Widening lower lift pins for mower?

[txhillcountry]

I have a 5' LandPride mower (pic attached), and the lower lift pins are the narrower 30" spacing. All of my other implements are the wider 36" spacing (box blade, plows, etc). I'd love to use a 36" quick-attach on the tractor to make life easier, but this one implement (mower) is the issue. Has anyone modified their narrower lower lift pins to be able to picked up with a 36" wide lift / quick-attach? (pic attached of the 36" quick attach I bought).

Thanks in advance!

 

[davedj1]

Aren't your 3 point arms adjustable?

 

[Sberry]

Ya, been there and done it. Had a couple pieces were queer and fixed them.

 

[Sberry]

Ya, been there and done it. Had a couple pieces were queer and fixed them.

 

[txhillcountry]

Aren't your 3 point arms adjustable?

The tractor lift arms are adjustable by themselves, but not if you're using a quick-attach like I show in the picture. They basically make two sizes... the 36" wide, and the 30" wide.

 

[txhillcountry]

Ya, been there and done it. Had a couple pieces were queer and fixed them.

How did you widen the lift pins? Add another bracket? Longer pins? etc?

 

[Sonny580]

Add more brackets! ---done it many times on weird stuff, --- just takes time and iron, welder, torch or saw and go for it.
36 vs 30 will also make your mower more stable and get rid of side twist.

 

[CoyPatton]

Yes build brackets to fit your needs. Consider gussets for added strength. From the looks of the photo you supplied, you either need to replace the current pins with bolts or do some welding if you want the pin to go through those holes (they are most likely going to be a larger diameter than pin).
If you are willing to design and weld it is doable.
While 3” on each side does not sound like much, remember you are changing the lift point of the weight of the implement and the majority of the weight will be on this 2 pins, so over engineer the new brackets (size of steel and reinforcing plates).

 

[txhillcountry]

Yes build brackets to fit your needs. Consider gussets for added strength. From the looks of the photo you supplied, you either need to replace the current pins with bolts or do some welding if you want the pin to go through those holes (they are most likely going to be a larger diameter than pin).
If you are willing to design and weld it is doable.
While 3” on each side does not sound like much, remember you are changing the lift point of the weight of the implement and the majority of the weight will be on this 2 pins, so over engineer the new brackets (size of steel and reinforcing plates).

Thanks! Pretty much what I was thinking.... adding a second set of outside brackets, replacing the existing pins with a set of longer, larger lift pins that run from both the existing bracket through the new brackets. While not 100% exactly like this attached picture, I think this is the concept I'm going to build, which is more like the wider lower lift pin areas on bigger mowers, box blades, etc.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Yes. Something like this:

You can add a another at the end to help toughen it up some more. Probably not needed though.