Patent ID: 7574820

Claim:
A plow hitch assembly, comprising: a substantially horizontal hitch frame having a front end with front end effector to mount a plow, a back end with back end effector for mounting to a vehicle, and an intermediate region having spaced apart, rigid beams; a jack tube horizontally spanning and rotationally supported by the rigid beams; a jack leg rigidly connected to the jack tube by a substantially U-shaped yoke and extending transversely from the jack tube, rotatable with said jack tube between a retracted position substantially between the beams and a deployed position substantially vertical below the jack tube; an elongated, rigid actuator slidable obliquely between the beams, having one end attached to the jack leg and another end projecting above the hitch frame adjacent the front end of the hitch frame; means carried by the hitch frame adjacent the front end of the hitch frame for selective attachment to the actuator in (a) a first, retracted holding position, attached intermediate the ends of the actuator in which the actuator holds the jack leg in said retracted position, (b) a second, detached, actuating position in which the actuator is slidable between the beams to rotate the tube, and (c) a third, deployed holding position attached closer to said other end of the actuator in which the actuator holds the jack leg in the deployed position; and a jack screw having orthogonally mating gears within the yoke operatively coupled to an expandable lift platform interposed between the tube and the leg; and a socket at one end of the tube, operatively connected to a shaft of one of said gears of the jack screw, which shaft is disposed in said tube, for receiving a crank to selectively expand or contract said lift platform and thereby adjust the length of the extension of said leg from said tube.