lightweight 48” pallet forks for just over $4,200. Yikes! That’s expensive in my book...
So... anyway, I’d like to share the little bit that I found in the topic.
A Messicks video online mentioned a local supplier, ATI that makes these adapters and to contact them if interested. So... I google searched ATI quick hitch adapter and found some distributors. I ended up buying mine from ‘Ford Distributing’ out of Columbus OH, for $865 plus $50 freight to my driveway.
It fit perfectly and seems to work fine. The mechanism is very smooth.
I chose this one over the WorkSaver brand (I seen that one on the “Ask Tractor Mike” website store and the same one from Iowa Farm Equipments eBay auctions. It looks nice as well, however the price was higher on the adapter and the shipping charges were more expensive as well. The WorkSaver hitch looked a little bulkier and according to the specifications, weighs 40lbs more than the ATI. Some might look at this as a good thing, but because it appears to attach at the implement further away from the loader frame combined with the extra weight, adds up to eating up lift capacity and break out force. My compact tractor is limited enough at only around 1500lbs of loader lift capacity, so I’ll save weight on the end of the loader where I can.
I would be interested in hearing feedback from others on these two adapters and any other brands that I’m sure that I never found. Maybe I would have made a different choice of adapter had I had more details on each, pros/cons, etc?
Also, I ended up shopping around and found Tomahawk attachments sell SSQA smooth buckets and SSQA universal pallet fork frames that work with your existing forks. The equipment seems very nice, and they saved me a ton of cash. I paid less than $700 for a brand new 66” bucket AND a new pallet fork frame. So all in... roughly $1,500 for all three things (adapter, bucket and fork frame)... that’s a reasonable investment to switch an older machine over from pin on to SSQA with a new bucket and forks. It makes the project a more justifiable expense on an older machine.
I hope this thread can collect some other good information and become a one-stop-shopping resource as a “sticky” thread on SSQA conversions so that others won’t struggle like I did.
I wanted to see who out there has put one of these on their tractors. I just bought one, the “ATI” brand and am reasonably happy with it. I say reasonably because I wasn’t able to really do much comparison with other brands.
Maybe owners of older tractors like me are few in comparison to the guys with shiny new tractors with the latest and greatest technologies. But this project has been somewhat of a challenge to get information on.
Examples of what I encountered:
My local dealer told me “sorry, Kubota doesn’t make a quick hitch adapter for your model of loader, (LA681), have you considered upgrading to a newer tractor”
A couple of other dealers offered to find me an aftermarket one but would not share any information. They just told me things like... “Yeah, I got a supplier for these things, I can order you one for $1,400. Another had similar response, but the price was $1250. Neither would send me a pic, tell me the brand, describe it, or nothing. It left me with the impression that they aren’t willing to give me info for fear that I’d got around them and buy it elsewhere.
Another issue related to cost is the bigger picture of converting your other attachments from pin on style to SSQA. We can assume that it’s likely that if you’re looking into this, you may have an older machine and don’t want to spend a small fortune investing in it. Example... one dealer wanted to sell me the adapter, a 60” standard bucket and a set of lightweight 48” pallet forks for just over $4,200. Yikes! That’s expensive in my book...
So... anyway, I’d like to share the little bit that I found in the topic.
A Messicks video online mentioned a local supplier, ATI that makes these adapters and to contact them if interested. So... I google searched ATI quick hitch adapter and found some distributors. I ended up buying mine from ‘Ford Distributing’ out of Columbus OH, for $865 plus $50 freight to my driveway.
It fit perfectly and seems to work fine. The mechanism is very smooth.
I chose this one over the WorkSaver brand (I seen that one on the “Ask Tractor Mike” website store and the same one from Iowa Farm Equipments eBay auctions. It looks nice as well, however the price was higher on the adapter and the shipping charges were more expensive as well. The WorkSaver hitch looked a little bulkier and according to the specifications, weighs 40lbs more than the ATI. Some might look at this as a good thing, but because it appears to attach at the implement further away from the loader frame combined with the extra weight, adds up to eating up lift capacity and break out force. My compact tractor is limited enough at only around 1500lbs of loader lift capacity, so I’ll save weight on the end of the loader where I can.
I would be interested in hearing feedback from others on these two adapters and any other brands that I’m sure that I never found. Maybe I would have made a different choice of adapter had I had more details on each, pros/cons, etc?
Also, I ended up shopping around and found Tomahawk attachments sell SSQA smooth buckets and SSQA universal pallet fork frames that work with your existing forks. The equipment seems very nice, and they saved me a ton of cash. I paid less than $700 for a brand new 66” bucket AND a new pallet fork frame. So all in... roughly $1,500 for all three things (adapter, bucket and fork frame)... that’s a reasonable investment to switch an older machine over from pin on to SSQA with a new bucket and forks. It makes the project a more justifiable expense on an older machine.
I hope this thread can collect some other good information and become a one-stop-shopping resource as a “sticky” thread on SSQA conversions so that others won’t struggle like I did.
