Howard l28 fast hitch conversion?

[Cub54]

I have a 54 farmall cub with a fast hitch currently on the tractor. I finally found a Howard l28 in working condition but it is for the drawbar style cub. Can I take the mount off the front of the rotivator and convert it over to a fast hitch? Will everything still work ok? I seen on a forum that there was two different style gear boxes on the drawbar and fast hitch version? Does that matter? This has the round gearbox on the rotovator? Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks guys!

[Smokeycub]

Let me start by saying I don't have an L28 rotovator. From what I could tell from the pdf files on Rotovators the L28 was available for both Fast Hitch and drawbar Cubs, the difference being which mounting kit was ordered for it at the time. That said, one could buy or make a Fast Hitch point and fabricate or modify the rest of it. It should work fine as long as you get the alignment/geometry and distance right for the PTO shaft. I did notice that Howards highly recommend a speed reducer for the setup, which is rare and expensive should you be able to find one. Totally unaware of the differences between a round and non-round(?) gearbox. FWIW I adapted a standard walk behind rototiller to my Cub and fashioned a right angle drive to run from the PTO. The Cub definitely moved too fast to "till" correctly partly because the Cub also drove the tines on the tiller way too fast as well. It may have been alright if I could have gotten the ground speed appreciably slower or if the Cub had a live PTO, as it was the tiller was bouncing on top of the ground most of the time and launching rocks and stones 20 or 30 feet. I have a 149 Cadet with an IH tiller on it that works great largely because of the Hydro-static trans-axle, I can go as slow as I need to without changing the speed of the tines, which also spins fairly fast. Good luck with it and keep us posted.

P.S. Welcome to the site! (Just noticed it was your 1st post) This is the best Cub site there is!

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Yes, simply unbolt the drawbar mount and replace it with a bolt on prong. From what I can see in the manuals that is the only difference. Without the despeeder you will have to make several passes to get the ground worked up good though. Also, let it down slowly. Dropping it quickly in ground that has not be previously worked up will stall the engine.