Harbor Freight 3 point Quick Hitch is the shizzle

[armylifer]

This weekend I was working with my new Land Pride BB1548 box scraper and when changing out my 3 point hitch sprayer I realized that the job of changing implements would be a lot faster and easier if I had a quick hitch.

So, I went to Harbor Freight and found a quick hitch on sale for $109.00 and I bought it. I am so happy that I did. Before I actually installed it on the tractor I put it up against all of my implements and checked to see if it would line up with the attach points. It did and I put it on the tractor. I actually put my box scraper on my tractor in about 3 minutes. With a little practice I bet that I could trim that time a little.

I saw a post on this forum some time ago that mentioned a problem with putting implements on the Harbor Freight quick hitch, but I did not have any problems. I am happy with my purchase so far, and I thought that some others on this forum might want to know too.

 

[bandaidmd]

I was one of the posters bit@@ing about it .lol
Glad it worked for you a lot of the issue is that the implement has to be so called "quick hitch ready".
Whats the inside measurement between the hooks on the new hitch, mine was a tight 26 1/2" ?
A lot of the newer ones are 27 1/2 and that helps a bunch from all the implements that I have measured.


ps, The top hook on the older ones is 1" not the cat 1 std 3/4" , a cat 1 to cat 2 toplink bushing worked perfect to tighten it up.

 

[BenRich]

armylifer, thanks for info on the quick hitch... I've been mulling it over as to whether I want/need one of those.

I have the BX1870D, which is essentially the same tractor you have, except for some cosmetic differences and the brake pedal is on the left side instead of the right side.

How did your tractor do with the box blade? I'm seriously considering getting one of these but would really like to hear how your machine does with it before spending the money.

I have a scrape blade for my 1870... however, in this North Carolina red clay that scrape blade can only take very small bites before the tractor loses traction.

Ben

 

[armylifer]

armylifer, thanks for info on the quick hitch... I've been mulling it over as to whether I want/need one of those.

I have the BX1870D, which is essentially the same tractor you have, except for some cosmetic differences and the brake pedal is on the left side instead of the right side.

How did your tractor do with the box blade? I'm seriously considering getting one of these but would really like to hear how your machine does with it before spending the money.

I have a scrape blade for my 1870... however, in this North Carolina red clay that scrape blade can only take very small bites before the tractor loses traction.

Ben

I have not really used the box blade yet for any projects. I practiced with it in a corner of my lot, to level ground and move some big rocks. It worked well for me but the ground was dry and mostly flat. I have turf tires on my tractor and they spun a time or two while I was scraping an area of about 400 square feet. I was trying to get a feel on how to adjust the blade; whether to cant it forward, backward or level. I finally settled on keeping it level and taking out the scarifiers.

It takes some practice to get a feel for what you want the tool to do. I am not at all unhappy with my purchase. I think that it will come in particularly useful when I get some dirt and spread it around. I like the weight of this scraper. It weighs 382 pounds and that helps give the tractor a lot more traction if you are not fully dragging it on the ground; and if you are trying to dig with it the weight seems just right for the BX18xx. I also used the box blade to push the pile of rocks and dirt that I scraped up, into one big pile. It worked almost like a mini bulldozer, except in reverse.

The box scraper that I bought is the Land Pride BB1548 and that seems to be right sized for the BX18xx. I paid $728.00 + Tax for it, delivery to my driveway included. I have seen some cheaper ones out there but none of them seem to be the quality of the Land Pride. After shopping around at stores and the internet, I think that I got a fair deal.

 

[armylifer]

I was one of the posters bit@@ing about it .lol
Glad it worked for you a lot of the issue is that the implement has to be so called "quick hitch ready".
Whats the inside measurement between the hooks on the new hitch, mine was a tight 26 1/2" ?
A lot of the newer ones are 27 1/2 and that helps a bunch from all the implements that I have measured.


ps, The top hook on the older ones is 1" not the cat 1 std 3/4" , a cat 1 to cat 2 toplink bushing worked perfect to tighten it up.

I don't know what the measurement is from side to side. I just know that it fit with room to spare on both sides. I would measure it and report to you but the tractor is 60 miles away from me right now.

I agree with you on the top hook. My question to you is; where would I be able to get the cat 1 to cat 2 top link bushing that you speak of?

 

[bandaidmd]

Tractor stores such as tractor supply stock them, regular 3/4" black pipe also may work.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[hodge]

Have you noticed a reduction in lift capacity? Any time you move the implement farther back, you decrease the lift capacity of the 3 point. I just wonder if it is enough to notice the difference.

 

[armylifer]

Have you noticed a reduction in lift capacity? Any time you move the implement farther back, you decrease the lift capacity of the 3 point. I just wonder if it is enough to notice the difference.

I have not noticed any difference in lifting capacity. The box scraper is only 382 pounds and the lift capacity at the ends of the rear lift is 992 pounds. The box scraper and the quick hitch together weigh less than 450 pounds. That is less than half of the lifting capacity at the lift ends.

 

[BenRich]

Thankee for your response, armylifer, especially the info concerning the weight of the box scrape and how your 18xx handled it.

We have 3 1/2 acres here on my retirement property and while the front and back yards were landscaped when our house was built, I have since converted the backyard to a garden with (temporary) raised beds. This fall I hope to do some further conversion by putting in permanent stone raised beds and a cobblestone path/driveway to the tractor/garden shed.

A retired farmer and friend of mine has volunteered to come over on his big John Deere w/FEL & box scrape and landscape it for me... he, like me, looks for any opportunity to get on his tractor and do things with it (lol).

I've told him that I believe my little 1870 will have the grunt necessary for this work but he's welcome to join the endeavor on his JD. I'll certainly appreciate his experience and knowledge.

Thanks again for the info.

Ben

 

[rednecklimo85]

Three minutes with the quick hitch? Doesn't take me much longer to hook up my box blade w/o quick hitch.

 

[armylifer]

Three minutes with the quick hitch? Doesn't take me much longer to hook up my box blade w/o quick hitch.

I think that I mentioned in an earlier post that I am not experienced with a tractor. Anyway, I would like to learn how to hook up a box blade or any other implement in three minutes without a quick hitch. It takes me that long just to adjust the turnbuckles after I get the top and bottom links hooked up. Please make a youtube video of how to do that so that I can learn how. There must be some steps that I am doing wrong or out of sequence. I am sure that there are some shortcuts that you can teach the less experienced.

 

[rednecklimo85]

I don't know what advice to give yea, just saying it doesn't seem to take much longer w/o a quick hitch, the turn buckles are the easiest part. Wasn't ment to be offensive, sorry if you took it that way. I've never used a quick hitch so I pictured it being a line up and go situation. I bet the quick hitch is nice if your changing implements alot thru the day.

FYI, While I grew up running a TLB, I don't have years of experience with 3PH hardware under my belt either.

Line up, drop 3PH arms, insert lower pin's, adjust top link if need be to line up insert top link pin, lift implement and adjust turn buckle's till tight, and even side to side.

If your talking about swapping both implements in three minutes, then that can't be done w/o quick hitch.

 

[Kubota_Man]

......but the tractor is 60 miles away from me right now.

I would have serious seperation anxiety issues to say the least

 

[armylifer]

I don't know what advice to give yea, just saying it doesn't seem to take much longer w/o a quick hitch, the turn buckles are the easiest part. Wasn't ment to be offensive, sorry if you took it that way. I've never used a quick hitch so I pictured it being a line up and go situation. I bet the quick hitch is nice if your changing implements alot thru the day.

FYI, While I grew up running a TLB, I don't have years of experience with 3PH hardware under my belt either.

Line up, drop 3PH arms, insert lower pin's, adjust top link if need be to line up insert top link pin, lift implement and adjust turn buckle's till tight, and even side to side.

If your talking about swapping both implements in three minutes, then that can't be done w/o quick hitch.

It is a line up and go situation but it still takes about 3 minutes from the time that I take one implement off and finish putting another one on.

I did not take offense at your comment. I have just 3 months experience with a tractor. I am willing to learn anything that I can from whomever I can. I was just thinking that newbies such as myself can gain a lot of knowledge from those more experienced; by watching videos. I have watched several Youtube videos on how to use implements but no one seems to have made any about the most basic things that are almost taken for granted by more experienced operators. Those of us that have never hooked up an implement or dropped the mower deck before can benefit from watching such how-to videos. I am not a dummie but some things are just not that self explanatory.

One site that I have found that has excellent videos is everythingattachments.com. They have an excellent how-to on using a box blade. I learned a lot from watching that. I actually watched it a couple of times to try to see techniques that were used.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I asked for some and I got it. This is a great site for that.

 

[stephen.s1]

Three minutes with the quick hitch? Doesn't take me much longer to hook up my box blade w/o quick hitch.

ditto On a B2620... 54" boxblade

 

[bandaidmd]

the newer tractors with the sway links on the inside are much easier than the ones on the outside like my B8200, trying to get the arms wide enough to go over outward pointed pins on impements is not easy due to interference with the inside of the tire and in my case tire chains. This issue is eliminated with a quick hitch or the quick hitch lift arm ends.