Neil Messick here to share a little bit with you about our BX stabilizer kit. This is the very first of the custom tractor accessories that Messick's has come out with. Your demand for these has blown us away. It has taken nearly the last three months here for us to work through the backorder of your initial orders of these things and we're finally starting to get them back in stock here again.
Thought it was worth the time here to sit down show you some of the things that we've learned from those of you running these out in the field, just give you a quick reminder about this and see if it's something that fits behind your tractor.
Like anything new that comes out like this, you learn from the first iterations of things. The parts that are inside of these boxes haven't really changed. The actual sway bars themselves and the weldments and everything that we developed have not changed at all. For those of you that were early adopters of these things know that your parts are exactly the same as what we're selling today. The one thing we did learn a little bit though, was some of the feedback that we got from you guys as you were out putting these onto your tractors and running them in the field.
That was in terms of two different things. One, the hardware. The holes that are in the top of the bars here are fairly standard sizes, and the pins that we supplied with the hair pins on the bottom aren't necessarily always the choice of what everyone would want behind their tractor.
Several of you pointed out to us that there's many other options for pins and general three-point hardware that will drop right into these holes that maybe work a little bit better for you. If you have trouble losing those pins or the hair pins get knocked out of the bottom, some of the closing locking levies and stuff that you'll find on three-point hitch arms over the top of your pins and stuff will fit through here and lock into place as well. That's an upgrade you might want to consider if you lose some of that hardware.
Another thing that was pointed out to us too was that the ends of these, what do you call them, metal plates down here in the top of the bar add ever so slightly a little bit more height right in here on top of this plate. We saw a person or two that had a really large PTO shaft where when the arms were in their full-up position, this bar could be pulled up into this spinning PTO shaft and wear some paint and stuff off on top of that.
That isn't going to happen in a lot of circumstances. You need some really large PTO components in order for that to happen. If you're one of the people who has an implement that was running into some air interference problems here, you very simply can pull this plate here in the back, flip it 180 degrees so that the flat part comes out the bottom, and gain yourself about a half an inch or so, maybe three-quarters of an inch to get a little bit more distance between your PTO shaft and the top of the three-point hitch hardware right here. That's a little bit on our three-point hitch sway bar kit.
I did a little bit more lengthy video on these earlier showing all of the hardware that's in the box and how to install one on the back of your tractor. The major benefit, the biggest reason to consider adding one of these onto the rear would really be twofold.
One, it's much easier to adjust your three-point hitch by dropping pins down through holes than it is for dealing with these turn buckles particularly when you start to get some dirt and rust and stuff in here. You'll also find them to be more stout as well, it's not unusual to find people who have been up this linkage because you really just have threaded rods and stuff in here.
The one thing you do give up is a little bit of rigidity if you're somebody who has particular implements that you like to have locked really tightly and firmly in the back of your tractor, you will get implements more tight with these standard linkages of the threaded rods. For most people that are out there the convenience and durability of sway bars tends to be desired and more preferred and it is what you find on the more deluxe tractors so that easier adjustment.
If we could help you with the set of these, fix them up on back of your tractor, give us a call at Messick's. We're available at 800-222-3373, or check us out at messicks.com.
