Ball hitch for my garden tractor

[Skier76]

Thanks Jags...will do. I'll try and take some pics before and after drilling

The best laid plans.... I just wanted a cheap, simple solution. I think I'm now over $30 into this. The darn 5/8 bit was $17. Oh well, still beats me pulling this thing around the yard myself.

 

[Jags]

Thanks Jags...will do. I'll try and take some pics before and after drilling

The best laid plans.... I just wanted a cheap, simple solution. I think I'm now over $30 into this. The darn 5/8 bit was $17. Oh well, still beats me pulling this thing around the yard myself.

Too bad you weren't local to me. I would have made you one for 39 cents in welding rod.

 

[bsa0021]

Here's what I did. About $5.

 

[gzecc]

Talk about nuts and bolts. I found this plow frame (on the side of the road) and it fit on my cat 0, 3 point hitch. It does it all for me. Tows my 3 trailers with 2" balls and my drop pin trailer. It also pulls a landscape rake.

 

['bert]

I have one of these on my quad works well for either type of hitch.

(broken link removed to http://www.princessauto.com/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/8077547.jpg)

 

[yanksforever]

Found this in a magazine called Kotula's.

(broken link removed to http://www.kotulas.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10051&storeId=10001&productId=13552&langId;=-1&parent_category_rn=10109&top_category=10074)

 

[adrpga498]

It almost looks like it was stamped. The under side of the plate where the hole is looks slighly tapered....almost like some material was purposely left behind.

With the lawn tractor types with the stamped frame (think car fender stamping), it is pretty common for ALL holes to be stamp. The mfg process is much faster than trying to drill the hole. Get your drill going, but use light pressure. It will more than likely try to "grab" on you, so hold that drill like you mean it. Try and keep it as straight with the original hole as possible.

I used the drill bit along with a round rat tail file. Worked for me, and I'm far from mechanicly inclined. 2" ball goes from garden tractor to truck which ever is pullin gthe splitter next.

 

[iceman]

I cut the shank off a ball hitch and welded the ball to my removable bagger attachment to haul my splitter around the yard. Worked well.

could you show us a pic??

 

[Skier76]

Thanks Jags...will do. I'll try and take some pics before and after drilling

The best laid plans.... I just wanted a cheap, simple solution. I think I'm now over $30 into this. The darn 5/8 bit was $17. Oh well, still beats me pulling this thing around the yard myself.

Too bad you weren't local to me. I would have made you one for 39 cents in welding rod.

I would have thrown in a 12 pack for good measure. :lol:

I'm going to drill the hole out this week and hopefully get the ball installed.

 

[LLigetfa]

I would have made you one for 39 cents in welding rod.

I would have thrown in a 12 pack for good measure. :lol:

WOW, a dozen welding rods! I'm drooling. ;-P

 

[Skier76]

LMAO! "beer"; a 12 pack of beer! The universal currency. :coolsmile:

 

[LLigetfa]

LMAO! "beer"; a 12 pack of beer! The universal currency. :coolsmile:

PFFT! Lose the dog and make it a two-four of Canadian beer.

 

[Skier76]

Kids...nothing is easy!

So I get the tractor out of the shed yesterday, bring it up to the garage, get out all the tools, pull out the new bit grab my corded drill....the friggin shank on the new bit is too big for the drill chuck. WTF!, So, for ha ha's, I pull out the cordless drill...the chuck is big enough. Battery is totally dead. So I loaded up the trailer with wood while it charged. Once it was done, it took under a minute to drill the hole out. So, this project was weeks in the making between ordering the ball, getting the bit ect...and the actual drilling out takes less than a minute. Irony.

I'll post some pics this weekend. Thanks for all the suggestions and advice!

 

[gzecc]

Skier, I agree, nothing is easy. I'm a contractor, everything takes planing and the right tools. You going to use oil when you drill that hole?

 

[Skier76]

I did use some oil. It was such a quick job; the actual drilling that is.

 

[velvetfoot]

Hey Skier76,
Let us know how it works, okay?
Seems like it would be a handy addition.

 

[thinkxingu]

Skier,
Did you just drill out the hole in the metal tab coming off the back of your tractor? If so, are you going to be weakening it? Also, will you have to pull the ball off when you want to use a standard pin attachment? If so, it may have been worth having someone fabricate something similar to LLigetfa's or mine.

S

 

[Skier76]

Will do...I'll probably be testing it out today or tomorrow.

Yep, I had to drill out the plate coming off the back of the tractor. I'm certainly not an engineer, however, the amount I took off was small...just enough to widen the opening a bit. I'm not too worried about weakening it due to the small amount of material removed...and the weight of the trailer I'm going to be moving around the yard. The ball will be used to move around my 4x8 trailer. I store it in the back part of the yard and the darn thing is just too heavy to move by hand. I used to use my ATV for the job, but I keep that up in VT now. So the tractor will be used to move the trailer to and from the back part of the yard. That's probably the heaviest load it will encounter.

Yeah, that's one drawback. I'll have to remove the ball to use the hitch pin. But luckily, I don't use the hitch pin trailer all the much, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

 

[Skier76]

Here's a pic I had on my BlackBerry. You can see the hitch pin behind the ball...in another open slot.

 

[Jags]

Hey Skier - just drill a hole to the farthest right of the ball that you can get. Now you got a hitch pin and a ball hitch.

 

[gzecc]

Skier, I would remove the current ball, and attach another piece of flat steel (at least 1/8" thick) to the old ball hitch hole, re-attach the old ball hitch. Make the steel large enough to add the pin hole to the side or rear. Realize if you make the pin hole to the side the cart your pulling, it might get hung up on the ball hitch during a turn. I suggest making it to the rear to eliminate that problem.

 

[Skier76]

Some good ideas guys! I need a bigger garage and more tools. I can only imagine would I could fab up if I had the right tools. Such is life...

 

[ironpony]

o.k. guys
4 pages on how to put a ball hitch on a tractor
nasa built the shuttle with less discussion
drill out the hole and install the ball already

 

[Skier76]

o.k. guys
4 pages on how to put a ball hitch on a tractor
nasa built the shuttle with less discussion
drill out the hole and install the ball already

Look @ the pic...it was done last week.

And just for that remark, I'll post more pics...hopefully I'll get this to 5 pages. :lol:

 

[velvetfoot]

I got that one from Lowes yesterday (the Hitchin Post) but I don't like it on my new Ariens (Husqvarna) lawn tractor.
It does allow bending with relatively little down pressure. I'm going to return it today.
What's needed is something that's apparently only custom, as in the above examples.