4700 - Best way to add valves for grappler and stump grinder

[pclausen]

Picked up my 3rd spool and PB kits today.

Here they are side by side. Notice that both kits contained the same bracket for the quick connect fittings. Note how much thicker the PB pipes are compared the remote ones.

Closeup of 3rd spool kit:

Closeup of PB kit:

Seat and various covers removed to expose the 3 spool valve:

Bracket installed. PB will go in the 2 left most holes, the remote in the 2 right most holes.

That's as far as I got tonight. Have to get ready to go to the beach for the holiday weekend. I asked my wife if I could just stay home and work on my tractor instead. That did not go over well.

I'll pick back up mid next week when I return. Hopefully the W.R. long valve kit (and grapple) will be here by then. Might as well plumb that in while I got the 3 spool valve out.

 

[pclausen]

Made good progress today.

Here's the QC bracket fully populated:

Here's the base where the 3 spool scv mounts:

And here's the valve itself after mounting the fittings for the 3rd valve and the control arm:

Hardlines installed:

I picket up the W.R. Long grapple today, and the way the kit is designed for the JD 4xxx series, is that the supply and return lines are supposed to connect to where my PB hardlines are connected.

Can I use this port to feed the grapple instead?

If so, great! Still need to figure out how to do the return. The whole point is I need to be able to use the stump grinder at the same time that the grapple of functional.

Here are some shots of the W.R. Long valve after it was installed:

And finally some shots of the grapple itself. Since my tractor is under surgery, I can to improvise and come up with a different solution for getting it off the truck:

And some closeups of the grapple itself. It sure is heavily built!

 

[mechatgsk]

Mr PClausen,
Can you tell me which of the lines that feed the Power Beyond are pressure and return?

Regards,
Mechatgsk

 

[pclausen]

Can you tell me which of the lines that feed the Power Beyond are pressure and return?

Sure, the red in the following image is the supply and the green is the return.

 

[kennyd]

Sure, the red in the following image is the supply and the green is the return.

PC,

I think using the extra port you mentioned earlier will cause problems, it will put the two valves in parallel I believe.

My suggestion to add the WR Long solenoid valve is to remove the hardline you marked in red, then run a hose from the port on the valve block to the IN port on the subplate of the solenoid valve, then another hose from the OUT port to the rear QD on the bracket.

This put's everything in series like it needs to be.

Oh, great pictures BTW:thumbsup:

 

[pclausen]

That's exactly what I ended up doing!

Here you can see the supply hose (red arrow) feeding the Long valve, and the return hose (green arrow) from the Long valve.

Closeup of same. This also shows (yellow arrow) where I picked up 12V for the switch. There just happened to be this plug that had 12V that came on with the ignition.

Here are a couple of shots showing the rest of the hydraulic hoses for the W.R. Long Grappler.

The QC's at the tractor:

The QC's and the bracket welded onto the front of the loader frame:

Some shots of the rest of the electrical wiring for the Long valve:

I also picked up the stump grinder today. Here are some shots of it after installing the hoses and Woods optional control valve. As you can see, I ended up having to use the 3rd SCV valve instead of the PB port since the valve in the Woods kit is a simple diverter valve, not a dual SCV valve.

I'm happy to report that all the hydraulics work as expected! I played with the grapple a little last night (after taking off the stump grinder). Works great, but I need to get my ballast box filled. That grapple sure is heavy even before picking up something, let alone after.

Plan to give the stump grinder a good workout this weekend as well.

 

[kennyd]

Great follow up PC:thumbsup:

What motorcycle is that in the background?

 

[pclausen]

That's a 1970 Honda CB450 that I fixed up. It had been sitting in my shop for 10 years since a friend donated it to me.

 

[foggy1111]

I like the looks of your "plumbing project" and how you hooked up your Woods stump grinder. From the pics it's hard to determine if that valve location will make operation easy.....but you will know soon enough! I look forward to hearing your comments after running the grinder via your set-up this weekend.

Nice work....and great pics and documentation. :thumbsup:

 

[kennyd]

That's a 1970 Honda CB450 that I fixed up. It had been sitting in my shop for 10 years since a friend donated it to me.

NICE!

 

[foggy1111]

So......did you get to operate the stump grinder? Curious on how things worked out for you.

 

[pclausen]

Have not had a chance to operate the grinder yet. Spend quite a bit of time clearing up slash exposing the stumps using the grapple. That is quite the attachment for that job! The loggers pushed over a couple of large pine stumps that I picked up with the grapple and added to my already huge burn piles. Despite having a ballast box fully loaded with portland cement and a set of 8 suitcase weights on top of that, when I curled up the grapple, the rear tires came of the ground. Had to reposition my grip to get it in closer and lower the bb to just above ground level, and I was able to barely get the largest stump down the the burn pile. I no longer have any concerns about the grapple adding to much weight to where my 460 loader would run out of capacity. The stump, with lots of clay still attached, would barely fit with the grapple open all the way (70 inches).

I hope to give the grinder its maiden voyage one day this week. Of course, now it is raining again, so who knows!

 

[pclausen]

Got a chance to grind down about a dozen stumps today. All I got to say is this grinder is amazing! All my previous stump grinding experience has been with a Vermeer walk behind with hydraulics. That thing would take 10+ minutes per stump and give you quite the work out. This Woods grinder gets the job done in a few minutes, even oak stumps!

Operating the 3rd SCV on the fender with my left hand and the selector valve with my right hand is working out quite well. When I turn in the seat to face the rear, my hands are naturally by both levers. No fatigue at all from the stumps I worked on today.

I'm going to swap my hydraulic quick connect to the remote tomorrow as that will give me a more intuitive feel for raising/lowering the cutting wheel I think. Very pleased with how everything worked out. I'll see about capturing some live action footage tomorrow and post.

 

[foggy1111]

I missed your response above. Glad to see you had a chance to use the grinder! .....and that it meets your performance expectations.

I'm not sure I understand how you use both hands to operate the hydraulics. I thought the Valve furnished by Woods operated both the sweep and height cylinders.

Will look forward to your pics or video. :thumbsup:

I have gotten several PM's about the Woods grinder and use on hardwoods vs pines. I have lots of experience on pines and have done a few hardwood stumps. My take is that it requires about 3x longer on hardwoods than pines. I am interested to get your impressions.

 

[pclausen]

The Woods valve is a diverter valve, so it selects if the raise or sweep cylinder gets the oil. One then operate the selected cylinder with the 3rd SCV valve on the fender.

I have done a mix of soft and hard wood stumps and the hardwoods definitely take longer. I had one that took me close to 10 minutes to complete. Pines are usually done in a couple of minutes.

I also found out my slip clutch is seized. I need to loosen it up. I accidentally dropped the wheel too fast and just about stalled out my tractor. Fortunately I was able to hit the PTO button just before the engine died completely.

 

[foggy1111]

The Woods valve is a diverter valve, so it selects if the raise or sweep cylinder gets the oil. One then operate the selected cylinder with the 3rd SCV valve on the fender.

I have done a mix of soft and hard wood stumps and the hardwoods definitely take longer. I had one that took me close to 10 minutes to complete. Pines are usually done in a couple of minutes.

I also found out my slip clutch is seized. I need to loosen it up. I accidentally dropped the wheel too fast and just about stalled out my tractor. Fortunately I was able to hit the PTO button just before the engine died completely.

Hmmmm.....I need to chew on that valve arrangement. Not sure if I like that over what I have now via the joystick.

One thing I will admit.....I have stalled my tractor on a number of occasions using the grinder. I have my slip clutch set pretty snug.....and it will spin....but still, it's easy to stall when grinding stumps....it's easy to take too big of a cut. I could wish for more power....or I could slow down. Still....you want to be productive.