Does anyone know the first year and model of AC that came with a factory 3pt.

My guess would be the D-19 in 1962. Then came the D10-12's, and D17 series IV.

The D-10/12 had non-draft sensitive 3-point with engine mounted pump as an option starting in 1959. Draft sensitive 3-point became an option on D-10/12 in mid-1961.

The D-15 had 3-point as an option when it was introduced in 1960 as did the D-19 in 1961. I don't know when (or if) 3-point became available on the D-17.

The English AC D-270 and D-272 had 3-point hitches, but I'm not sure of the years for those.

as a Ford owner who used to farm with AC's as a youngster with snap coupler hitches, I am constantly amazed that the 3-point was the champion of the hitch wars.....must have been politics involved.

Take Care
Steve

Henry Ford II and Harry Ferguson got into a big p*ssing match in the late '40s over the three-point hitch. It wound up being resolved in the '50s, by court decision and with the expiration of the hitch patent. Deere went to IH and asked to license the Fast-Hitch design at about that time; IH refused to license it, so Deere added the three-point hitch to its equipment. Once Deere added the three-point, you had #1 in the tractor market with FH but #2 and #3 with three-point, and Harry Ferguson had ramped up his own tractor production by this time, so he was also building three-point tractors. The three-point won out due to sheer production numbers and interchangeability of implements between tractor brands. If IH had licensed the FH to Deere, everyone might have a FH on the back of their tractor today.

I feel the Snap-Coupler and the Fast-Hitch are superior to the three-point.

Economy had to have something to do with it as well. 3-point implements require the least amount of steel on the implement because most of the hitch linkage is on the tractor. Fast hitch and snap-coupler require more of the linkage to be on the implement. Since you usually have more implements than tractors, the 3-point is a more economical system.