[AT] IH Fast Hitch

[Indiana Robinson]

If they had Al they would have probably been too dumb to make them cross
compatible...  :-)
If they had gotten together and made them fully cross compatible and maybe
pulled in some decent third brand (like Oliver) they would have had a good
chance of walking away with control.
There was a couple of down sides to the IH Fast Hitch (like about anything
else on the planet) but as I mentioned recently we had a new International
300 Utility tractor in the mid 1950's with Fast Hitch. I always like that
tractor... About the only thing I would change if I had one now would  be
to build an insulated heat shield over the top of the hydraulic tank under
the seat. That and the steel lines by your leg got really really hot during
long runs.
I also liked the Fast Hitch. The biggest down side I recall was that when
plowing if you crossed an old fence line, back furrow or ridge at a right
angle the tail of the plow would raise out of the ground or if you crossed
a dead furrow or dip it tried to bury itself a bit. Not a big problem
really, more of an annoyance.
The other downside was that we (like many others) already had a full stable
of 3 point equipment and IH was far more interested is selling new
implements than working at helping farmers adapt their existing implements
to the new Fast Hitch. We only had 3 Fast Hitch items... The plow, a sickle
mower and the drawbar. Yes, I consider the Fast Hitch drawbar to be an
implement. We kept a long drawbar extension on it and I loved being able to
release the lock on the lever and drop the drawbar down and back into an
implement hitch, like a wagon tongue and lift it up off of the ground
without climbing off of the tractor. I used that extension tip as a jack
for all kinds of things.
After plowing and disking we put the most hours on the 300 U pulling the
hay chopper (AC), the combine (Deere) and the corn picker (Woods Bros. then
New Idea). One thing I liked about the 300 U we had was that it had wider
rear tires than I ever see on them now at shows. I don't recall but it must
have been an option.
I recall several dealers we knew ordering all of the tractors with a few
options already on them from the factory that they kept on the floor. Wider
tires and rims was one of those frequent options here. Another such option
was often a more deluxe seat.
One big advantage the Fast Hitch had over AC's Quick Coupler was that you
could see the Fast Hitch at a glance (The same for Case Eagle Hitch) but on
the AC hitch couple you were flying by the seat of your pants and guessing
at what was going on down there under the tractor out of sight.


.

On Sat, Mar 2, 2019 at 2:46 PM James Peck <jamesgpeck at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Did Deere ask to buy Fast Hitch rights after they already had three point
> hitch developed in 1953  on the JD 40. Draft and position control.
>
> Maybe it was a backup strategy.
>
> https://www.farmcollector.com/implements/the-ih-fast-hitch-story
>
> [Al Jones] Of course the funny part is if IH hadn't been so stubborn, and
> licensed the Fast Hitch to Deere when they asked for it, the three point
> hitch might just be a footnote in tractor history......
>
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-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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