Case 4240 XL hitch problem

[Boohoo]

Hydraulically operated latch must be a homemade add on? Our tractor has just a lever in the cab to operate the latch. It never did work well.

Later models are fitted with a different hitch, with hydraulic release, made by Dromone.

 

[DrWazzock]

Ours just has the mechanical lever made of toffee to RHS of seat. It clashes with PTO lever. Even with the pump blowing off with arms fully up the PUH isn’t high enough to latch, and the drop links to PUH are adjusted short as possible. It’s a bad design in my view. I’ll sort it when I get that far down the list.

 

[335d]

Ours just has the mechanical lever made of toffee to RHS of seat. It clashes with PTO lever. Even with the pump blowing off with arms fully up the PUH isn’t high enough to latch, and the drop links to PUH are adjusted short as possible. It’s a bad design in my view. I’ll sort it when I get that far down the list.

as mentioned in an earlier post, it may need the lift height adjusting under the top cover.
If you take the two lift rods for the hitch off, then lift the arms to the fully raised position with the levers, how much higher can you physically lift them?
if you can lift them quite a bit, then the top position needs adjusted.

 

[v8willy]

Put a jack under the hitch & jack it up fully till the hook latches have clearence then see if you can get the ram working.

That wee ram doesn't have a lot of power, not meant to have either, it's only doing what you would with a cable or rope, if it had more power you could drop an empty hitch on somebodys foot.

 

[bobajob]

Just watch what you are doing with the hitch, it's a good few years since we had a case like that with a ram for locking the hitch but from memory it could unlatch itself and could drop on its own.
A neighbour had one that would do the same.
Something to do with the hydraulic pressure on the ram I think.
We always kept the arms up when we had a trailed implement on.

 

[Exfarmer]

Just watch what you are doing with the hitch, it's a good few years since we had a case like that with a ram for locking the hitch but from memory it could unlatch itself and could drop on its own.
A neighbour had one that would do the same.
Something to do with the hydraulic pressure on the ram I think.
We always kept the arms up when we had a trailed implement on.

This may explain why the rods have stretched.
Lift rods are not designed to carry weight of the trailer when travelling, and are likely to snap if you do.
First check the whole system is clean.
With the hitch down Make sure the latching hooks move freely.
Their should be grease nipple on the shaft.
It is virtually certain you need new lift rods but you may be able to shorten these enough if you are very lucky.
I have no experience of the hydraulic disengagement, but again with some else working the levers try it it when the hitch is down, it may be you have it plugged in to the wrong port.
If you are not confident with spanners, find a local freelance engineer who knows these tractors, remember hydraulics and latches work very fast, it is very easy to lose fingers, arms or worse

 

[Boohoo]

Just watch what you are doing with the hitch, it's a good few years since we had a case like that with a ram for locking the hitch but from memory it could unlatch itself and could drop on its own.
A neighbour had one that would do the same.
Something to do with the hydraulic pressure on the ram I think.
We always kept the arms up when we had a trailed implement on.

Something was badly wrong there because the Dromone, hydraulic latching hitch on our Case 844 won't unlatch unless the arms are right up and the lift rods are taking the weight off the hooks.

 

[Flat 10]

It’s good practice to disconnect the hitch release ram if you are going down the road to prevent accidental operation

 

[Bald n Grumpy]

Sounds to me like a cable would be a lot more straight forward and safer
I always have link arms up but not to the point that the puh is carrying on the lift rods

 

[bobajob]

Something was badly wrong there because the Dromone, hydraulic latching hitch on our Case 844 won't unlatch unless the arms are right up and the lift rods are taking the weight off the hooks.

Not sure tbh, it's a while since we sold it. Perhaps the German built ones got different dromone hitches than the Doncaster built ones. It definitely used to unlock itself.
We had an m reg and a p reg 4230, m reg just seemed to go better. P reg with a loader on had the drumone hitch was never quite as good a tractor. M reg had the manual hitch cable.

 

[Richard Devon]

it might be worth checking that the arms themselves are going high enough.

You can actually adjust the max raised high of them with an internal adjustment under the seat and through to the top cover, make sure you disconnect the PUH rods before you start this

These are the steps from the manual.......and a word of advice, if you do open it up makesure you tie the spanner to your thumb so you don't drop it inside

 

[essexpete]

I adjusted our 895 years ago like Richard suggests. It was a bit of a fiddle and I did put the spanner on a lanyard on my wrist