Heavy-Duty "4-Pt." Fast Hitch

Heavy-Duty "4-Pt. Fast Hitch HITCHES Hitches 33-2-28 When Jim Colsch wanted to mount a garden blade on the back of his Model 60 Deere, he could have bought an after market 3-pt. hitch. However, he has found that the center link interferes with hydraulics on the older 2-cylinders. So, he built his own quad link hitch, fashioning it after a Deere 801 Fast Hitch he once owned. "I made the hitch extra heavy-duty," says Colsch. "I've hung enough weight on it to lift the front end of the tractor off the ground with no problems. Quad link lift arms on the older Deere tractors were originally powered by heavy-duty cast iron arms attached to the cultivator lifts on either side of the platform. To make his Fast Hitch extra heavy-duty, Colsch fabricated L-shaped brackets from 1/2-in. thick, 4-in. angle iron and reinforced the lighter-duty cultivator lift arms that came with his 60. He mounted the horizontal leg of each bracket to the drawbar assembly. Pins mounted at the forward end of the horizontal leg receive the hitch arms when the hitch is assembled. The vertical leg of the L forms the support and housing for the top links. Colsch reinforced the cultivator lift arms with 3/4-in. by 1 1/2-in. steel, creating a near solid bar. He also shortened them from 14 in. to 12 in. to slow the action slightly. Adjustable down links drop from the cultivator arms to provide lift for the lower arms of the quad hitch. "To attach the top links, I drilled three sets of holes staggered at an angle at the top of the vertical legs of the brackets," explains Colsch. "By moving the link pin from one set to another, it moves the top link forward or back and slightly up or down. It can give a blade a little extra pitch if the top links are already extended as far as they will go." Top and down links, as well as pins and ball ends, were purchased at Tractor Supply Co. The arms themselves are used Category II Ford tractor arms. Of course once Colsch had reproduced the quad link hitch, he had to modify his 3-pt. blade. To do so, he welded a 3/8-in. plate where the center link on a 3-pt. would have connected. A 7/8-in. bolt extends through and is welded to the plate. He turned an octagon shaft on a lathe to form pins at either end for the upper link arms to engage. He also drilled a hole at its center large enough to slide over the bolt. "A double nut and washer hold the shaft in place," explains Colsch. "But the shaft can swivel as needed." He explains that an adapter for 3-pt. implements came with the original Deere Fast Hitch. "I planned this out, and it's as close to the factory quad link as I could get," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jim Colsch, 22092 County 19, Spring Grove, Minn. 55974 (ph 507 498-3738).

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