Rotary Cutter Speeco Quick Attach & KK rotary cutter compatible?

[Gary_in_Indiana]

I just hooked up my Speeco Quick Attach and then went to hook up my King Kutter 60" rotary cutter - no dice! I then tried pointing my hooks inward - too narrow then. I then took off the the upright arms and attached them to the inside of the mower deck brackets after queezing them together with a ratchet strap. Well, after all of that I have maybe 1/2" to play with when backing to hook up. I'm thinking of compressing them a bit further together and just using longer bolts and some washers or extra nuts as spacers to make the connections to the mower deck brackets. Does anyone see a problem with that?

The next problem was the top link connection. The first part was that I have a "U" shaped piece with a small block welded to one edge of the base of the "U" that is nowhere mentioned in the King Kutter manual. I figured out a way to hook it up that seemed to make sense but have no way of knowing if it's right or not. The way I have it on it doesn't seem to work right with the quick attach, but nothing else does either at this point. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I'm about at my wits end here. Does anyone else use the Speeco quick attach with a five foot King Kutter? How do you have your KK set up? Any chance of a picture or two of your top link set up? Thanks! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[JohnMiller3]

<font color="blue">( Speeco quick attach with a five foot King Kutter? How do you have your KK set up? ) </font>

Had no problem what-so-ever... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I did buy the Speeco Top-link adapter however to make it more "universal" for the rest of the non-compatible implements...

There are a few pictures on TBN with my Speeco hooked up to a Howse rotary cutter, but I never took any pictures of a friend's KK...

I also tried the Speeco with my 6' KK... but my telescopic lift arms worked much better for all my implements...

 

[DK35vince]

My Speeco quick attach as been buried in the corner of the shed for a couple years now.
Nearly all my attachments need to be altered for it to work, the lower hooks on the quick hitch are to thick to fit between the pins and the top deck/frame of my tiller.
My Kioti has the extendable lower lift arms which I felt are easier than messing with the quick hitch.

 

[shady1701]

anyone evertried the imatch from jd or the telescoping arms from them or from pat greenwell?

 

[centex]

I bought one of those and when I saw that absolutely none of my equipment would work with it without modifications I took it back. I found that with a little practice it is easy to hook up anything so I am glad that I do not have the quick attach now. I used the money to buy another more useful attachment.

 

[jhburke]

I have a TSC which is a rebadged Speedco on my B7500. I have a 5' KK finish mower. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I had to rework it and all my other attachments to get them to fit. THey are easier to hook up now than without the quick hitch. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[DK35vince]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( anyone evertried the imatch from jd or the telescoping arms from them or from pat greenwell? )</font>

My quess is with the JD imatch you would run into the same problems unless you used JD implements set up for imatch.

My tractor came with the telescoping arms.And yes they do help make hookup easier.

 

[BillG_in_TX]

Gary,

I have (or had) the same equipment with the same problems. See my post here about the Speeco Quick Hitch.

Also, see this post about my experience assembling the 5' KK rotary cutter and it's U bracket.

Some things just don't work like they should. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

<font color="blue"> Had no problem what-so-ever...

I did buy the Speeco Top-link adapter however to make it more "universal" for the rest of the non-compatible implements... </font>

The major problem I have is the width spacing on the attachment pins on the mower. As I said, I had to put the braces on the inside of the welded pieces on the mower deck just to get them close enough together and I still only have a 1/2" margin of error side to side. Is it possible these welded brackets vary in spacing mower to mower?

As it stood with the mower assembled according to the KK instructions with the braces outside the welded brackets, the lowerhooks one the Speeco were dead on the braces. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Pretty pathetic engineeting on someone's part. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I'm about half tempted to load my tractor, quick hitch & rotary cutter onto my trailer and take the whole mess to TSC and have THEM show me how to put these "Category 1" pieces all together since they sell them both as "Category 1" there. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

I think I'd better pack my lunch and bring a comfortable chair. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

A quick follow up here.

I saw my local TSC manager today and told her of the problem. She had no idea but said she'd gotten a call from someone earlier today expressing the same concerns over a KK box blade with the Speeco hitch.

She immediately got on the phone to King Kutter who told her that their attachments "are not quick hitch compatible but may be made to be so sometime next year." I took that to mean 'Yeah, we know we're not building them to standards but have no intention of doing anything about it now and further we have no firm plans in place to make our attachments to comply with the CAT 1 standard.' Am I taking this wrong?

The local TSC manager said she was going to make certain that someone on up the corporate food chain was made aware of this ongoing problem because, as I'd told her, regardless of which of their suppliers was off the mark, the point is that TSC is now selling incompatible items that should work together perfectly.

As for me, I bought $14 worth of grade 8 bolts, nuts, washers and lock washers with the idea of spacing m upright braces even further in from the welded brackets in order to get the spacing I should have on my pins. That'll probably be a project for this weekend (when I thought I'd actually be out using the d*** cutter instead of rebuilding it. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif