Pat's Easy Change Landpride Quick Hitch Or Pat's System

[NYBOB]

I just bought a JD 3720 with a JD ballast box, Woods PRD7200 finish mower and a Splitfire wood splitter.

I had my dealer try the Imatch and it didn't work with the Woods mower. My choices are the harbor frieght, Speeco or Landpride quick hitches. Or Pat's easy change system. Of the quick hitches I like the Landpride the best. It has plenty of adjustments on the top link and it looks very well built. My dealer can't get the LP since he is not a dealer so I started looking around. The first guy the returned my call was $440...

I guess my question is, what benefit will the LP system versus Pat's give me? and is the LP worth the extra money?

Thanks
Bob

 

[jdbower]

Assuming you can set the Landpride up such that all your implements are able to be used you won't have to connect the toplink. For my implements the toplink is a trivial connection (plus I'd have to adjust the Landpride between a few different implements and one I don't know if it will work at all) so I'm happy with my Pat's. Since you have to get off to attach the PTO anyway on many implements I don't know that you lose much time with Pat's. As an added benefit, Pat's can also be adjusted to any width so if it's not just the toplink that won't fit you're still covered.

 

[canoetrpr]

It wasn't for me.

My dealer let me try out the LP quick hitch. Right off the bat I found that it did not fit the ballast box and I wasn't about to get into getting it modified.

The other problem I found with the LP was with the top part of the frame in the way, I could not see the lower links while I backed up. This is probably because I am just a short guy (5' 6").

Sent back the LP and bought the Pats. I'm very happy with it. Hooking up the top link is not a problem. It is the lower links that are really the issue. So the Pats works quite well for me.

 

[SkunkWerX]

I just brought home the HarborFreight Quick Hitch today.
We have a HF store abiut 20 minutes away, and the QuickHitch was on special for $59.99, so, I figured it was worth a try.
After taking several measurements at home, it appeared that "most" of my attachements would comply, being most concerned with width between bottom pins.

Item 1. I am now finding another conflict, the top pin Hook attachment.
My implements are fine at the bottom links, but have either a bolt holding the A-frame together near the top link, or welded metal keeping the A-Frame and top pin holes parallel. This set-up on the implements blocks the Top Hook of the QuickHitch from being able to rise up to sieze/hook the top pin.

Item 2, I don't really like the amount of slop at the bottom hook-up of the Quickhitch. The attachment's pins have a good 1/2" of up and down play, so, the implement can chatter.

Item 3: mentioned by Canoetrpr, I can't see the bottom pins as I back up to an attachement. The QuickHitch is a bulky device, and vision is entirely obscured. You must lean out either side, a lot, to get any kind of view of where your lower hook-up is, in relation to the pins on the attachement.

I'm going to look this thing over another 24 hours or so, but don't really want to mod my attachments just to fit the QuickHitch.

I think ultimately Pat's is going to be the way to go.
Someone else in another thread mentioned that the Toplink is not really a big deal, and I have to agree. The wrestling gets done at the bottom links.

 

[BobQ]

I love pats' hands down!

Bob

 

[milkman]

I can see that there is a difference in the Pats Easy Change and the LP, HF, JD. What I can't seem to grasp is why would someone pay
~$400 vs $59.99 for the same thing, aren't the HF, LP, JD all the same, why such a price difference?

 

[California]

I can see that there is a difference in the Pats Easy Change and the LP, HF, JD. What I can't seem to grasp is why would someone pay
~$400 vs $59.99 for the same thing, aren't the HF, LP, JD all the same, why such a price difference?

The JD is different. It's top hook is at a fixed height (which may or may not match non-JD stuff) and it has one advantage: the top hook stands out clear of the chassis. On the HF (and I think the other generics), the variable height bolt holes for the upper hook are on plates that stand out behind the chassis, and may hit your implement before the hook has engaged your implement completely.

I decided $60 for the HF one was all I wanted to spend. I moved upper pins around on my implements to match it.

 

[Gryantaylor]

Item 1. I am now finding another conflict, the top pin Hook attachment.
My implements are fine at the bottom links, but have either a bolt holding the A-frame together near the top link, or welded metal keeping the A-Frame and top pin holes parallel. This set-up on the implements blocks the Top Hook of the QuickHitch from being able to rise up to sieze/hook the top pin.

QUOTE]

I bought the HF quick hitch back in april after reading numerous other posts. Before I bought it I measured the bottom pin width of all my impliments (4) to make sure it would work. I didn't look closly at the top pin. After getting it home and trying it out I discovered that all by one of my attachments have welded supports just under the top pin which prevent the hook from sliding up from the bottom as intended. My solution was to remove one of the bolts that holds the top hook onto the quick hitch such that it can pivot out of the way. I rotate the hook up out of the way, backup and hookup the bottom 2 pins (which was always the hard part). Then I adjust the elevation of the 3 pt until the top pin is lined up correctly, flip the hook over and manually insert the top link pin. I don't know if this is any faster then pats system, or better the the adaptor I've heard about but it works for me. I've also found that if I set the impliments down on a cement block to keep the lower pins about 16" off the ground the whole process goes alot easier.

 

[SkunkWerX]

This afternoon/evening I made a top-link adapter for th QuickHitch. Removed the bulky hook assembly altogether, and fabricated a height-adjustable & pivotting top-link. Didn't like that hook anyway.
Yes, I will have to pin the top-link, just like the old-school way, but, it's easy enough.

I'll get some pics up tomorrow, have to debur and add some paint to the new adapter.

 

[SkunkWerX]

Man, I must have dreamed that I posted pics, sorry.
I did just post 3 pics in the other QuickHitch Thread, on page 4,
here:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/102274-quick-hitch-4.html