Consider this three-point hitches 301 or something like that. If you're new to attaching implements on the back of your tractor, we'll throw a link to another video down here that goes through the basics of how to get your implement on the back of the machine. But if you've already mastered that task or you've got some really odd-sized three-point hitch implements, we're going to take a little bit of time here and talk about the extra holes that you might find on the linkage here on the back of your tractor and some of the times that you might want to consider using them.
Understanding Three Point Hitch Classes
Three Point Hitch Mistakes & Tips
Now, before we get started, we should point out the simple fact here that sometimes you're going to have holes on these parts in the back of your tractor that are not going to have any clear use or function. You should realize that the three-point hitch hardware on the back of these tractors are often shared across many models in a manufacturer's product catalog. Take a company like Kubota here. There's probably upwards of 80 or 90 different tractors in Kubota's product family. If we punch the part number for this arm into the computer, we're going to come up and find that it's probably been used across many current models as well as many models in past years. There is probably cases where some of these holes are intended for the geometry of maybe a different model that might be a different size than this. Don't feel like everything that you see back here has some hidden purpose.
Not every open spot back here is meant for you to be adjusting something. Again, that's because things might be for different purposes. They might be for different machines. Who knows? Some things are going to line up and fit and work out for you. But some stuff's just not going to make sense. If you look at this sway bar right here, you could look at this housing back here at the bottom of the roll bar and assume that these holes back here at the base of the sway bar had some function. You could move this up or down. You wouldn't want to do that, though.
Actually, putting this in the wrong spot is going to cause you to bend the other linkage back here because these holes actually aren't meant for the sway bar. They're meant for the backhoe mounting when you put a backhoe on this machine. Just because they're close doesn't mean they work. You always want to look through the motion of all of this linkage and think through the impacts that you're going to have on the geometry by moving these things around.
There are, however, those times that you might want to make adjustments or considering moving things in some of these different holes. Now, we should start by thinking through the way that we lift things. When you lift this three-point hitch arm, just like when you're lifting something yourself, the closer to your body that load is or the closer the lifting point is, the more power that you're going to have in that thing up. You can see that in these holes across the arm down here at the bottom. This arm right here, this lifting portion of the three-point hitch, can be pinned in the different positions back here, along this arm. The actual lifting mechanism here on the tractor is this point up here at the top. This is called the rock shaft. This is either operated by an internal hydraulic cylinder on more standard tractors. Or the more deluxe models are going to have external lifting cylinders like this. While this is your actual functional lifting point, it's this arm that comes down here to the three-point hitch arm itself that's actually doing the lifting.
Now, if we look at the position that this is in, at this point right here, this is going to give us the most lift capacity. If we have a really heavy implement back here behind the machine, having this pivot point the closest to the machine gives us the most power in order to lift that implement up. You are, however, though, able to remove this little ring here and slide this pin in arm into these positions further back on the three-point hitch arm. Now, as you come back into these other positions, you're going to change the geometry of how this works. Being in these back positions are going to now create much more of a range of motion to this three-point hitch arm than when it's in this further pinhole out here. As this arm goes up and down, it creates a greater range of travel. If you have an implement that three-point hitch connections are low to the ground, or you have something, say, like a rototiller, that you want to get it down as far against the ground as possible, you might find a benefit in order to pinning these in these further back positions to allow this arm to drop down closer to the ground. You're going to have the same effect going in the up direction as well. By bringing this arm back this hole further, when we lift up, now, these arms are going to be at a higher point, so something like a seeder or a large implement that has a high connection point might benefit by going in this back position to get that extra lift height out.
Now, you're going to watch as you do that because you also have a rear tire here to consider. When you get up to these higher heights, you might be pulling your implement pretty close to your tractor. Keep that in mind, right? There's some considerations back here for pinning the implement and getting it on the machine and how the travel distances of these arms work out. But realize, too, that your rear tires can interact with your implement here, too, as the thing goes up and down. I always would get things pinned onto the tractor. But before I take off and start driving, run the thing through its range of motion and make sure that your implement isn't coming in front and contacting your rear tire.
The top portion of your three-point hitch is called the top link. Virtually every tractor is going to have multiple holes on the back of the tractor for the top link to pin into. When your implement goes up and down, you have these three points of contact. The top link can interact with that rear implement and how level it stays as it goes up and down. If you have an implement with a really high connection point for the top link, moving the top link into the higher hole on the back of your tractor is going to help that implement stay more level as it goes up and down on your three-point hitch. Say for something like a rear blade, that might make sure that you're grading level as you take that up and down as opposed to racking the thing front or back as the three-point hit travels up and down. You're really looking for the relative height of that top link connection on your implement and picking the corresponding hole here between the high, middle, or low connection point to mate with that implement that's on the back of your machine. I would say things like rototillers, flails, that kind of stuff, tends to be your compact implements, are usually using that bottom hole. While sometimes, things like trailer movers can be oddly high in the rear for some reason. Or things like those big seeders and stuff, where you have a large implement in the back... They're spreading those connection points out a little bit more, requiring you to use that top hole to get that level travel.
Now, you would have learned from three-point hitches 101 that three-point hitches have categories. Category zero through four, mostly go into finding the size of the pins between the implement and the tractor. Once you cross over about 50 horsepower, you're going to find some machines moving up to category two. The 60 horsepower MX 6,000 is in that clash. You'll notice the ball ends here are a little bit larger than smaller tractors are. Here's some confusion, though, about the top link. You'll notice the top link up here has the smaller category one pin size in it. You have two down on the draft links but category one up here on the top. What's often overlooked, though, is that this top link is double-sided. If you go through and pull the top link off, you're going to notice that the top link is category one on one side and category two on the other. Now, this should have a bushing in it when it goes through here to take up the slack between this category one pin. But there is an extra adjustment here on these top links.
If your implement has a category two top link and category two draft links, you simply flip this guy around to add category two on the back. But if you had a smaller implement, which is more often than not the implement that ends up on this category two hitch... Category one implement with bushings down here in the lower links and then in the upper link up here one bushing on this pin back here on the tractor and a category one side sticking out the back attached to the implement. Some tractors, these things are double-sided.
To point out some of the variability here that you'll find between machines, the L-Series that we were showing you over here that had all the holes across the three-point arm is different here on the MX. This does not have the holes going across the arm, allowing you to reposition this link. That doesn't mean you don't have options, though. You'll see here, on the lift link, you've got two different hole positions here, allowing you to get a little bit more of that range of motion, and that one's available over on the other tractor as well. That one actually had three holes. But moving this up or down in this hole is going to change that same movement arc. It's going to allow this arm to drop closer to the ground in its current position, or to have a little bit more height if you re-pinned it up here to reach a high implement.
That's a little bit on the extra holes that you might find on the back of your three-point hitch. Most of you will probably never find an instance where you need to change these things around. But if you have particular implements that just fall outside the norm a little bit of how things are usually designed, you might find some functionality by trying some of these other whole positions to get your arms to line up to your implement. I'd be curious to hear if you've needed to use these things or what implement was it that you were using that you needed to make these adjustments. Let me know down in the comments below.
