Three point hitch draft control M4700

[Complete Turf Care]

I recently purchased a 1997 Kubota M4700
The 3 point hitch has 2 levers. One for position and one for draft control.

It seems that the position control does nothing. The only way for me to move the 3ph is with the draft control. Is this normal? I'm not familiar with using draft control, but this doesn't seem right.
Also, today, when I went to attach an implement, the arms would not go down. I put both control levers all the way down and stood on the arms, and they would not go down. When I put downward pressure on the arms with my mini excavator, they went down.
Then I was able to attach my implement and lift and lower it with the draft control lever.

 

[RickB]

Put the draft control lever fully forward. The hitch should then be controlled by the position control lever.

 

[JWR]

Put the draft control lever fully forward. The hitch should then be controlled by the position control lever.

On every tractor I have seen with Draft Control you pull the Draft lever all the way BACK not forward. That in effect disables the Draft Control. Then the Position Control will operate and control the 3pt lift position as you want it to. Most people hardly ever use the Draft control which is only used for plowing and tilling operations. In that mode you want the plow to stay at a certain level relative to the ground and not be pulled up or allowed to go way deep due to pull from the plowshare. The plow depth in the soil is called "Draft."

I doubt if anything is wrong. You just need to lock out Draft control (whether it is fully forward or fully up/backward.) Of course you should check your owner's manual and it will tell you how to take Draft Control out of the picture. If you don't yet have an Owner's Manual for the M4700 you can probably download a copy or buy one somewhere. If nothing else, contacts Messicks. Always a good idea to have the Owners Manual even if rarely used I think.

 

[Tinhack]

Put the draft control lever fully forward. The hitch should then be controlled by the position control lever.

Ditto-You have to put the lever past that tab next to the knob.

 

[RickB]

On every tractor I have seen with Draft Control you pull the Draft lever all the way BACK not forward.

Exactly opposite from my experience which is admittedly with Ford and NH. Because tractor control patterns vary, here's the M4700 op manual. 3 point hitch operation is described on page 35.

http://www.kubotabooks.com/AutoIndex/index.php?dir=Tractor%20Owners%20Manuals/&file=M4700%20Ops.pdf&AutoIndex=3d171d740654b16c98a7045bb0a1b50f

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Just finished a job with it. I could never get the position control lever to do anything. The implement would only move when the draft control lever is almost all the way back.
I'll fiddle with it more when I get back to my shop.

 

[workinonit]

Rick your link wouldn't open. No biggie. I always tell people that the draft control has to be all the way one way or the other for the raise and lower to fully function. Draft control lever is made to set to a certain height and then use the lift lever to lift the implement. I always use draft control with my box blade or landplane. As well as chisel plow and sometimes disc.

 

[RickB]

Here ya go.

 

[JWR]

Here ya go.

I must say that is probably the most confusion and lack of clarification I have ever seen in an owner's manual! It shows one extreme of the Draft lever to be "sensitive" and the other extreme to be "float" and never spells out with any clarity which position takes Draft Control out of the picture. I assume it must be that "float" takes it out of the picture. A contorted way to say so. Post # 7 above is exactly right -- one extreme or the other of the Draft Control lever lets you use the Position Control lever as most people want to. Won't take long to find out.

 

[workinonit]

My JD 5090 doesn't have a float position. Now I'm mad.

 

[JWR]

My JD 5090 doesn't have a float position. Now I'm mad.

All 3pt hitches have float. Some have Draft Control. But then you are probably just tossing a funny at us.

 

[workinonit]

That Kubota actually has a float position. Mine does not. Nor does any JD I've ever owned. I realize they all float up but for some reason that tractor has an actual float setting.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Here is a link to a video I just made. It was a bit difficult to show the control levers and the implement in the same frame. You can see that the position control lever never made the implement move, no matter what position the draft control was in. The only way to move the implement was to pull the draft control lever almost all the way back. This just doesn't seem right. Ami I doing something wrong?

 

[workinonit]

You need to see if the cable is actually moving the linkage on the side of the housing when you move that position control. Also check your rate of drop and make sure it's not closed. I have no experience with Kubota.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

You need to see if the cable is actually moving the linkage on the side of the housing when you move that position control. Also check your rate of drop and make sure it's not closed. I have no experience with Kubota.

I had not thought of the linkage. And I'll check the 'rate of drop' knob also.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

The linkage seems to be working properly. I could not turn the 'lowering speed' knob.

 

[RickB]

If the hitch responds to the draft control lever the rate of drop knob is open sufficiently to allow the hitch to work. That's all you need to know about it at this time.

 

[oosik]

My 2009 Kubota M6040 has - position control, draft control - float. Draft control is essentially off with the lever fully forward - most sensitive is fully rearward. Position control - all the way forward is implement full down - all the way rearward - implement fully raised. Float is with both draft control & position control fully forward.

I bought the M6040, brand new in 2009. Used draft control exactly once. Use float when plowing the driveway with the rear blade - winter snow & summer gravel.

I leave draft control fully forward all the time.

 

[JWR]

Based on his video, I think you'd have to say there is something wrong and his position control is failing to work... Hmmm. The fact that he can't turn his lowering rate knob may be a clue...

 

[JimB77]

DITTO what JWR stated!!
IMHO float position of 3pt hitch on most brands of tractors including Kubota & JD is any placement of 3 pt control lever besides fully raised. The farther forward of fully raised the control handle is placed the wider range of the 3 pt hitches ability to float.

Depth positioning(control) has been misunderstood by many tractor owners/operators for many yrs.