Bush hog cat 1 pins too wide

[s219]

My neighborhood association bought a 6' bush hog from TSC and I have been using it to mow our trails with my L3200. The first time I hooked it up, it took 15-20 minutes and was a struggle. I ended up having to remove my stabilizer links in order to swing the lift arms wide enough to get around the pins on the mower, and even that barely worked as the arms were up against the tires.

I used the mower again this weekend and once again it was a major pain to hook up. When I do eventually get it hooked up and put the stabilizer links back on, there is only about 1/4" clearance between the stabilizer and the tire on each side, and the telescoping stabilizers don't have a wide enough setting that will prevent rubbing on the tires. So it seems obvious to me the bush hog's mount is just too darn wide. I have 5-6 other cat 1 implements and none have this problem.

I measured the pins on the mower and found them ~ 1.25" wider than the standard for cat 1. The lift arms themselves spread out to a good 2" wider than normal maximum. Can't flip the pins inward because of the design (pins are mounted to an angle iron post). The pins are also part of a swivel mechanism built into the mower's support frame and need to stay in the current location and orientation for the swivel to function.





Any ideas on how to improve this? Short of buying a quick hitch and hoping it can handle the extra pin width, best idea I have is to weld a plate to the front of the angle iron posts and mount some new pins on that at a standard 26" width. I'd leave the old pins as they are since they are part of the swivel feature.

 

[sweettractors]

My neighborhood association bought a 6' bush hog from TSC and I have been using it to mow our trails with my L3200. The first time I hooked it up, it took 15-20 minutes and was a struggle. I ended up having to remove my stabilizer links in order to swing the lift arms wide enough to get around the pins on the mower, and even that barely worked as the arms were up against the tires.

I used the mower again this weekend and once again it was a major pain to hook up. When I do eventually get it hooked up and put the stabilizer links back on, there is only about 1/4" clearance between the stabilizer and the tire on each side, and the telescoping stabilizers don't have a wide enough setting that will prevent rubbing on the tires. So it seems obvious to me the bush hog's mount is just too darn wide. I have 5-6 other cat 1 implements and none have this problem.

I measured the pins on the mower and found them ~ 1.25" wider than the standard for cat 1. The lift arms themselves spread out to a good 2" wider than normal maximum. Can't flip the pins inward because of the design (pins are mounted to an angle iron post). The pins are also part of a swivel mechanism built into the mower's support frame and need to stay in the current location and orientation for the swivel to function.

View attachment 641951

View attachment 641952

Any ideas on how to improve this? Short of buying a quick hitch and hoping it can handle the extra pin width, best idea I have is to weld a plate to the front of the angle iron posts and mount some new pins on that at a standard 26" width. I'd leave the old pins as they are since they are part of the swivel feature.

Would it be possible to just reverse 1 pin and cut away the part of the angle iron that would be in the way of the lift arm? Maybe a new lift arm pin with longer threads and put a spacer bushing in to kick the pin action out past the angle iron? Ken Sweet

 

[Gary Fowler]

Without doing major surgery on the lift point, you may gain an inch by removing the top yoke and putting it inside the angle iron rather than to the outside. You will have to bend the yoke a bit to allow this to fit inside the post attachments.
The proper way might be to cut the stanchion post lose and put them to the inside of the deck frame. This would require major refabrication since your would have to rotate the angle iron 90 degrees, drill new holes for the lift pins.
My suggestion is to go back to TSC and do some measuring on another mower to see if they are all fabbed too wide. IF as you say they are 1 1/4" wider than standard dimensions for Cat 1 then you have some ammo to get a swap out or money back or make them pay to fix the problem.

 

[TractorGuy]

Per the manual: NOTE: If the tractor draft links will not open wide enough to fit over hitch pin assemblies in their normal configuration the hitch pins can be inverted so that the draft links can hook up to the inside.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/static/sites/TSC/downloads/ProdContentPDFs/2127256_Man1.pdf

 

[jeff9366]

As CountyLine is painted to be a private label for TSC by Tarter in Kentucky, why not contact Tarter?

Contact Us by Phone:
1-800-RED-GATE (1-800-733-4283)

Contact Us by Mail:
P.O. Box 10
10739 South U.S. 127
Dunnville, KY 42528


Contact Us — Tarter Farm and Ranch Equipment | American Made Quality Since 1945

 

[RickB]

Low end junk not built to accepted industry standards.

 

[kthompson]

Based upon the pictures there is no reason you can not flip the lift pins in as Ken Sweet suggested also get longer lift pins and place bushings on the threaded area to push the pins clear of the mount. The longer pins are common to find and so are the bushings that will work for you, they are made to convert Cat 2 lift arms for Cat 1 implements. One bushing per side should be right. At same time you MIGHT find cat one pin that is made to use on either end so you could connect to it from the outside or the inside. Pins turned in on mowers are not uncommon.

 

[CobyRupert]

Is it possible TSC mounted the "top link frame" on the outside of the mower's lower angle iron when they should of been mounted on the inside? If you can "squeeze" the top link frame and this connection from outside to inside, the pins would stick farther in away from the bottom angle iron when they are reversed.
The photos in the manual seem to show it both ways depending on the picture.

 

[s219]

Per the manual: NOTE: If the tractor draft links will not open wide enough to fit over hitch pin assemblies in their normal configuration the hitch pins can be inverted so that the draft links can hook up to the inside.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/static/sites/TSC/downloads/ProdContentPDFs/2127256_Man1.pdf

The manual seems to cover two different mower styles, and that would only work with the other style shown (without fab/modifications).

 

[s219]

Is it possible TSC mounted the "top link frame" on the outside of the mower's lower angle iron when they should of been mounted on the inside? If you can "squeeze" the top link frame and this connection from outside to inside, the pins would stick farther in away from the bottom angle iron when they are reversed.
The photos in the manual seem to show it both ways depending on the picture.

That would have been the easiest fix, but the frame (what Gary called a "yoke" up above) is meant to swivel around the pins, and if I move it to the inside it will no longer swivel. And also, the holes will be off.

Now, the swivel function is somewhat moot in my case, since I have a hydraulic top link and let it float when mowing, but if other neighbors use the mower they will probably need that swivel function to work.