Bruce
Herd Master
I have the cheap Harbor Freight Quick Hitch. It is a Cat II hitch (most are) so you have to buy Cat II to Cat I bushings to put on the implements. It has a number of holes in the top hook in case your implement is close but not close enough to the Cat I & II vertical distance between the top pin and the lower side pins.
It is SUPPOSED to be about 15". I had to buy an extended hook from Amazon for another $45 or it wouldn't even mate to my landscape rake (which I have yet to use). By "extended" it means the part of the hook with the holes is wider (when viewed from the side) so the hook sticks out back of the QH a bit. Not sure which QH's have that hook standard but I've basically paid $150 for a $100 QH. And then there is the flail. It is SUPPOSED to be Cat I compatible but the vertical distance was 19" - Cat III. They don't even make a Cat III flail so I have no idea who "engineered" that FUBAR. The "fix" was a well made and well designed pair of "drop down" adapters that fit into the top hole of the flail's "arch" inside the "cheeks" of the "arch". The distance is perfect for Cat I and I got it on the QH. BUT those adapters narrow the space where the QH hook fits in and when I tried to release the flail from the QH, the QH gets trapped and won't drop.
I know this is not at all confusing but I'll put in some pictures anyway.
Extended top hook. The basic difference is that little jog to the right, it pushes the hook out a short distance. The standard hook is straight down with the holes closer to the inside of the hook. Why the HF QH doesn't come with this I do not know, there plenty of posts on TractorByNet from people having the same issue I did. The non extended hook is standard on other QHs as well.
Measurement showing the 19" vertical difference.
And where the QH hook was in relation to the top pin, barely any contact and it is on the angled edge of the QH hook.
Here are the adapters installed on the flail's arch as seen from the lower back.
These are the adapters they made loosely installed. You can see the flanges of the QH (bottom of pic) and how there is no longer any horizontal space for them to slide into the the top between the adapters. I didn't realize they needed to.
So I needed to buy yet ANOTHER adapter which I have not yet used because I haven't taken the flail off. Hopefully this will fix my issues.
Now here is a picture of the QH Standard measurements. You will need to check all of your implements and see if they adhere to these. If they do you can use a QH, if not they need to be modified or put on without the QH. Here is where the Pat's comes in handy since it doesn't have a top link attachment and the lower links can be moved in and out to accommodate different widths between the lower pins. It makes it easier to attach implements but isn't a "back in and lift" solution since you still need to attach the top link.
It is SUPPOSED to be about 15". I had to buy an extended hook from Amazon for another $45 or it wouldn't even mate to my landscape rake (which I have yet to use). By "extended" it means the part of the hook with the holes is wider (when viewed from the side) so the hook sticks out back of the QH a bit. Not sure which QH's have that hook standard but I've basically paid $150 for a $100 QH. And then there is the flail. It is SUPPOSED to be Cat I compatible but the vertical distance was 19" - Cat III. They don't even make a Cat III flail so I have no idea who "engineered" that FUBAR. The "fix" was a well made and well designed pair of "drop down" adapters that fit into the top hole of the flail's "arch" inside the "cheeks" of the "arch". The distance is perfect for Cat I and I got it on the QH. BUT those adapters narrow the space where the QH hook fits in and when I tried to release the flail from the QH, the QH gets trapped and won't drop.
I know this is not at all confusing but I'll put in some pictures anyway.
Extended top hook. The basic difference is that little jog to the right, it pushes the hook out a short distance. The standard hook is straight down with the holes closer to the inside of the hook. Why the HF QH doesn't come with this I do not know, there plenty of posts on TractorByNet from people having the same issue I did. The non extended hook is standard on other QHs as well.
Measurement showing the 19" vertical difference.
And where the QH hook was in relation to the top pin, barely any contact and it is on the angled edge of the QH hook.
Here are the adapters installed on the flail's arch as seen from the lower back.
These are the adapters they made loosely installed. You can see the flanges of the QH (bottom of pic) and how there is no longer any horizontal space for them to slide into the the top between the adapters. I didn't realize they needed to.
So I needed to buy yet ANOTHER adapter which I have not yet used because I haven't taken the flail off. Hopefully this will fix my issues.
Now here is a picture of the QH Standard measurements. You will need to check all of your implements and see if they adhere to these. If they do you can use a QH, if not they need to be modified or put on without the QH. Here is where the Pat's comes in handy since it doesn't have a top link attachment and the lower links can be moved in and out to accommodate different widths between the lower pins. It makes it easier to attach implements but isn't a "back in and lift" solution since you still need to attach the top link.
