This has been an interesting thread for a farmer to read. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Swinging drawbar is the only thing I knew for the first 7 years of my life, 'til dad got a tractor with 3pt.
I see on most compacts & sub compacts, the 'swinging' drawbar is actually fixed. On a real tractor with some dragging implements you need to let the drawbar swing from side to side so you can make corners at the ends of fields. It also helps you hook up implements a lot easier.
I have found the bar with holes in it to go on the 3pt arms to be a rather wortless thing, as it pivots & swivels and you can easily lift the bar too high & damage things and it has no down pressure so it is _VERY_ dangerous with loads that are heavy in back or going down a hill (I frequently haul 24,000# of corn behind a tractor, going downhill with a 3pt hitch and the wagons would push the hitch upward & break things...) and so on. However I do have an old swinging & extending drawbar that fits on the 3pt, this is very handy, as long as I am careful on the down-hill issue. (Would not be hard to fabricate grom a 3pt hitch bar...)
The little clamp that several pictured here helps also, as well as the limiting chain that keeps the 3pt down - tho that defeats the ease of use of lifting & lowering the drawbar to some extent. But for anyone using the 3pt to hook trailers & the like to - that chain is _real_ important.
I'm still curious about the original question tho - what was the question??? The fixed or swinging drawbar is the best place to tow from, and a chain works great with a clevis & hitch pin, and since about 25 of my implements have a regular hitch you just back up & drop a pin in, or if you use ball couplers you bolt a ball hitch into it.
What was the question? /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
--->Paul
