# 3 point Quick Hitches



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Decided to buy a couple of quick hitches for 2 of my tractors as I am tired of "hooking up" by hand







. I noticed that the John Deere cat.2 quick hitches were 500 +. I saw Northern has one for less than half of the JD. I also saw one on Harbor Freight for less than 200. Has anyone used any of the lesser priced quick hitches and are they reliable?

Regards, Mike


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## DKFarms (Aug 11, 2008)

I have 2 JD's (bought with tractors) and one Speeco. No trouble with any of them. In fact, I pulled down my shop 12x12 roll-up door with the Speeco after the door got caught on the top hook. The manual didn't mention that feature so I suppose I got a bonus.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

I had a Speeco on my little tractor for a number of years and it worked fine.....I just got tired of taking it off for equipment that wouldn't fit. The sleeves for the lower arm pins are expensive as well. I finally gave it away. If you do get one, make sure the hook on top is adjustable. That feature solved about half of the mis-matches.....couldn't do much about the width mis-matches. My neighbor has a JD on his green tractor and you can't adjust anything on it.

I think a better solution are Pat's hooks for the lower arms: Pat's Easy Change System Products Page

I put the Cat II hooks on my JD when it was new and have never regretted it. You don't need the pin sleeves as it fits the Cat II pins. I use a hydraulic top link on that tractor, it gives me a lot more flexability and takes all the work out of hookups.


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## kyfred (Dec 23, 2009)

I don't know what model JD's you have but I saw on RFD one time when they had JD reps. Telling about their products and taking questions from people watching the show they had a quick hitch that was called "I match auto hitch" that was pretty neat if you had something like a bush hog, tiller or something that ran by a pto it would hook everything up including the pto shaft in one motion. Probably wouldn't work on anything that wasn't JD green but was pretty neat and I would say $$$$$. You had to have the second part that went on the implement that held the pto shaft in place for the part on the tractor 3pt hitch to latch onto looked like.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Mike120, you are right on about the adjustable top hook and that is why I did not consider JD or Speeco. At least the ones speeco now shows on their website does not have adjustment in their top hook. I did consider a lift arm hook that Northern sells, but it did not get the best of reviews. I did not see Pat's or I would have considered them. Oh well, for $130 I will give the quick hitch a go and if its too much I will try again. Have you found any issues with the lift arm hooks due to the extension of the lift arms. I did see where someone had a pto shaft issue due to the "extension" (shaft coming apart?), but that could very have well been just a isolated incident.

Regards, Mike


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

Vol said:


> Have you found any issues with the lift arm hooks due to the extension of the lift arms. I did see where someone had a pto shaft issue due to the "extension" (shaft coming apart?), but that could very have well been just a isolated incident.


Mike, the only issue I've had with the length was on a Brush Hog that I bought used. The guy had trimmed the shaft for his tractor and, I think, had taken off a bit too much (I usually leave more overlap). I just pulled the tractor side off another piece of equipment and it was fine. Anyway, I usually run that Brush Hog with a different tractor. Pat's hooks only add about 2" and except for a tiller and a finish mower, everything else I've hooked to it with a PTO uses the towbar. That tractor has the most implement changes and the hooks with the hydraulic top link have really spoiled me. If Pat made a version that would fit my Ford....I'd put them on it!


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