Drawbar

showcrop · May 30, 2015

The post below about acreage tractors made me think of some rough draw bars that I have seen, and how the drawbar tells the tale of the tractor's use pretty well. I know of a 3588 that has a hole nearly twice as long as wide. My Ford 9000 had been spliced and fish plated when I got it, and that bar is an inch and a quarter thick. Of course if someone wanted to hide the wear he could just put a new or less used one in it. What have you seen?

flying H · May 30, 2015

We used our WD for about everything. Had mounted plow and monitor, Lister, rotary hoe later. semi mount mower. The hole in the draw bar still was about to pull thru.

Donald Lehman · May 30, 2015

The drawbar on Pop's 88 broke once under the weight of a manure spreader. Pop welded it and reinforced it with a bar on each side. When we bought the S-88 it's drawbar was roughly the same dimensions as Pops rebuilt one. If today's tractors did half the work for their size those old tractors did, They would fall apart in a heap within ten years.

rrlund · May 30, 2015

Just before I traded off my 4040 Deere with nearly 13,000 hours on it,I had to put a new one on it. It wasn't just that the hole was wallowed out,it had such a groove worn in it from underneath where it rode in the frame,it snapped when I was chopping.
It seemed like that one went oblong in a heck of a hurry though. I kinda blamed the draw pin. I had some made from old U-bolts from school bus springs and most of them were bent. I laid it to the pin only hitting the top and bottom of the hole.

PJH · May 30, 2015

On my JD 50, the drawbar adjusting pin is worn so badly that it looks like a crankshaft. Drawbar hitch hole has normal wear tho.

Don-Wi · May 30, 2015

The drawbar on our 285 snapped while fad was hauling manure. I had just rebuilt the hitch on it and mass the hole too small so when he went through a small ditch it just snapped the drawbar. He got a replacement but it was only a 2"drop where as the original is a 4" drop so I welded it up and put it back on. Been working fora few years now.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Ken Macfarlane · May 30, 2015

neighbours ih 585 had about half the thickness left,his square
baler looked the same, top half of hitch paper thin at the front
and not much left near the pinhole.

David G · May 30, 2015

I got tired of listening to the drawbar on my H clunk back and worth, so had the hole welded and rebored.

NoNewParts · May 30, 2015

most letter series Farmalls I get.
drawbar fishplated, holes within a whisker of wearing thru.
roller bottoms worn away and flat or gone.
horseshoe part worn to half its thickness.

When you stop to think about it, just amazing the time and work they've done.
If you've ever messed with that steel back there....it's very good stuff. worn like it is....first thought..impossible

Billy NY · May 30, 2015

I think most I recall were typical, some oval, some with thickness wear, but never really saw one just worn out.

The most thickness wear I have seen is on my older D7 caterpillar drawbar, the bottom of the double ends on it, is almost at a 45 degree angle, thats some heavy wear given the thickness of it. For comparison, just look to the right, 1000 serial numbers up, low hours, drawbar was never used, it has the original factory drawbar pin in it too, never been used. So you have new against well worn.

I'd post some photos, but....

I'm at a loss for photo re-sizing for some reason, and I recall doing that prior to being able to post off the hard drive here, but I can't recall what I was using to resize them back then LOL ! I'm behind the times here LOL! Thats ok, just a momentary lapse.

Bigbudsoda · May 30, 2015

I like to pop wheelies on my tractor. Can't do it with a draw bar. It hits the ground.

Traditional Farmer · May 30, 2015

Two things that will wear a drawbar the most really don't have much to do with how much hard use the tractor has had 1) a square baler lunging back and forth will wallow out the pin hole and 2)A real heavy trailer type bush hog will wear down the area it rides on the draw bar in a hurry.

showcrop · May 30, 2015

Something else that can be very hard on a drawbar is a heavy towed load like a manure tanker going down the road. At a high enough speed they can get to "galloping" which can cause momentary drawbar loads of three times what the load is sitting still. A kid texting his girlfriend can get to where he is supposed to spread the load and have nothing behind the tractor but half of the drawbar.

Drawbar

showcrop

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flying H

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Donald Lehman

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rrlund

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PJH

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Don-Wi

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Ken Macfarlane

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David G

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NoNewParts

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Billy NY

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Bigbudsoda

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Traditional Farmer

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showcrop

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