John Deere 2 cylinder front hitch

Fixingfarmer

Well-known Member
When I was a kid grandpa put this hitch on his B it worked great moving little implements into the shed. I borrowed it yesterday on the A

I would almost guarantee he did not make it as the painting and welds are perfect. I could weld them up but I want 3 (2 more to use right now one for whatever is next) and it has worked so well not cracking the angles are perfect.

anyone know who would have been selling them at a farm show?

Even if it’s not used for that on my other 2 very often it would keep the hitch pin out of the toolbox

I’m told it’s where cultivators would have gone. With the 3 point ones on mine I have no desire to ever use that spot for that purpose and I’ve seen a hole drilled in that mounting plate and I guess I wanted more of what I have instead of that cultivator plate to hold the pin up higher

And yes I purposely put this not in the Deere forum as others would walk past the booths as well. Thanks in advance if anybody knows
 

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Local fab shop should easily be able to duplicate it using it as a pattern (without cutting it apart).

Giving the general area it might have been purchased in, might help.
 
It would likely be somewhere in Iowa there aren’t much for shows up by Mason City but could be Waterloo Des Moines or Boone

Fab shop was a thought as well but I had the local one make something and a weld gave way on a D ring on my flatbed holding a fence post drill so maybe it just has to be a winter project I guess or I need to drive to the next weld shop

I had some pins rebored at another local one and was going to see what the bill was they might get it handed to them

With us being a bit short handed I’ve been trying to find a few places I trust to do some work
 
I have one on every tractor, some are hole drilled in "quick tach" cultivator plate. You could also make one from a small piece of heavy angle iron without welding.
 
When I was a kid grandpa put this hitch on his B it worked great moving little implements into the shed. I borrowed it yesterday on the A

I would almost guarantee he did not make it as the painting and welds are perfect. I could weld them up but I want 3 (2 more to use right now one for whatever is next) and it has worked so well not cracking the angles are perfect.

anyone know who would have been selling them at a farm show?

Even if it’s not used for that on my other 2 very often it would keep the hitch pin out of the toolbox

I’m told it’s where cultivators would have gone. With the 3 point ones on mine I have no desire to ever use that spot for that purpose and I’ve seen a hole drilled in that mounting plate and I guess I wanted more of what I have instead of that cultivator plate to hold the pin up higher

And yes I purposely put this not in the Deere forum as others would walk past the booths as well. Thanks in advance if anybody knows
I thought a front hitch would be a great idea for doing what you mention. Problem I had, Ford 3000, was that the sheet metal kept me from seeing the hitch and it took too many trips out of the seat to look and back for it to be meaningful.....abandoned the idea.
 
I thought a front hitch would be a great idea for doing what you mention. Problem I had, Ford 3000, was that the sheet metal kept me from seeing the hitch and it took too many trips out of the seat to look and back for it to be meaningful.....abandoned the idea.
Most of our stuff we move around has a sliding hitch like that beanhead trailer in the picture it did not take multiple trips. There’s a little running gear that I have always pushed around I might find one for. And I can stand up and see over the whole thing to the back wall in 1st gear nice and slow.

The skidsteer has worse visibility 2 people is best
 
I have one on every tractor, some are hole drilled in "quick tach" cultivator plate. You could also make one from a small piece of heavy angle iron without welding.
I think that might be a direction I go if I am looking at it in February. There’s a place that sells that type in Wisconsin I was thinking about giving them a call see if they have ever done I guess you would call it a hammer strap version but id want to bore them together so the holes are lined up

moved a lot of stuff on that B and it didn’t break bend or hurt the tractor and isn’t that thick of metal.
 
Possibly a local welding/machine shop. There is one near me, that does fantastic fabrication work. I watched one of their welders, cut holes for marker lights, in the back of a trailer, with a plasma cutter. They looked like he used a hole saw.
 
When I was a kid grandpa put this hitch on his B it worked great moving little implements into the shed. I borrowed it yesterday on the A

I would almost guarantee he did not make it as the painting and welds are perfect. I could weld them up but I want 3 (2 more to use right now one for whatever is next) and it has worked so well not cracking the angles are perfect.

anyone know who would have been selling them at a farm show?

Even if it’s not used for that on my other 2 very often it would keep the hitch pin out of the toolbox

I’m told it’s where cultivators would have gone. With the 3 point ones on mine I have no desire to ever use that spot for that purpose and I’ve seen a hole drilled in that mounting plate and I guess I wanted more of what I have instead of that cultivator plate to hold the pin up higher

And yes I purposely put this not in the Deere forum as others would walk past the booths as well. Thanks in advance if anybody knows
The angles are perfect for backing up wagons on level ground. If you go over a rise or through a dip, things get pretty tight on the hitch pin. We have actually bent our hitch pin before. This design would work well if you were hitching to something that had a ring on the end of the tongue. Maybe it was designed for use with a bunting pole? I don’t know. I like a front hitch with just one tab sticking out instead of two. Here are the two that I have. I prefer the homemade one that was made from a piece of angle iron .
 

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That comment about bending a hitch pin going through a dip is the part I'd pay attention to if you have more made. With two tabs trapping the tongue, the hitch can work great on level ground but doesn't give the tongue much room to change angle when the tractor and wagon are on different slopes. If you're having a shop duplicate Grandpa's hitch anyway, bring the actual hitch and one of the tongues you move most often and ask them about adding enough vertical clearance for articulation without making the pin sloppy. Might be worth copying what made the original work, but giving the new ones a little more room for uneven ground.
 
Thanks for all the thoughts from everybody we do actually use the bottom tab out of habit only when we hook to my knowledge we have never put a hitch completely inside the two I don’t think there is anything that we own that would fit inside. The second tab is really just to hold the pin when we aren’t using it which it does quite well.

If I was concerned or it happened once I guess I could flip the pin over safety pin it and stay out of the top hole

It has made it up and down the slope of the shed shoving things away which is about its task I think the angle that it is in relation to its height keeps everything square

It’s looking like I’ll just have to spend some time this winter making a few
 
If the implement tongue has the two ears, like the original hitch even if you only put the tongue ears over the lower hitch ear, then run the pin through all 4 holes it puts more bending stress on the pin and ears.
 
If the implement tongue has the two ears, like the original hitch even if you only put the tongue ears over the lower hitch ear, then run the pin through all 4 holes it puts more bending stress on the pin and ears.
I don’t doubt that it’s going to keep the pin tighter but it has not been a problem for us. I think that angle is the key most of them I’ve seen start out at a much shallower angle (or no angle is more what I’ve seen) and I don’t doubt the first rise you go over you might bind if this was straight on. This matches the implements it seems. It also seems if one was selling the little things I can see why they didn’t sell many!

We are relatively flat out here and most things have a bigger hole than it does and I think that’s the other part of the puzzle even the little dumpster wagon you could fit 2 of those pins in it

This thing has moved a lot of stuff in and shoved them over the hump of the sheds we used to be able to scoot some of the Parker wagons around by hand but that isn’t the case with the red set.

I asked Dad and he thinks it came with the G which I don’t think is correct the paint doesn’t look right and it isn’t worn out enough for the use it had even in my lifetime

The point you and several others have made is a good one I might beef up the lower one a couple 16ths in case I need it and grab a short pin or 2. The tow bar is the thing I’d sneak the pin in from the bottom and just use one but if I’m contemplating that as a last resort stuck out at the pasture where there’s hills I’ve likely had a minute to think about it since I’ve had a really bad day up to that point. We would more likely winch it on the trailer to save the transmission and that wouldn’t care.
 
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