Harbor Freight 3-point quick hitch

[Charlesaf3]

The Harbor Freight hitches are in. I ordered one on Sept. 19th for my BX23 and was told they would be on BO until Nov. 24th. Checked today and my hitch shipped on Tuesday, Oct. 24th. ETA here in Massachusetts on 11/2.

Arggh! I reordered them after the 24, but was told they were out of stock.

As a fellow resident of taxachusetts, I'd be happy to store yours for you over the winter

 

[BobinIL]

I ordered mine on 09/28/06, My CC hit last week so I assume mine has shipped also. I have already recieved my adapter and tin snips.

 

[gclark94560]

Hi All!

Mine just came today. It had been on BO for several weeks. It fit over the lower hitch :eyeballs" without a glitch. It also seems to fit my bush hog fine.

Only problem is my new box blade has the hitch pins at 28 inches apart and thay are too narrow to fit in the hooks.. I am going to make the pins fully captured by adding two outboard straps and then use two 8 inch long bolts or rods for lower pins. This should work fine.

I also had to order an 18" adjustable top rod for the thing. Hoye Tractor had one for only $16.95 so I ordered it.

I'll let y'all know how it works out when finished.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Arggh! I called again and they are still on backorder. The woman on the phone was unswayed by the logic that other people were getting theirs now.

 

[fagetaboutit]

Mine arrived today - one day early. Fifteen minutes later it was on the tractor with no modifications necessary.
Charles - thanks for your kind offer to store the hitch for the winter, but I found a great place for it. See pic.

 

[BobinIL]

Charlesaf3
It is hard to be concerned about your customers in the USA when she undoubtedly lives in India

 

[Ken_CT]

Does anyone know if I will need to order the adapter for a Kubota BX23 with King Kutter XB impliments? I have the XB box scraper, XB landscape rake & the XB sub soiler/middle buster combo.

Thanks
Ken

 

[Bedlam]

It seems that the spacing problems that plagued this hitch in the past year has been addressed.Either someone in the production phase discovered the flaw, or the from the feedback from HF and the people ,like myself and other posters who returned it. This is a good thing.

If I were to purchase one today, I think I would get the adapter, for the 16 dollars you cant go wrong. Expecially if you ended up like me with the unit and then had to spend 16 dollars and shipping of 7.50 for the adapter.
Actually if you didnt need the adapter, they would except it as a return. with a prepaid return label you can request online.
Glad people are happy with them ..
Al

 

[diverdownrick]

Ordered mine in early September and it arrived yesterday. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

 

[Ken_CT]

I went online at Harbor freight to order the quick hitch & adaptor, but I can't seem to find the adapter. Does anyone have the order # for it? The one listed in an earlier post did not work (29309-0vga from printed catalog).

Ken

 

[Charlesaf3]

Mine arrived today - one day early. Fifteen minutes later it was on the tractor with no modifications necessary.
Charles - thanks for your kind offer to store the hitch for the winter, but I found a great place for it. See pic.

While that is undeniably a great place, I can think of one where I would find it even better looking

 

[Bedlam]

I e-mailed and got a responce a few days later ...used this addy
cs2@harborfreight.com

They even explained that the "supplier' of the adapter wouldnt allow them to list and sell the adapter along side the hitch for some reason.Doesnt make sence, but I assume the adapter manufacturer has their reasons.
hope this helps.
Al

 

[California]

I went online at Harbor freight to order the quick hitch & adaptor, but I can't seem to find the adapter. Does anyone have the order # for it? The one listed in an earlier post did not work (29309-0vga from printed catalog).Ken

I think the most certain way to order the adapter is by phone. I posted the details over in the other thread.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/88921-harbor-freight-quick-hitch-more.html#post999849

It is hard to be concerned about your customers in the USA when she undoubtedly lives in India.

HF is in Camarillo on California's central coast. My best guess listening to the clerk is that she's local and her grandparents spoke Spanish but she doesn't speak a word. She got the order right, immediately. Just another cute California girl.

Edit - In fact there's a picture of her older sister on their website, halfway down the left column!
Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

 

[joerocker]

Mine arrived today...like others with the "new" hitch, mine went on easily in less than 10 minutes. You need the adapter IF your top attachment point isn't standard. Like too narrow for the hook to get in and hook the pin or the pin is too close to the bottom bracket to allow the hook to get in.

 

[California]

The more I look at my implements - I think it may be worthwhile to put a hookable upper cross-pin at standard QH height on each one. Then abandon the upper holes that were used for the upper link, since those are all random heights.

 

[gclark94560]

Well - spent much of the day making the HFT 3pt quick hitch work with my new box blade. Not the fault of the HTF hitch - the box blade seems to be a Cat .75! Sort of between Cat 0 and Cat 1. I think they made up their own specs as they went along!

It is a cheapy no-name that I paid $315 for - 4 foot. I had to weld two additional "ears" on to make for longer captured hitch pins for the bottom part of the quick hitch. I used two Grade 8 , 7/8 inch bolts for the catch pins, 8" long. When I got done it worked fine.

I also had to spread the top hitch point on the BB to have room for the hook on the HFT hitch to get inside. I cut a 1 1/2" long section of one inch water pipe for a spacer and wedged it in. Now that end fits too!

I chose to modify the BB instead on anything on the hitch - I want to keep the hitch as the constant in the system.

Hope everyone else gets their hitches SOON!

Greg

 

[Slamfire]

Have you tried reversing the pins and having them point inboard?

 

[Bedlam]

GCARK.
If you nreed pins, they are very reasonable at
Catalog: Current Buyer's Guide from Agri Supply® - Where we have Something for Everyone for your Farm Shop & Home
I placed an order with them and the prices were so good, O ought many to have on hand.Expecially the retaining pins.
good luck with the hitch.

 

[NorthernMainer]

Not sure if anyone is still watching this thread but thought I would add some interesting updates on this Chinese Hitch deal.......... I bought one last year and had the same problem as everyone else and had to mill out the lower hooks to accept standard bushings, then had to remove about .300 from the outside face of the top hook to get it to clear correctly as the plates that hold the tophook kept hitting everything I tryed to hook it too! After remilling the hook that will give you the clearance to hook up to about anything. However I have had some interesting problems with it????? It worked fine with a Med duty grader blade but when I hooked into a Box Blade [6' Frontier] it showed its weaknesses.............. the pins that hold the lower locking tabs to the frame when I put a big strain on the BB bent both of the pins upwards about .150 and that gave extra movement to allow the lower pins [.875] to pop right out under the locking tabs and right off the lower hooks!!! That quickly lead to the lower bolt on the tophook to shear the head of that Chinese bolt right off, and actually bent the hook somewhat??? To truly correct that problem one needs to drive those pins[they are just pressed in] that hold the lower locking tabs out and replace them with hardened bolts[the chinese pins in there are soft as heck] and maybe even weld an additional small plates on each side to stiffen that all up, as it appears to be the weak link if you really ask it to do something.
These hitches are like all "Bargins" if you are not blessed with a good welder a milling machine and lots of time my advice would be to just pay John Deere his $200 and I can assure you the steel is vastly superior and it will fit right out of the box ....................... if I had it to do over I would pay the extra money and just buy an Ihitch . If I hadnt noticed the hitch failing the moment it did, I would have twisted this hitch right into a knot !!!!!!
Thats my take on these hitches, if you have a smaller tractor less than 30hp type, and just want to hook into "unbushed" pins that are less than 1" and only need to lift stuff less than 500lbs these are probably ok. For a 35hp and over tractor, and an 800 Box Blade, full of rocks and gravel that get it up to over a ton my guess is you are going to wish you had bought a better hitch!
Thats my take on em anyway!

 

[NorthernMainer]

Not sure if anyone is still watching this thread but thought I would add some interesting updates on this Chinese Hitch deal.......... I bought one last year and had the same problem as everyone else and had to mill out the lower hooks to accept standard bushings, then had to remove about .300 from the outside face of the top hook to get it to clear correctly as the plates that hold the tophook kept hitting everything I tryed to hook it too! After remilling the hook that will give you the clearance to hook up to about anything. However I have had some interesting problems with it????? It worked fine with a Med duty grader blade but when I hooked into a Box Blade [6' Frontier] it showed its weaknesses.............. the pins that hold the lower locking blocks to the frame when I put a big strain on the BB bent both of the pins and that gave movement allowed the lower pins [.875] to pop right out of the lower hooks!!! That lead to the lower bolt on the tophook to shear the head of that Chinese bolt right off and actually bent the hook somewhat??? To truly correct that problem one needs to drive those pins that hold the lower locking tabs out and replace them with hardened bolts and maybe even weld an additional small plates on each side to stiffen that all up as it appears to be the weak link if you really ask it to do something.
These hitches are like all "Bargins" if you are not blessed with a good welder a milling machine and lots of time my advice would be to just pay John Deere his $200 and I can assure you the steel is vastly superior and it will fit right out of the box ....................... if I had it to do over I would pay the extra money and just buy an Ihitch . If I hadnt noticed the hitch failing the moment it did I would have twisted this hitch right into a knot !!!!!!
Thats my take on these hitches, if you have a smaller tractor less than 30hp type and just want to hook into "unbushed" pins that are less than 1" and only need to lift stuff less than 500lbs these are probably ok. For a 35hp and over tractor, and an 800 Box Blade, full of rocks and gravel that get it up to over a ton my guess is you are going to wish you had bought a better hitch!
Thats my take on em anyway!