Lower Link Drawbars...Whats the point?

[agford4x4]

What purpose to these serve exactly? I have used one with a ball for moving a trailer, which sucks, because i have had it turn and drop the trailer once. The 'locks' they sell won't work with my tractor since i have flexible end links. I have thought about using a clevis on it for dragging big trees around to locations on my place that are easier to cut, but i don't like to do that for fear of damaging something if i am not exactly straight in front of the tree, yanking it at a 90 degree angle.

Is there any solutions for either of these? I have thought about using the fixed drawbar, but the thing is 1.5" thick, and i don't have a clevis that will go around that or a ball that is long enough to go through it.

 

[Bird]

The cheapest solution is a hitch ball with a long enough shank to go through that 1.5" drawbar. There are lots of places you can buy them, of which trailerpart.com is just one. Another way is to build or buy a 3-point hitch such as the one shown here.

 

[bcsawyer]

we use them a lot and they work well for pin-type trailers-which most of ours are- and they do pretty well for pulling logs, etc... I have built some 3pt ones for ball hitch trailers and for our grain drill which has a short throat on the hitch and keeps you from turning very short. They are convenient because a lot of times a belly bar would get in the way of an implement and it is quicker to change a 3pt drawbar. Also, some older tractors, such as our MF 35 don't have belly bars.

 

[agford4x4]

well, i have one, and i have a clevis that attaches to it. Is this somethng that is safe for pulling heavy logs? Im not pulling tree out of the ground, im just needing to hook up to a tree or log that has fallen and drag it to a location that is more suitable for cutting and working with it.

I don't want to damage by 3pt or the bend the drawbar. A clevis for my FIXED drawbar would be ideal, but one of that size is close to 30 bucks, and i just can't foot that right now.

 

[bcsawyer]

I'm not going to tell you to do it, but I pull heavy logs to my sawmill all the time with a 175 MF and a lower link drawbar. It works pretty well because you can hook the chain short and lighten up a little on the front of the log so it won't drag and it makes it easy to pull.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Why don't you just buy a bigger clevis? Your tractor dealer and TSC should carry them to fit your drawbar.

 

[Chuckatuck]

I've used a ball (bought it a Lowes) and chains with good success. Just brute force pulling, no lifting or anything. The worst part is the rut you leave in the ground as you drag the heavy log to its destination. No problems here.

 

[agford4x4]

Why don't you just buy a bigger clevis?

Because the one for the lower link drawbar is 14 bucks and the one for the ACTUAL draw bar is 32 bucks.

I guess i could just put a ball on the regular drawbar and wrap a chain around it and the ball and use that.

Will that be safe?

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Wow, that seems quite expensive. I bought a small clevis for my truck last year and I don't recall it costing very much. But I also bought a box of clevis's, hooks and pulleys for $5 at an auction last year also. It gave me another large clevis as I try to have at least one on each tractor. In that box was a clevis for a John Deere plow that I sold on ebay for $80

I still have an assortment left in the box for future uses.

As for your current problem, I have never been fond of wrapping chains around hitch balls and I would just use the 3pt drawbar. It will allow you to shorten the chain and lift the log so it doesn't dig into the ground as you pull the log thru the woods. And keep visiting farm auctions as you will find great deals on things like this.

 

[Leejohn]

If you use your 3pt, just don't lift it to high and start pulling.

Lee

 

[Farmwithjunk]

3-point drawbars are a carry-over from the beginnings of the 3-point hitch. When Harry Ferguson got together with Henry Ford to build the first mass produced 3-point hitch equipped tractors, they wanted to eliminate the option of farmers continuing to use their old drawn implements as much as possible. The tractors weren't even equipped with a fixed drawbar (under the belly). Just the 3-point hitch. If early Ford/Ferguson owners wanted to pull anything that wasn't 3-point mounted, they needed one of those drawbars.

They have their uses. (Mine is used to keep the shop door from blowing open on windy days ) One advantage they offer is the holes spaced across their width gives you some flexability to pull implements "off-set" from the tractors center line. Being on the 3-point hitch, you have almost infinite height adjustability. But beware, as mentioned, raising your "pulling point" can (and WILL) tend to make the tractor want to lift the front end towards the sky in a hard pull.

 

[daTeacha]

I used mine with a ball and a stabilizer bar back to the fixed drawbar to keep it from tilting, but it still tilted some and made it kind of tough to unhook sometimes. Finally got fed up and welded some arms on it to make a 3 point arrangement with the hitch ball in the drawbar. Now I can lift the trailer tongue as needed without getting things jammed up.

You can also put bolts or lynch pins through the holes to limit where your chain can move along the drawbar. If you put too big a side load on it, you will bend the lift arms -- ask the guy who's been there.

 

[Jim2]

Hey guys,

I'm new here. I was raised on a farm, so I have some familiarity with tractors, etc.

But, I've wondered about using a drawbar that's mounted on the 3-point, myself. My tractor doesn't have down-pressure on the 3-point. I've noticed in the past that the front end gets awful light on a medium/heavy pull when I'm going uphill. That can't be safe! There's nothing to stop the tractor from tipping right over backwards if there's no vertical limit on drawbar travel. . . . I would think twice about what I'm doing with those 3-point drawbars.

I made my own drawbar for the little tractor I've got. Of course I added a FEL at the same time, so not a very good test--but the front-end isn't light any more!

Jim

 

[skipmarcy]

I have one for my tractor too, don't use it much, it's much easier to use my loader bucket w/hook to move things around. To move my trailers around I just slip one of the safety chains on the bucket hook and go. I welded a 2" and a 2 5/16" ball on my 3pt drawbar and set doublewide mobile homes in place down in Florida after hurricanes Francis and Jeanne in 2004 - not really a good, safe operation but it worked. Had to keep a bucket of sand to keep the front wheels on the ground and my hitch had just barely enough power to raise the tongue on the 52' halves of the homes. And yes, I did bend one of my lower link arms when the trailer wheels started bogging in sand one time while backing up. Luckily a local machine shop had a 60 ton hydraulic press to straighten it out for me. I quit moving mobile homes after that. As mentioned already, the drawbar would be plenty safe to drag logs as long as you keep the height as low as possible, lower than the height of your rear axles anyway. If you do your chain real short you can still raise the end of the log off the ground slightly for an easier pull.

 

[Jhiphop72]

lower link drawbars drawbars do searve a purpose depending on how your lift arms are lifted. a draw bar can ghelp distribute weight from heavy objects you may be lifting such as logs. I have a 54 super M that has a 3 point conversion with 2 way pressure. the cat II drawbar I'm using helps greatly in driving fence posts and logging. In both instances, the drawbar helps keep equal force on what ever im doing so the hitch itself does not twist. (yes a LiftAll is that strong that you can bend cat II lift arms)