# Craftsman Sleeve Hitch yet another post



## Ed_GT5000

Just got a craftsman club add in my mail. The #25241 sleeve hitch is on close out for $99.88 reg price $149.99.
The picture in the add shows the new style hitch, but I think #25241 is the old style.
Now the question is which hitch is the best????

Should I buy the old style or wait to here a review on the new?

Sounds like a deal for $99.88 or is it?


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## Argee

For that kind of money I'd jump on it.


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## johnray13

Anyone got a close up of this famous sleeve hitch?


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## guest2

John
Closeup of which one? I think sears has pictures of the new one on their website, maybe the old one too. I have the old style and from what I've seen in the pictures think I like the old better. The handle on the new one looks like it might bend or it might use the tire for leverage? Looks like the main reason for the new one is to leave the deck on but I can't understand why anyone would want to.


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## johnray13

I have seen the pic on the Sears website and it stinks. I was hoping to see a better pic. -either one, just to get a better idea how this thing operates.


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## guest2

John
From what you can see on the website it looks like when you push down on the handle it raises the hitch but it looks like it's right against the tire. They have the same picture in the attachments flyer at the store, still not too clear. The old style uses the standard "U" shape hitch with pins holding it on each side under the axle. Then it has an adjustable turnbuckle mounted on the drawbar and connecting to the sleeve hitch behind the hitch pin. The lift arm bar connects to the top area of that turnbuckle assembly and runs over the left side of the axle and connects where the left (driver's) side mower lift link goes. Then when you raise or lower the deck lift, the hitch responds accordingly For $100, I would buy the old one and try it, if you don't like return it. Once you install a few permanant brackets it goes on and off real quick. The only advantage, I can see for the new style would be the ability to use a blade on the front with the deck lift arm. I don't think leaving the mower deck on while doing ground engaging work would be good for the deck and it would only be getting in the way and hitting off the rouggh terrain.


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## Ed_GT5000

"The only advantage, I can see for the new style would be the ability to use a blade on the front with the deck lift arm"
Good point Sixchows

Does the spring assist on the old style also assist lifting deck or dozer blade when not using the hitch? Or does the complete assy. have to come off when not in use?


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## guest2

Ed
Mine uses the the same spring assist as the mower it can be tightened or loosened depending on how much help you need. Does 25241 use an additional spring? My part # is 25231, I thought the difference was the brackets that mount at the axle?


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## Ed_GT5000

I guess it comes with a spring. My tractor has no spring assist whatsoever. How old is your hitch? Is it a different hitch than the one on close out.

Craftsman Sleeve Hitch

Fits garden tractors built 2002 and beyond. To be used with sleeve tillage attachments, rear grader blade. Heavy-duty hitch; pulls attachments at proper angle for the best performance. 


Sears item #07125241000
Mfr. model #25241 



http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&vertical=LAWN&pid=07125241000


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## Willie Nunez

Who, besides me, has the new sleeve hitch #24535 on order? Mine should be here on March 18th, and I'm really curious to find out if it'll work. I'm also looking forward to the availability date of the electric lift kit for it(#24545).
I have a mouldboard plow that's waiting on the hitch, and I also want to modify my rake so that it will mount rigidly on the sleeve hitch.


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## Ingersoll444

WOW guys, Never eaven realised Sears had all these hitches!!!:dazed: :dazed: 

Is this normal with other brands also? Or have we just happan to catch a time when they are redisianing, or changing venders?

I had a problem with my sleave hitch on my Ingersoll. Seemed to be two short. Well there was two diferent ones, a long one for the big wheel tractors, and a short one for the small wheel tractors. Well, I have the small wheel hitch, on a big wheel tractor.[realy got to get the right one one of these days]

You guys must be going crazy with all these diferent ones:dazed: :dazed:


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## Willie Nunez

Paul,
I'm as amazed as anyone, as 6 weeks ago I'd never even heard of a sleeve hitch, of ANY discription. I grew up on a farm, but left for the big city when I was 14. Hydraulic 3-point is all I ever knew.
In fact, it's only been one month since I learned there was a whole world of little tractors out here. 
Gotta admit, I'm a bit fascinated by the idea of a little tractor with an electric hitch. The Sears hitches are made by Brinly-Hardy and Agri-Fab, but the latest upgraded models are so new they're not available just yet. Looks like I'll have one the first of the new Sears manual hitches, and will look forward to the first of the electric actuators to come out(for the new style hitch).


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## GT5000

"Just got a craftsman club add in my mail. The #25241 sleeve hitch is on close out for $99.88 reg price $149.99.
The picture in the add shows the new style hitch...."

Why does it show the new hitch? To unload the old hitch out of inventory. Deceptive advertising? 

I have the #24535 sleeve hitch on order also. I want to mount the box scraper and dozer blade simultaneously.

All I need is the manual lift. The money I save from not buying a $399 electric lift , $650+ for a Johhny Bucket, $120 for Super Lugs and $200 for new spindles will be used to build a rear patio so my wife can sunbathe in her dental floss thong while I try to mow straight.


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## guest2

Ed
I bought mine in the spring of 2000, my GT is the green 22hp kohler the one before the GT3000,basically the same tractor. Does the GT5000 have a spring up under the fender on the left side? Mine has one there that the tension can be adjusted on. If yours doesn't than that is probably the difference in the two part #'s mine is 757.252313. What does the GT5000 use to assist in lifting the deck? Maybe the bigger gas tank is in the way?


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## Ed_GT5000

" What does the GT5000 use to assist in lifting the deck? Maybe the bigger gas tank is in the way?"

Nothing but your arm and back are used to asist the lift mech. 
If you bought yours in 2000 then it preceeds the one on closeout because: (from sears site)

"Fits garden tractors built 2002 and beyond."

So now we are talking about three sleeve hitches?

The old sleeve hitch is looking better and better I think Argee has this type of Hitch on his tractor. The new one with the handle looks like it may not lift alot of weight. If the old one has a spring asist that will help with mower deck and dozer blade, then I will go for it.

Argee: can you help me out here?


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## guest2

Ed
Look up the number at sears parts and see what's included, The prefix will be either 757 for brinly or 486 for agri-fab


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## jodyand

> _Originally posted by GT5000 _
> * build a rear patio so my wife can sunbathe in her dental floss thong while I try to mow straight. *


GT5000 pictures please :winky: 
Jody


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## GT5000

Jodyand:

I will as soon as the weather is better. She's happy that I didn't waste money on a Johnny Regretit (attempting to turn a GT5000 into the CAT D-8 I see on Modern Marvels). In fact, she's so glad that I didn' buy all of those meaningless gadgets that other's purchase trying to make their GT5000 (and other tractors) mimic the dashboard on the Space Shuttle, that she's willing to wear here thong when she drives the tractor.

Who needs gadgets when you have this!


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## aegt5000

I have an early 2003 Sears GT5000, no sleeve hitch.
The deck (and snow plow) lift is a spring assisted lift on my model.


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## guest2

aegt5000
Does yours have a spring up under the left side of the rear fender? Does it have a bolt to adjust tension for different weight?


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## Ed_GT5000

Sure don't think mine has any type of spring on the lift. I looked at the manual, it shows no spring with the drawing of the lift assy. 

To sweeten the deal, Sears sent me a e-mail that says everything is 10% off tomorow only that makes the price $89.00 for this hitch.........


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## guest2

Ed
My manual shows a spring but mine is older, I'll bet the bigger gas tank is in the way. $89 seems like a good deal unless you want to be able to use two attachments at once.


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## posullivan

I got the flyer showing the "rear sleeve hitch" also. I think I'll try it for $99. I have the front dozer blade on it right now, but I also have a rear blade sitting in the garage.

For $99, I could have both attachments on the GT at the same time. My question is that I have some more loads of dirt coming in to level and reseed certain areas of the lawn. Does anyone know if the new rear manual unit is "full up" or "full down" only, or can the rear attachment be set at say 1" or 2" off the ground for leveling?

With the Dozer blade I can set the height adjuster to raise the blade for just skimming or leveling if I want. Like when I plow snow, I have an area of gravel that I raise the blade a little for, so that it doesn't dig in, only pushes the snow, not the gravel.

Anybody? You guys are right, the little picture and description is pretty useless as is the Sears website.

paul o's


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## Willie Nunez

Paul,
I assumed that the new hitch is "full up, or down". I hope not. Of course, there's a turnbuckle adjustment. So far, nobody at Sears has answers. I think I'll call Brinly-Hardy.
HOWEVER, it seems to me that with the electric lift kit(if they ever get it in stock) you could stop it at any vertical position, and tweak it to get exactly the height of the implement you want(I'm counting on it).


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## Ed_GT5000

posullivan wrote:

"For $99, I could have both attachments on the GT at the same time."


the picture shows the new hitch. The part # in the add is for the close out hitch which uses the same lift arm that the dozer blade uses, therefore you will not be able to use both at that same time. The picture is wrong.

I am still try to decide if I want this or not. I, like you have a dozer blade and see the advantage of two attachments being used at same time.


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## Willie Nunez

I'm under the believe that it would be great, and I could get lots of utility out of this combo, to have an all-electric Johnny Bucket Jr in the front, in addition with a rear blade mounted on the new electric sleeve hitch.
This would mean that I would have 2 electric acuators plus one electric winch, all at the same time. I wonder if the electric system(25 hp Kohler enigne) would be up to the task. I might have to add a higher-capacity battery.
Of course, I would end up with more money in implements and attachments than the original cost of the tractor.
Any comments on all this?


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## johnray13

I doubt you have enough fingers to operate both the Johnny Bucket controls and the rear blade actuators at the same time. If you only moved one actuator at a time, I don't think you would overolad the electrical system.


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## Willie Nunez

John,
I would locate the 2 switches to the front bucket side-by-side, and I can see where I would occasionally work both of these at the same time. You're correct, the rear actuator would never be operated at the same time as the front. Thanks.


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## Ed_GT5000

Willie: When will you be getting this stuff. liketo see a pic. What type of attachments do you have for the sleeve hitch? They are not cheap either. 

On your comment about having more money in the implements than the original cost of the tractor.
This is easy to do. One solution is to buy used implements, however they are somewhat rare and hold their value well.

I myself am trying to research the the value and usability of these atachments before I put the money down.


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## guest2

As far as the electrical system holding it, My GT's battery is going on it's fifth year with the 22hp kohler. When I put the cab with electric wiper and flashing warning light and the headlights and taillights I thought that would be too much but it works well and all of them are on at the same time.


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## guest2

Ed
I have most of the available attachments for my sleeve hitch, including moldboard plow, disk harrow, cultivator, 8hp tiller, grader blade, box scraper, and some tow behind such as plug aerator, tine dethacher,and mow n vac, I don't look at as exceeding the cost of the tractor but rather as a system to do various jobs. I looked at the tractor and asked myself what do I want to do with it? And then kept adding as I went along, true it adds up but what's better spend half the money and use a shovel?


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## Ed_GT5000

sixchows
I too want to add to my tractor with the addition of hitch and implements. This it why I bought a garden tractor

I don't have anywhere near the add-ons you have. But of course you have had your tractor longer than me. 

This is what I have added to my tractor so far:
Hour Meter
AG tires
Wheel weights
Dozer blade

This is what I plan on getting this year:
17 cu ft lawn cart.
sleeve hitch, Sears or home made
gardening implements for sleeve hitch (looking for older mor heavy duty ones)

I am trying to be catious with the money I spend on my tractor because I want to get attachments that I will use a lot and therfore get my money's worth out of.

There was another thread a few weeks ago about tools and someone made a good point: 

"the only expensive tool is the one that does not get used"


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## guest2

Ed
Good points. The plow, disk, and cultivator I have are old brinlys from the sixties and are heavy. I see them on ebay from time to time. The tiller works real nice and puts less stress on the tractor but is expensive, but then again you're only storing one item instead of three. I also have the dozer blade, blower, weights and chains. The tow behind stuff is pretty reasonable in price and performance and can be found at sears, HD, and lowes. If you keep an eye out, you might find something returned or opened and missing a part for a great deal. Sometimes the dept managers know very little about these things and just want them gone. When I first got my craftsman and sleeve hitch I went back to the store to get wheel weights and chains. The sales associate took the order for me as they weren't in stock, as he was doing this, his manager came along and said they had wheel weights in stock. Because they didn't know much about them they charged me for one and gave me two! They usually come one in a box with mounting hardware, but these were loose without any hardware. When I went to the pick up area and saw they weren't packaged and there wasn't any hardware I went back to the dept and the manager gave me another 10% off! It doesn't happen often but you might get lucky too.


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## Willie Nunez

Ed,
I bought a used Brinly-Hardy mouldboard plow at the Cub Cadet dealer. It's complete, still has the original stick-on label, but the white paint needs to be redone. I offerred him $75, and he took it. I'll look for a used disc harrow and cultivator. I'm procrastinating on the Johnny Bucket Jr because it's pretty pricey with the 2 winches. If I had my electric actuator for the sleeve hitch, I could tell more about the possibility of adapting it to the J-B Jr. I would much rather use an actuator for raising and lowering the bucket than the winch. If it looked like I could adapt the actuator, I would order the J-B without the winch(save me the price of the winch), and just order it with the power dump.
I've got an Agri-Fab tine de-thatcher that I've been using a lot. Plus, I use my 3-bin bagger/collector all the time.
I sure wish John Scheele would sell the J-B Jr with an actuator instead of the winch. I really need to be able to control the raising and lowering with more positive control.
I've been working so hard, by the time I get home I'm too beat to download the photos I've taken..........and learn how to post them.
Like right now, I just got home from working on the lot, and my wife is giving me "the look", as she wants me to clean up so we can go have some ribs. Bye....


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## guest2

Willie
I emailed John Scheele again the other day as I'm having a hard time deciding on which tractor to get the JBJr for, I was leaning towards my bolens since I feel it's more heavy duty than my craftsman and had a Johnson Front End Loader available as an option back in 1967. John told me that he was working on a down pressure system for the craftsman and it should be ready in about a month and it could be retrofit to those already sold. He didn't say how it worked and I didn't email him back as I felt like I was becoming a PITA since I kept changing my mind from one tractor to the other.


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## Willie Nunez

sixchows,
A few weeks ago I suggested to John that perhaps a closed-loop cable system could be used on the stock winch, such that one cable on the spool could be used to pull the frame of the bucket down. In other words, similar to 2 short zero-slack cables spooled on the winch whereby one would unspool at the same time the other was spooling, and one would pull the bucket frame up and the other would pull it down. This might be a LESS costly way of doing it than to use a linear push-pull actuator. I suspect he buys the winches several at a time, and gets a price break. Suitable actuators are high-priced.
This is not an original idea as Caterpillar experimented with this type of cable system on their dozers( back in the old days before everything went hydraulic).
All this has made me very curious, I sure would like to know which system John is prototyping to accomplish positive vertical control of the bucket. I guess an e-mail is in order.
As to which tractor to use, that's a tough question(for you). As for me, I've been told that my 331-3000 Hydro-Gear transmission is strong enough for the job, so I suppose I'll go ahead and find out.
Thanks.


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## guest2

Willie
My reservations are not in the tranny even though mine is a 6spd, but rather in the spindle/axle pivot and steering gear which are much lighter on the sears/ayp offerings.


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## Willie Nunez

sixchows,
I'm not concerned about the spindle/axle pivot. I know the axle boss won't fail, and I know that the spindle itself will bend before it breaks. And, the steering components won't fail either(not on mine) because I never put much force on the steering wheel, as I make sure the vehicle is moving, forward or backward, before I horse it around. So, if the spindle bends, I'll just have to fabricate a beefier unit out of 4130 chromemoly steel(heat treated).
And, since I'll only subject it to a light duty cycle, I suspect the transaxle will hold up OK. It's all a learning experience with me.


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## Willie Nunez

sixchows,
I just received an e-mail reply from John Scheele. He told me that his new device for down pressure on the J-B is an inexpensive kit that consists of a gas spring that can be engaged and disengaged with a lever. It sounds interesting, and I sure would like to see a picture of it.


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## farmallmaniac

okay i have seen alot about this sleeve hitch. so umm what is it:dazed: lol

eace:


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## guest2

farmallmaniac
Check out sears.com tractor attachments and click on sleeve hitch


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## farmallmaniac

will do

eace:


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## Argee

Farmallmaniac...A sleeve hitch is to garden tractors what a 3PH is to farm tractors. It's a standardized hitch that most garden tractor manufacturers offer as optional. There is a multitude of implements on the market that are sleeve hitch compatible. Brinly Hardy and Agrifab are two of the largest sleeve hitch implement manufacturers.


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## Argee

*Sleeve Hitch Adapter*

Just to throw a little more "sleeve hitch" info onto the fire, has anyone ever used one of these. One of my old Case 446's had a Cat "0" 3PH on it with a sleeve hitch adapter that allowed you to utilize sleeve hitch attachments on it.


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## Argee

I've toyed with the idea of making a sleeve hitch adapter to fit my FNH1715. Then I could use my sleeve hitch implements behind it. I could modify the disk and make it into a potato planter. I could utilize the Brinly Hardy cultivator or even make it bigger (turn it into a two row cultivator).

Anyone have any thoughts on this?


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## johnray13

> _Originally posted by Argee _
> *Farmallmaniac...A sleeve hitch is to garden tractors what a 3PH is to farm tractors. It's a standardized hitch that most garden tractor manufacturers offer as optional. There is a multitude of implements on the market that are sleeve hitch compatible. Brinly Hardy and Agrifab are two of the largest sleeve hitch implement manufacturers. *


I gotta admit....I wasn't sure what a sleeve hitch was either. But, now I know:smoking: Thanks..............


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