Adding a grapple at time of purchase vs adding later

[sheamus]

I am picking up a ct2035 from Bobcat (Kioti ck3510 equiv) this week. I can't afford the grapple I want right now, but I can always buy a grapple bucket later, hopefully used. But I will need the hydraulics to run it. Bobcat is saying they don't have the hydraulic kits in stock, and figured it would add $1700 for kit and installation. How hard is it to add the hydraulic kits on my own? I am fairly handy and have done a fair bit of work on older vehicles, though never really worked with a tractor hydraulics before other than using them... I believe the kit is about $800 usd, so for $1000 it may make a good Saturday project... I think the dealer option is a thumb switch which could be a pain to install... Thoughts?

 

[m1garand762]

It takes about an hour or so if your handy to put a third function kit on a tractor. Check out summit hydraulics, they have many kits available.my last kit was fit to my kubota by summit and was around 600 or so and looked like it was an oem part

 

[dlctcg]

You can add a kit later... not that hard & there are plenty of companies out their offering kits...

I add a kit to our NH & it took a little longer but only because I made my own bracket (because of where I wanted the valve) & I added my own switch / relay circuit to our existing FEL joystick... Other than that pretty straight forward.

 

[sheamus]

Ok, found a video of a bobcat mechanic doing it. Looks fairly simple. It looks like summit just sells a universal, though they have Kubota specific kits. The WR Long one is Bobcat, but they won't ship to Canada.

 

[AndyMA]

I'm sure you could find someone on this Forum in the US close to you to receive it and reship to Canada

 

[sheamus]

I am going to see if I can get the kit thrown in with purchase if I do it myself... we'll see if they bite.

 

[MechanicalGuy]

They’ll most likely charge the same for the kit installed or not. You aren’t going to get out of paying big bucks for all the apparatus to make remotes possible. And grapples are very hard to find used, because no one lets go of them once they have one and see how useful they are.
When I was in your predicament, I financed the front remote and one rear remote in with the cost of the tractor, and then later I bought two additional rear remotes for about $500 each and installed them myself. That was for all factory stuff, and Messicks was were I bought the stuff from. My local dealer wanted many hundreds more for the rear remotes, parts only! I didn’t do it the cheapest way possible, but I did what was convenient for me.

your gonna pay for the remotes one way or another. They are high.

 

[Username Taken]

Ok, found a video of a bobcat mechanic doing it. Looks fairly simple. It looks like summit just sells a universal, though they have Kubota specific kits. The WR Long one is Bobcat, but they won't ship to Canada.

Thanx for the video link

 

[sheamus]

Thanx for the video link

Haha, sorry about that:

Bobcat dealer got back to me, and the part number for the one they sell is 7392994. They want $1100, but it is back-ordered. Given the price and it being back-ordered, they were not willing to deal on that item.

Based on the youtube link above, I am wondering if Bobcat is just using the WR Long kit, which is about $950 shipped. I can get the Summit universal kit for about $600 shipped. The summit kit doesn't come with hoses, while I believe the other two do.

 

[Username Taken]

Ok, found a video of a bobcat mechanic doing it. Looks fairly simple. It looks like summit just sells a universal, though they have Kubota specific kits. The WR Long one is Bobcat, but they won't ship to Canada.

If you go to WR Long's website W.R. Long, Inc. | Valve Kits You can use their Dealer Locator to possibly find Dealers nearer the Border that are accustomed to shipping to the Great White North