Pats' Quick Hitch vs Northern Tools

Fallon · Jul 24, 2016

CCWKen said:
Yep, you'd think that if we can dock in outer space, someone could come up with a self connecting PTO drive system. :confused3:

It would be easy if there was only one tractor and implements were standardized.

There are a few out there. They haven't caught on due to price though. John Deere has one that goes with their Quick Hitch. Only a few of their mowers were compatible with it and it was over a grand for the whole setup if I remember.

Huskerfan · Jul 24, 2016

Has anyone tried Pat's QH with the Kubota lower link telescoping arms?

jajiu · Jul 30, 2016

I have used the Northern, HF, Agrisupply type QH, and with everyone raving about the Pat's QH, I bit the bullet and bought a set. I took off the old QH and put on the Pat's and have been using it for a couple of weeks. Long enough to make me go back to the HF QH. Took off the Pat's and will put them on Craigslist. Maybe I will get most of my money back, they're like new, hardly used, just enough to see that they don't work for me.

DieselBound · Aug 26, 2016

I've had both. No longer use anything. Anything like this puts implements further back, increasing loads (with a smaller tractor like my current one it matters). The HF one didn't work with my box blade (Modern Ag - killer box blade!). Pat's seemed to always be in a twisted position (no matter how they were installed0 such that they'd too be difficult to get to hook up with my box blade; also would be a pain on the field mower. Sadly, I don't have easy to adjust lower links on my B7800: this will all be resolved when I purchase a new tractor (though I will keep my B7800).

California · Aug 26, 2016

DieselBound said:
I've had both. No longer use anything. Anything like this puts implements further back, increasing loads (with a smaller tractor like my current one it matters).

Interesting. For me I like the added 65 lbs at the back end of the lift arms. The little YM186D is so light I added wheel weights and the HF Qhitch just to get it ballasted to where it could have reasonable traction. These - and I had assumed your B7800 - were designed around rototilling rice paddies with a bias toward light weight/high PTO horsepower - specialized for that application.

With the Qhitch ballasting the back it seems better suited to my use, and of course ballast as far back as possible is desirable to offset the front loader.

Different applications, different needs I guess.

I learned something from your comment of the Pat's always being twisted. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe they work better with adjustable-length arms.

DieselBound · Aug 26, 2016

Put ballast in the tires if you need weight. I wish that I'd done when I'd first gotten the tractor.

California · Aug 26, 2016

DieselBound said:
Put ballast in the tires if you need weight. I wish that I'd done when I'd first gotten the tractor.

I ballasted with water in the tires on the larger Yanmar but this little one (see my sig photo below for a similar, non-loader one) really needed weight hanging off the back to offset its loader. Its wheelbase is so short that wheel ballast - water or the iron weights I have on it now - isn't far enough back.

Here's what's on it now. Iron wheel weights and the HF Qhitch. I found the Qhitch also serves as the basis for home-built projects, in this case a lift for what had been just a drag harrow.

The Qhithch isn't magic but overall I'm glad I have it.

Fallon · Aug 26, 2016

Ballast hanging off the back unloads the weak & expensive front axle as well as providing stability & traction. Loaded tires just provide stability & traction. I need both loaded tires & 3pt ballast to max out my loader capacity on my L3200. Only loaded tires is not nearly enough.

jrm21 · Sep 13, 2016

Quick follow-up for this thread.

After some thought, I picked up a quick hitch from Harbor Freight. It seems to be pretty much the same design as most of the inexpensive quick hitches. Using a discount coupon on top of their sale price, I figured there wasn't much to lose.

Installed it this weekend to try it out. My main attachment is a Kodiak rotary cutter which is billed as quick hitch "compatible" or "adaptable" depending on the literature you read.

Maybe I was doing something wrong, but it didn't seem "quick" at all. The lift arms lined up well and worked as expected. I couldn't get the top link hook to work at all. Tried variations on the hook height (it's adjustable) and top link length. I couldn't get both lift arm pins to engage with the top link. Maybe I needed the adaptor - no idea what was going on. That top link hook just wouldn't work as expected.

My PTO shaft would have fit fine, but I might have needed a longer shaft protector (how important is it that the entire PTO shaft be covered?)

I decided to pack up the quick hitch and return it (full refund). The idea of quickly connecting an implement is very attractive, but this setup was more trouble than it was worth. I might have tried harder if I still didn't need to power down and get off the tractor to connect/disconnect the PTO.

If the Pat's QC was the same price, I would probably look in that direction. As it eliminates the issue I have with the top link connection, it would likely work for me. At about double the price, I'm not sure it is worth it for my situation. I can definitely see the value for some, especially when the quick hitch works like it does in the YouTube videos.