Trailer tongue too short for tractor

[Diamondpilot]

What a clever invention . I used to see those drawbars on Grey Fergies pulling trailers around dairies . I could never work out how it would not just turn over and twist the ball out of the coupling . I don't think a lot of thought went into them when they were designed . Or did they originaly have a seperate piece like in your photo that was lost over the years ?

They were really never designed for a ball. They were used to pull the ground engaging implements that farmers had left over from the days of using horses. Those flat draw bars work fine for pulling hay wagons and such where you drop a pin through to hitch it up rather than a ball. I am sure the item I showed was a afterthought.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

Diamond man remember there is a difference between jocking a trailer around in your flat dry driveway and pulling over 20K out of the woods on hills in the mud up to the wheels on a "farm" tractor.

I don't even own a flat draw bar. Just giving the guy a idea. I also made a Reese style hitch out of one I took off of a Explorer. It is made of 1/4" and 1/2" thick steel and is heavy duty. I pull boats upto 25 K with mine all the time and it does not flex one bit. Just like you, I built mine for under $50.

Chris

 

[wkpoor]

I don't even own a flat draw bar. Just giving the guy a idea. I also made a Reese style hitch out of one I took off of a Explorer. It is made of 1/4" and 1/2" thick steel and is heavy duty. I pull boats upto 25 K with mine all the time and it does not flex one bit. Just like you, I built mine for under $50.

I do like your idea of making a 3pt receiver adapter from a truck hitch. I was only pointing out that ( at least Most ) of those units like TSC sells are rather lightly built. I also suspect you are able to pull the 25K with the CUT because of ideal conditions. My tractor weights almost 10K and I've had enough tongue weight on my 14K trailer to lift the front end up even with weight in the bucket on the front. Put that same load out in the field in mud and on a hill and it had better be built tough.

 

[SailorBob]

I found a draw bar lock on TSC's website and ordered it. It was a little bit different from the one in the pic. It was 18.95 + shipping. That should be sufficient for my needs. I don't really put too much on the tractor. I mainly use it for hauling tree limbs to my burn pile. I have a lot of oak trees on my property and they are constantly shedding small limbs all over the place.

Thanks to everyone that replied.

 

[Lunk]

I have a small 4' X 8' utility trailer that I would like to use with my Yanmar tractor. I have a ball on the draw bar and can hook it up and use it sort of. The draw bar does not extend past the rear wheels and lower lift arms. This keeps me from turning the tractor very sharp at all without the trailer A frame part between the tongue and bed hitting the rear tires. Does anyone know of a work around for this? I have seen some 3 point attachments with a ball on them but, I don't think they are very safe to use. I feel it would be much safer to pull with the draw bar.

Thanks

Will that get the extra "room" for turning sharper?

If not, my uncle once lengthened a trailer tongue by taking a 4' length of heavy square tube, mounting an extra ball coupler on one end, and an extra ball about 2' from the other. He'd put the extra ball into the existing trailer coupler, and use a couple of squared off u-bolts to attach the extra 2' of tube below the existing trailer tongue.

He wasn't hauling much in terms of weight, and it sounds like you aren't either.

Best part was that it could be removed for "normal" trailer use in about 5 min..

Lunk

 

[RollTideRam]

If I knew you were hauling tree limbs, we would have talked you into selling the trailer and buying a grapple. That would have been more fun. JC

 

[jimainiac]

I just wanted to mention another method of hooking up a trailer that I came up with. Since most of the time I have the rear blade mounted on the 3PH, I bolted a ballmount on the middle of the blade mount. It's really handy because I don't have to change anything if I want to grab a trailer and move it around.

 

[SailorBob]

I just wanted to mention another method of hooking up a trailer that I came up with. Since most of the time I have the rear blade mounted on the 3PH, I bolted a ballmount on the middle of the blade mount. It's really handy because I don't have to change anything if I want to grab a trailer and move it around.

I saw a picture were someone welded a trailer hitch receiver to the back of a box blade. That could be handy as well. I just dont own a welder right now.(Though it is on my wish list of things to get.) During the winter I usually keep the box blade on most of the time to maintain my driveways.

I received the draw bar lock today from TSC. I have seen a lot of stories on the forum about how bad the service is at TSC but, their web service was very good. At least i can now use it.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Good deal. Glad you got.

Chris

 

[Sackett2]

SailorBob,

If you have any welding skills, you can build something like this.

Sheesh JJ. Is it stout enough?
Looks like something the government would buy to lift a 200 lb trailer.
Great build, and it looks tougher than most anything on the tractor!