Self leveling buckets on FEL

[Ffphil]

JD offers a self leveling bucket on their FEL which is a nice option. Can you add this aftermarket to any FEL?

 

[Ffphil]

Does anyone know if Yanmar or Kioti offer this option?

 

[mcfarmall]

I've only seen the self-leveling bucket in loaders that are on 80ish horsepower and up tractors. Pretty much never on SCUT's or CUT's.

 

[3Lfarms]

Loaders generally either have it or they don’t. It’s not really an add on option to an existing loader. You usually find it on more deluxe CUTs and utility tractors. I don’t know of any self leveling loaders on a SCUT.
There was a thread where a member modified his loader to self level, but he made all of the parts himself. It looked to be pretty involved.

 

[kthompson]

JD offers a self leveling bucket on their FEL which is a nice option. Can you add this aftermarket to any FEL?

Think this is being discussed in another thread right now here. I have 90 some hp JD with self leveling fel. It did have regular fel on it and damaged it (my fault clearing up hurricane damage). At least with the style I have it would be a lot of work to convert it from std fel to self leveling. No knowledge of the hyd self leveling but that might be doable.

 

[countrybumpkin]

You can buy a hydraulic valve to add to a loader that isn’t self leveling, it uses the hydraulics to level instead of mechanical.

 

[Mugeye]

My kioti rx7320 has a self leveling loader . I would never go without it now

 

[BrokenTrack]

For me a self-leveling bucket is hit or miss.

On the tractors that have had it, it was nice, but only because it worked in conjunction with other features like automatic-down shift and automatic posi-traction. While I was petting my dog on the head, the tractor had already shifted up one gear as soon as I put it in reverse, was rolling the bucket back to level, and lowering the main boom. Once in the bank, a step down on a foot switch kicked the machine automatically by one gear, kicked in the posi-traction and was rolling the bucket back.

That was nice on a spade nose bucket, but on a CUT or SCUT I don't think it would be needed. A length of bar and a notch cut in it would do the same thing for about $5.

 

[Oldoak]

Self-leveling buckets are great on industrial machines. However, I don't think the high cost and added weight to the F.E.L. is worth it on CUTs, although it is an option on some models.

 

[Texasmark]

Branson has them. I had the option when I bought the BL 30 that came on the 6530. Funny, the dealer that supplied me with manuals as part of the sale gave me a parts list for the self leveling, not the regular BL 30.

On doing your own, just look at those who have them and you can clearly see what's required to install it...different pivot point and added connection on the pivot plate to add contact point for extra hyd. cylinder.....I personally wouldn't do it, but that's just me.

 

[texasranger556]

I had a Kubota L48 for a while and it had a standard loader with a hydraulic valve that made the bucket auto level. It is probably nice if you deal with a lot of pallets, but I found it annoying for digging.

 

[oldnslo]

Eaton Corporation offered a self leveling valve assembly for lift only. This only works IF the geometry of the loader allows a portion of the rod end lift cylinders oil to be fed into the base end of the curl cylinders. Not an inexpensive option and it must be tuned to the FEL. Also are subject to the oil flow rate through the valve. Trying to raise at a slow speed and the self level may not work Vs raising at normal speed.

Not sure if these were available to the public or were more OEM specific.

Delta Power Company also had a BDSL Bi-Directional Self Leveling package that they sold to some OEM's. Again these had to be tuned to a machine and had limited success.

I believe a couple of companies in Europe also offer the hydraulic self level used by Kubota & possibly Deere. No clue if they are available to the public either.

 

[Ffphil]

Thanks to all for the info. Sounding like a dead end road.

 

[downsizingnow48]

My B21 came with self leveling. It was a nuisance on some loader operations and after a while I disconnected it. The main benefit was that it prevented a distracted operator from dumping stuff backward on the tractor.

 

[ovrszd]

I'd have no use for electronic self leveling. Mechanical is flawless and has minimal effect on FEL lifting capability. The weight is at the rearward end of the boom.

My Kubota doesn't have it. My Ford TLB has mechanical. I get along fine either way. I'd never consider modifying an existing FEL to add either type, mechanical or electronic.

 

[npalen]

The company I worked for back in the mid to late seventies built FEL's that were mostly for farm tractors as CUT's were basically non-existent. Farmers and stockmen were converting to the large round bales and needed loaders to handle them. There were quite a few aftermarket FEL manufacturers as the OEM loaders were not real common.
I experimented with hydraulic self-leveling using a flow divider but, as oldnslo mentioned above, they are subject to varying pressure and flow rates.
I could have used self leveling on a job last week when loading dirt on to a dump truck with very high sides. Approaching the truck while raising the loader on a down hill slope and trying to keep the bucket level to avoid spillage brought thoughts of self-leveling.

Edit: Forgot to mention "and while trying to not bump the side of the truck with the tractor hood"

 

[flingwing1969]

My B21 came with self leveling. It was a nuisance on some loader operations and after a while I disconnected it. The main benefit was that it prevented a distracted operator from dumping stuff backward on the tractor.

Exactly. The B21 is a mechanical system and it works nicely.

 

[scaredychicken]

I could be wrong, but I thought that Kubota's Bx23S had a self levelling loader feature. That caught my attention only because it sounded good (I have no experience with that)... perhaps I misunderstood, in the information overload of the past few months.