[AT] IH Fast Hitch

[deanvp at att.net]

This may be why Oliver and John Deere got a head start over I/H, Allis
Chalmers and Case,  JD discontinued promoting proprietary Implements in
1953. When the JD 40 Series was announced JD also announced a whole new line
of three point implements for the 40 Series tractors.  And at the same time
announced a whole new line of conventional three point hitch implements for
the early numbered series tractors made in Waterloo.  This is important to
remember. Even though JD would not announce a conventional three point hitch
for their Waterloo built tractors until 1956, they started selling
compatible implements for three point tractors in 1953.   While I/H, Case
and AC were still pushing their proprietary implements.   So when the
writing appear on the wall that the industry was moving to standardization
with the conventional three point hitch standard they had to now produce a
whole new line of implements essentially obsoleting the proprietary
implements years after JD and Oliver had already adopted.  Even though JD
did not have a conventional 3 point hitch on their early numbered series
tractors  in 1953 JD designed implements based on what was going to become
standard on their tractors in 1956  JD just sold 18 different Mast brackets
to adapt their conventional three point implements to the 800 hitch. These
adapting mast brackets were relatively inexpensive. I don't know how well
I/H, AC and Case hitch adapters were excepted to convert the proprietary
implements to be compatible with standard three point hitches. Hopefully,
some ATIS members can comment on how big of a deal that was, how expensive
it was and how well it worked.   It has been difficult to find information
on the various proprietary hitches. I may not be looking in the right
places. 


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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