Big New Hitch For Big Rigs

Big New Hitch For Big Rigs HITCHES Hitches 5-2-15 A number of farmers now have 40 ft. disk harrows. You may own one yourself. But, visualize two disks of that size side by side behind a Big Bud 4-wheel drive tractor moving 6 to 7 mph. Then you can see how Bill Cherry, of Parkin, Ark., farms. Between the tractor and disk harrows is a "Big Hitch" which Cherry helped design and had built. He calls it the "missing link" which permits farmers to use the full power of today's biggest 4-wheel drive tractors by combining smaller implements whose size has not grown as rapidly as tractor power has increased. Cherry raises about 2,400 acres of soybeans in Arkansas, and farms 3,000 acres in Mississippi. He formerly kept five men and five tractors busy at planting time. But, says Cherry, those five sets of tractors and implements often had something wrong with- them, and he couldn't count on having all the drivers there every day either. Now, this one big rig burns half as much fuel as the five tractors he used before, gets as much work done, and the one driver is the mechanic who formerly tried to keep all the other equipment running. When it's time to plant soybeans, Cherry has an airplane fly on Treflan, and a second plane flies on soybeans. Then, the Big Bud, pulling the Big Hitch and two 40 ft. disk harrows, covers the seed at the rate of an acre per minute, or up to 800 acres a day. Later, broadleaf herbicide ù Sencor, Blazer or Basagran, depending on the weed problem ù is flown on. The Big Bud, hitch and disk harrows are the only wheel traffic from planting to harvest. Last fall, Cherry used two 30 ft. Wil-Rich air seeders to plant wheat after soybeans were harvested. He says he can use the Wil-Rich units to cultivate and plant, or just plant, or just cultivate, depending on field and crop conditions. This expands his cropping options and usage of the Big Hitch. The Big Hitch, now available commercially from Parkin Equipment Co., Parkin, Ark., can be adjusted to pull two disk harrows, chisel plows, field cultivators, drills or other similar implements, each 30 to 42 feet wide. However, Talmadge Doss, manager of Parkin Equipment, says the unit is not recommended for row crop planters. (Can you imagine a marker extending 40 feet from one end of the planter? Or, raising and lowering such a marker at row ends or for transport?) Four large implement tires support the weight of the hitch ù all 28,000 lbs. of it ù and are free to swivel 360? This makes it easy to turn in the field, or to back up when hitching implements. At quitting time, or when a field is finished, the whole outfit is readied for transport by operating four hydraulic levers. The operator doesn't even have to leave the cab. The Big Hitch carries a price tag of approximately $50,000. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Talmadge Doss, Parkin Equipment Co., Parkin, Ark. 72373 (ph 501 755-5495).

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