Home Brew 3-pt hitch?

[Steevo]

Has anyone here built a 3-pt hitch for their tractor from scratch? I'm thinking there isn't much to one, other than mounts and a pivot rod for the top arms to attach to. What about auxiliary power sources for a 3-pt setup? Anyone done one with a linear actuator?

[JimDk]

Steve, Here's a picture of one that I had in my files. I'm not sure who originaly posted it. It looks like you would need lots of front weight if you tried to lift a heavy attachment. It is a nice unit, though. Jim

[Steevo]

Wow, that beast looks big enough to be a Cat-1 I am hoping to fabricate a Cat-0 for mine.

[msiebern]

Here are a couple of pictures I just took today at the show in Wauseon, Oh. Kind of the other extreme, but it is home built and looks like it will do the job. Might give you a couple of ideas anyway.
[img]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h259/msiebern/garden%20tractors/BILD0101.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h259/msiebern/garden%20tractors/BILD0102.jpg[/img]

[WITom]

Here's a three point hitch that I built for my Sunstar. I had better pics of the hitch itself, but now I can't seem to find them. This is a Cat. 0. It uses the tractor's hyd. lift system, but I wish I had a separate circuit just for the 3 point hitch. There are times I'd like to use the 3 point hitch without the deck raising/lowering along with it. One of these days I'm going to engineer something to run the hitch separate from the deck lift.

[MPH]

I built one for my 4040 whole bunch of years ago so them pics would be on my old 'puter yet. Not sure how long things are kept in the old and moldy section of this site .

[gregc]

Marty, if you posted a pic here it should still be here. In the menu at the top of the page mouse over "My Area" and click on "My Start Page". Click on "List Photos Attached In Forums" on the left side of your start page.

[Steevo]

I like the one on that sunstar, WITOm. That is pretty much what I was envisioning fabricating. I'm thinking of using a linear actuator mounted up under the back of the tractor to push/pull a link on the upper pivot shaft. I need to find some schematic diagrams of a 3-pt setup somewhere to clarify the relationship between the pivot points and angles. I haven't been able to find any digrams anywhere with any measurements other than the pin diameters are 5/8" and the drawbar width between lower pivot arms is 20" on a category "0". WITom, on yours, is the distance from the center point of the upper pivot shaft to the upper center lift arm mount point about half the length of the outer upper lift arms that pull up the lower arms?

[WITom]

Heck, I have no idea what the distance is! I will measure it if you'd like though. I downloaded the parts manual for attachments for the Sunstar off the net and stared at the 3 point hitch group for hours and then stared at the back of my tractor for hours, trying to "engineer" this in my head. I finally tore into it and it all came together pretty well. I tried to mount the upper link arm in about the same spot that it appeared to me like it would be with the OEM hitch but again, all I had to go by was a parts breakdown - no measurements, etc. If I were to do it over, and it would not be that difficult to change, I would make the upper and lower links longer. I also think the upper link attachment point needs to be lower and further forward - but I have been unable to figure out how to do this without getting in the way of the pivot shaft. Here is one of the pics I was looking for the other day....

[Steevo]

Looks like you did a beautiful job on it, Tom. I think I can do pretty much what you did by eyeballing enough examples like this one. Thanks.