Implement Hook-up 101

[redlevel]

It also helps to have more than one tractor. Right now, I am doing some discing when it is dry enough, and mowing some brush down when it it is too wet to get in the field. I have the harrow hooked to the 600 Ford and the rotary mower hooked to the Farmtrac. This simple expedient has saved me from having to change implements at least a half-dozen times since Christmas.

If your tractor has both draft and position control, make sure it is in position control when you are hooking up. As someone mentioned, lower the lift arms just about a half inch lower than you need them. That will give you a little slack to work with. I used to just bully all but the heaviest implements around till I got them hooked, but back surgery last March put a stop to that. I've been doing it close to 50 years now, and it can still be a pain (literally). As the tractor gets a little age on it, and as the implement ages some, contact points wear and tolerances tend to become a little looser. I know it sounds silly, but a few thousanths at each point on the tractor and implement makes a difference. A ball that swivels easily at the end of a lift arm will go on a lot easier than it will when it is new and stiff.

It can still make you forget your Sunday School lesson sometimes.

ps I would never use anything heavier than a 20 lb sledge-hammer when hooking up.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

It also helps to have more than one tractor. Right now, I am doing some discing when it is dry enough, and mowing some brush down when it it is too wet to get in the field. I have the harrow hooked to the 600 Ford and the rotary mower hooked to the Farmtrac. This simple expedient has saved me from having to change implements at least a half-dozen times since Christmas.

If your tractor has both draft and position control, make sure it is in position control when you are hooking up. As someone mentioned, lower the lift arms just about a half inch lower than you need them. That will give you a little slack to work with. I used to just bully all but the heaviest implements around till I got them hooked, but back surgery last March put a stop to that. I've been doing it close to 50 years now, and it can still be a pain (literally). As the tractor gets a little age on it, and as the implement ages some, contact points wear and tolerances tend to become a little looser. I know it sounds silly, but a few thousanths at each point on the tractor and implement makes a difference. A ball that swivels easily at the end of a lift arm will go on a lot easier than it will when it is new and stiff.

It can still make you forget your Sunday School lesson sometimes.

ps I would never use anything heavier than a 20 lb sledge-hammer when hooking up.

Another one of those "chicken vs egg" things

"As the tractor gets a little age on it, and as the implement ages some, contact points wear and tolerances tend to become a little looser........."

Is it the fact that you've hooked and unhooked long enough to start getting wear in the hitch that make YOU better at hooking up? Or is it just that slack?

Or is it BOTH?