Patent ID: 6604752
Filing Date: 2003-08-12
Classification: B60D

Abstract:
A hydraulically operable front end hitch attachment easily removably mountable onto the toe-heel attachment carrier of a front end loader, said hitch attachment consisting essentially of a vertically orientable rectangular base plate having opposite face sides and lateral edges and upper and lower edges, a toe-heel receiver on one said face side, said toe-heel receiver being adapted to receive and be locked to the toe-heel attachment carrier of a front end loader, and a hydraulically operable hitch on the other said face side, said hydraulically operable hitch consisting essentially of a draw bar assembly, a boom, a hydraulic ram assembly suspended from said boom, and a mid-level assembly for bracing said hydraulic ram assembly,(a) said draw bar assembly having a draw bar extending perpendicularly outward from said base plate and permanently united at its inner end to said base plate at a medial location between the lateral edges of said base plate and proximate to the lower edge of said base plate, the outer end of said draw bar being equipped with a hitching opening, (b) said boom having inner and outer ends, said boom being permanently rigidly united at its inner end to said base plate at a location proximate to the upper edge of said base plate and projecting angularly upward and outward from said base plate to an elevated outer end location above said hitching opening of said draw bar, (c) said hydraulic ram assembly having a hydraulic cylinder at one end and a hydraulic ram at the other end, said cylinder end being equipped with a terminal structure by which said ram assembly is suspended from said elevated outer end of said boom so as to form an acute angle with said boom, and said ram end being extensible and retractable and being equipped with a terminal hitching pin, and (d) said mid-level assembly comprising a bracing structure mounted to said base plate at a location proximate to the union of the inner end of said boom to said base plate and extending outward therefrom to a circumscribing bracing structure that surrounds said hydraulic cylinder at a location spaced downwardly from said cylinder end terminal structure, said mid-level bracing structure being such as to hold said hydraulic ram assembly in stable condition effectively aligning the extension of said ram end for entry of said hitching pin into said hitching opening of said draw bar.