Going hand in hand with all this is ease of installation and use. While having a firm attachment system is great, if it is difficult or impossible for one person (sitting in the driver's seat) to back up to and hook up...well, it's not worth bothering with.
This is the balancing act the designers must struggle with. I know the BH ladder type subframe for my Kioti DK45 isn't all that great (kioti BH). I wouldn't want to use it all day every day, but it sure is easy to hook up.
One that requires crawling under the tractor, installing bolts and other calisthenics should be considered as poor design, in my book.
Old thread, but I came back to it to find a pointer to it for someone else.
I agree, at least in principle.
Mine is "acceptable" to hook up, I don't have to squirm around under the tractor with it half hooked up - THAT would be unacceptable on safety grounds.
Once in position I do have to get down low BESIDE the tractor to put a latch holding pin in on each side, little to no risk there.
The Amerequip hoe goes a long way toward "helping" the hook-up by use of the hydraulics for final positioning and pivoting, but you still need to come back at it fairly well aligned and square.
Where I would like a little more help is with final side to side positioning, perhaps some sort of guide-in/slide-in tapered slots for the rear hooks to get the tractor and hoe aligned that final ....awww, I dunno, maybe it is 3/8 inch on a good day.
It is more than I want to bully with pry bars or side to side rocking of the hoe with the stabilizers.
If they allowed me an inch left or right of center life would be SO much simpler.
Probably a standard trick, but I stand beside the tractor on the right side and use the bucket curl to back in the final few inches.
It seems to be the only position where I can use all the hoe controls and loader joy stick for wiggling and jiggling everything together.
I don't want to be ON the tractor or in the hoe seat until all the latches are up and pins are in, beside it at least FEELS safer.
