3-Point Hitch 3PT Operation Question

[hube2]

I have a Massey GC1725M. I think this is more general and not related to the make of tractor, but I could be wrong.

When I am using my rear blower and I encounter a rise in the the ground under the blower the blower will be pushed up but only to a point. After this point the arms will not raise further and instead the blower begins to dig into the ground. If it makes any difference I am blowing a stone driveway and areas of my lawn, so the ground is not completely hard and does give a bit. But I don't think this matters because the blower will be pushed up higher in the first place.

I also notice that when I'm attaching the blower what I do is lower the 3pt as low as it can go before backing up to the blower and then I lift the arms up to put the pins in. I can lift them pretty easily to a point and then I see significant resistance to further lifting and I can not lift them any further.

I have my 3pt slow control valve open only 1/4 of a turn to prevent the 450# blower from slamming into the ground when I lower it. I think I can get 2 full turns on it so it is only allowing about 1/8th of the flow that is possible.

I've never really studied how upward pressure from the ground effect 3pt level. I have been was under the impression that there is no downward pressure and that upward force should cause the 3pt to lift. I have actually gotten to the point where the blower is dug in enough that it practically prevents my from backing up and my wheels begin to spin or the tractor bogs down if I try to continue pushing, so I know there is a significant amount of pressure that is being applied that should force the blower higher.

Can the slow control valve being restricted prevent the blower from pushing the 3pt up when it encounters a large rise in ground level or is this just how the 3pt works, that is only allowing it to rise a set amount from where it is set?

What am I misunderstanding?

 

[i7win7]

I also notice that when I'm attaching the blower what I do is lower the 3pt as low as it can go before backing up to the blower and then I lift the arms up to put the pins in. I can lift them pretty easily to a point and then I see significant resistance to further lifting and I can not lift them any further.

Sounds like pto shaft is too long - youtube has videos on pto shaft sizing

Three PTO Shaft Tips - YouTube

 

[hube2]

After my post I went outside and got to know the 3PT a little better. There is nothing preventing the blower from pushing the 3 point arms up other that the weight of the blower causing it to dig into rises in the ground rather than push it up into the air.

I did get a better set of skid shoes but I switched back to the original ones because I could not get the blower low enough with the new one and I need to make some minor modification to the flared flange on the end of the blower what I was hoping to wait on until it was a little warmer. I'll have to deal with this issue for a while or I'll have to suck it up and do the work that needs to be done in the cold...

 

[Seven Gables]

I'm going to guess you just need to shorten your connecting lift rods that attach to your 3pt lift arms. Usually one is adjustable without removing and the other remove the lower pin where it attaches to the arm and thread it together . Level the the two arms with the adjustable link.

 

[Aquamoose]

Have you compared the up positions without the blower and see if the lift arms can be physically moved higher manually? If you can, I’d look into the PTO shaft issue aforementioned. If you can’t, you may need to reposition the bottom links closer to the tractor for greater range.

 

[RjCorazza]

Not sure what you checked in your second post, but in the first post you mention that when raising the blower it binds and stops.
If the blower is in fact driving into the ground, shortening the toplink may help level the blower out.
Be absolutely sure your PTO is not too long, as had been mentioned. It can cause significant damage to the tractor , PTO, or implement.

 

[hube2]

Not sure what you checked in your second post, but in the first post you mention that when raising the blower it binds and stops.

What I did was unhook the lower arms and then lifted them all the way up. They are quite heavy to lift this way. So it was not that the arms could not be lifted it was simply that I was not applying enough oomph

There is nothing binding. I can lift the blower all the way up without the pto shaft or anything else binding.

Like I said, it seems to be just the fact that the ground is to soft to allow the original shoes to ride up rather than dig in.

 

[RjCorazza]

What I did was unhook the lower arms and then lifted them all the way up. They are quite heavy to lift this way. So it was not that the arms could not be lifted it was simply that I was not applying enough oomph

There is nothing binding. I can lift the blower all the way up without the pto shaft or anything else binding.

Like I said, it seems to be just the fact that the ground is to soft to allow the original shoes to ride up rather than dig in.

Got it. Shortening the toplink may help, or larger shoes as you plan. I put larger shoes on my blower, as the OEM shoes were not much larger than small walk behind blower shoes. I ordered a set of shoes for a much larger blower and bolted them onto the side of the housing.

 

[rScotty]

Got it. Shortening the toplink may help, or larger shoes as you plan. I put larger shoes on my blower, as the OEM shoes were not much larger than small walk behind blower shoes. I ordered a set of shoes for a much larger blower and bolted them onto the side of the housing.
View attachment 681382

Those are the larger shoes? Gosh, I use shoes at least twice that size on rear implements. Sometimes larger.

What Hub2 describes about the 3pt arms becoming harder to lift as they go higher is common to most 3pts - especially noticible with heavy Cat II 3pt arms. When the arms are level, the amount of force you apply by hand is mostly used to lift them up and so hooking them up is easy. But as the arms go farther up, more and more force is used to rotate the arms - leaving less oomph to lift them with. It's just the way the leverage works. Larger shoes will sure help.
rScotty

 

[RjCorazza]

Those are the larger shoes? Gosh, I use shoes at least twice that size on rear implements. Sometimes larger.

What Hub2 describes about the 3pt arms becoming harder to lift as they go higher is common to most 3pts - especially noticible with heavy Cat II 3pt arms. When the arms are level, the amount of force you apply by hand is mostly used to lift them up and so hooking them up is easy. But as the arms go farther up, more and more force is used to rotate the arms - leaving less oomph to lift them with. It's just the way the leverage works. Larger shoes will sure help.
rScotty

I didn't read the post as manually lifting the arms until later. Yes, they do get harder to manhandle.
The OEM shoes for my blower were ridiculously small. I ordered the larger ones based on a marginal parts picture for a much larger blower size and brand. If I were more of a welder I would have made them slightly longer and 4" wide. I should really get better at welding.

 

[rScotty]

I didn't read the post as manually lifting the arms until later. Yes, they do get harder to manhandle.
The OEM shoes for my blower were ridiculously small. I ordered the larger ones based on a marginal parts picture for a much larger blower size and brand. If I were more of a welder I would have made them slightly longer and 4" wide. I should really get better at welding.

The best way I know to get better at welding is with an old-fashioned oxy-acetylene torch. The kind with a bottle of oxygen, one of acetylene, and a "torch" handle with interchangeable tips for heating, cutting, welding, and brazing.

For shoes you would use the cutting tip to cut a flat shoes shape out of handy scrap metal, then heat it red hot to bend it to shape. Quench to make the sliding surface half-hard and clamp it into position. Now fit the cutting tip back onto the torch handle so as to pierce some holes for bolting or riviting the shoe into place. It's pure fun, and takes only a little longer to do it as to type it out.

The advantage of a torch is the way one quick source of heat handles everything from heat treatment, hot bending, cutting, and all types of welding and brazing.
As a young man I traveled through the jungle in central America for half a year in an old truck with a torch rig strapped to the back doing "tinkering" in the little indian villages there. Fixing everything from busted gears to truck leaf springs, made new bushings, repaired holes in cast iron pots and pans, and the ever popular machete & .22 rifle repairs. Lifelong friendships, too.
It was a wonderful adventure and the torch made it all possible.
rScotty

 

[FrankJG]

Not sure what you checked in your second post, but in the first post you mention that when raising the blower it binds and stops.
If the blower is in fact driving into the ground, shortening the toplink may help level the blower out.
Be absolutely sure your PTO is not too long, as had been mentioned. It can cause significant damage to the tractor , PTO, or implement.

+1 on shortening the top link. I'm snowblowing only gravel driveways and at the start of the season when ground isn't frozen yet, a shorter top link will make the snowblower edge ride on snow rather than cutting into it. When ground is frozen I want it longer for a clean scrape.

 

[hube2]

Thanks all for the replies, after my last post during the past hectic week and an half, one of the things I did was to take a grinder to my blower so that I could mount the new skids and this has improved the problem on digging in greatly, I don't dig in at all.

As far as the top link, because of the way my blower is configured, to get the blade of the blower higher I would actually need to lengthen my top link. The blade is behind the skids and shortening the top link puts the blade closer to the ground. So I can't really shorten it or I would blow a lot of stone and making it longer would have made the skids dig in worse because they would be angled down.

Not that any of this did me any good in the last storm, 3 inches of slush, the only way to get it moved was the bucket. Still have over an inch of ice is some places and glad I got aggressive chains. Hoping we get a couple of warm days to reset the situation.

 

[LouNY]

One thing I have not seen mentioned has a major effect on how a pushed 3 point implement acts;
the top link can adjust the attack angle of the implement but what is going to control how well it lifts on the shoes is the angle of the lower lift arms.
The closer the ends of the lift arms are to the ground, the more the angle of the arms to the mounting point of the tractor the more the implement will try to bury it's self.
Some implements will have different attaching points built in the higher the attaching point the less the angle of the lift arms below the tractor pivot point the less it will dig in.
If the implement is attached at point level with of about the tractor mounting point the implement will try to push and lift the arms easily.
A pulled implement is effected by this much less.

 

[Reb954]

To help keep my snowblower from digging into the grass, I put a protective edge over the cutter bar as shown. Just knotch out a piece of pipe, weld on some tabs to bolt it to the blower.