Spider Hitch towbar winch couples header trailer to combine
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Coupling combine and header trailer is an unavoidable faff, unless you’ve got a camera kit, a second set of eyes… or a Spider Hitch.
This novel attachment is the work of Canadian agricultural engineer David Garrant, who came up with the now patented idea of fitting the combine’s clevis, tongue or towball to the end of a winch cable.
It means the operator need only get within striking distance of the trailer drawbar, at which point they can hop out and attach the two.
See also: Driver’s view: Greenshields Agri’s 13.7m MacDon FD2 header
Operating the Warn winch’s wireless remote control will drag the trailer in, and it’ll even self-latch via a spring-loaded mechanism ready for transport.
The outfit is rated to pull a dead weight of 5,500kg and a towing weight of nearly 11,500kg which, says David, comfortably exceeds that of the heaviest header – John Deere’s HD50R draper on a Horst trailer.
Included in the package is a backplate with various bolt patterns for mounting to the rear axles of pretty much any harvester. Handily, the John Deere X9 and some Case IH machines already have integrated mounting plates in the right position.
The company has sold hundreds of the C$8,700 (£4,890) devices since their introduction in North America a couple of years ago.