[AT] IH Fast Hitch

[Al Jones]

I can’t remember if it was Ken Updike or Guy Fay, but one of them found information in the IH archives documenting it.

Al

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 3, 2019, at 1:24 AM, <deanvp at att.net> <deanvp at att.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> I am not aware of John Deere asking to buy rights to the Fast Hitch.  I
> cannot think of a reason why they would.  John Deere made a commitment to
> the three point Hitch concept on their 1953 JD 40 and the decision to design
> that was made long before the law suit between Ferguson and Ford was settled
> in 1952. Actually the decision was made in 1949.  JD decided to add three
> point equipment to future row crop tractor designs in 1953 when they were
> designing the 20 series for announcement in 1956. The also did a crash
> development of a quasi-three point hitch, the 800 series hitches  in early
> 1953 which was announced in the fall of 1953  for the early numbered series
> tractors which did not have a provision for an active top link for load and
> depth control.  In 1955 they announced the 801 version of the hitch which
> offered mechanical load and depth sensing with advertised traction
> improvements of up to 40%. John Deere realized early on that farmers did not
> like having to buy proprietary implements based on which brand tractor they
> owned.  The knew the JD 40 could benefit from having a 3 point hitch for
> improved traction so they included that in the design and anticipated they
> would have to fight the Ferguson Patent issues but..... that problem went
> away a year before the 40 was announced. However, John Deere did not really
> think a 3 point was needed on the .Waterloo built tractors due to the fact
> that the Waterloo built tractors already had about 70% of the weight on the
> rear axle and did not have traction issues like the 40. But they suddenly
> changed course in early 1953 and did the crash development of the 800 series
> hitches while they were also developing the three point hitch on the 20
> series for announcement in 1956. All the integral implements that ere
> designed for the 800 hitch were automatically compatible with the 20 series
> tractor 3 point hitch. John Deere made the commitment to the three point
> hitch earlier than the other manufacturers who will still trying to sell
> proprietary hitches and implements.  When JD announced the 20 series
> tractors with standard three point hitches JD' started gaining market share
> from Ford and I/H. In fact by the 1958/1959 period was when became the
> largest maker of wheeled agricultural tractors. With their supposedly
> obsolete two Cylinder tractor design. I'H management made some serious
> mistakes that really hurt their tractor sales one of which was the
> 460/560/660 tractors that had had HP increases without adequate increase in
> r4ear end capability. Which started a steep decline of I/H's dominance in
> the tractor arena. By the 1963/1964 time frame John Deere to the lead away
> from I/H as the largest maker of agricultural equipment of all types. JD's
> announcement of the New Generation tractors in the fall of 1960 was the
> final blow that allowed them to become the dominate the market from that
> point on. Then when the 80's turmoil hit the weaker manufactures either went
> out of business of merged with other manufacturers to survive. Those
> manufacturers who continued to push proprietary hitch past 1952/1953 time
> frame paid dearly in market share since the standardized 3 point hitch was
> clearly the winner.  Farmers did not want to have buy proprietary implements
> that would only work with one brand of tractor. In the mid 50's John Deere
> took the lead with the ASAE to develop standards in the agricultural
> industry to provide guidance for all manufactures by establishing industry
> standards for the dimension requirement  of the three point hitch. It just
> so happened that those standards happened to be what JD had developed for
> their 20 series tractors. The other manufactures had to adapt to the JD
> standards.  It was a bit of a coup on JD's part.   Or could be called
> excellent planning and marketing. 
> 
> 
> Dean VP
> Apache junction, AZ
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of James Peck
> Sent: Saturday, March 2, 2019 8:24 PM
> To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Subject: Re: [AT] IH Fast Hitch
> 
> Oliver seemed to be following a pretty good strategy. They started designing
> three point hitch into their post WW2 tractors but selling it as an option.
> They did not seem to waste effort pushing a noncompatible proprietary hitch.
> 
> In 1987 I paid about 7-8 K to get a Compaq 386 with 19 inch color monitor
> and graphics card.. That was bargain basement price about then. All the
> trade press was claiming that the market would follow the new PS bus that
> IBM developed. Compaq the clone maker won that round. I bet right. IBM and
> the trade press bet wrong and IBM sold out to the China based Lenovo. 
> 
> [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.
> 
> [James Peck] Did Deere ask to buy Fast Hitch rights after they already had
> three point hitch with Draft and position control developed in 1953 on the
> JD 40. Maybe it was a backup strategy.
> 
> https://www.farmcollector.com/implements/the-ih-fast-hitch-story
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