Bedlam, Yes I have had that pleasure....
Was doing some work with no attachment on the 3pt, and walked around the tractor, and darn..... lost my ball..... Went looking, and was lucky enough to find the D## thing before the mower did, and said great, I will put this back in. Do you thing I looked to make sure it was going to stay in, nnnnnnoooooo!!!!..
Lost it good 10 min. later.... Know I will find it with mower blade this summer.
Went to TSC and picked up new set (one for spare). I think they were around $7.
Funny thing is, on my NH3430 they are just the round type (like attachment shows) that you pop in and there is a keeper spring that should
keep them in. On my NH TN65 they are the same round ball, but they have a big notch cut off of each side. Will only go in one way and when turned they wont come out. ( Theory)
This set had to come from NH dealer, and I believe they were close to $25ea. !@$#%
The balls can be had in either Cat1, or Cat2. On both my tractors they are made to be easily changeable as one way to go quickly from Cat 1 to Cat2, just change the balls!
I have seen the other weld on type and unless someone was building their own implements i can't think of a use for them.... Would be interesting to find out what others have used this weld on type for.