Hello everyone. I am a newbie! Need advice on a new to me Kubota L3400DT w/LA463 FEL. I am wondering if it is possible to add double spool valve to the existing valve. Any advice would be appreciated. What i would like to add is a 3pt log splitter and a grapple fork in the future. Thanks again.
Hello! Congrats on the new tractor! In fact, it sounds nearly brand new. That's a real good way to buy them.
Hmmm....My answer to your question is that it is usually easy to do. Here I have to admit that I don't know if the L3400DT has any specific unique details to its hydraulic system, but most tractors do not...JD is the exception in that some of their small tractors use a unique accumulator setup in what is known as a "closed hydraulic system". But most if not all Kubotas - including my
M59 - use a far simpler "open circuit" system which makes it easy to add extra valves.
Here's how all open circuit system hydraulics work: The Gravity feeds hydrualic fluid into a positive displacement (that means gear or piston type) hydraulic pump which pushes it out through the hoses. There is minimal pressure and lots of volume of flow. Normally the hydrualic fluid flows right through the spool valve without any restriction. Without a restriction there is no pressure anywhere, only flow. When you move the lever the spool valve directs some portion of the flow to some secondar circuit which has a resistance like a bucket loader cylinder. There the flow is blocked by the cylinder and the blocked flow develops enough pressure to move the cylinder. That's tractor hydualics in a nutshell.
The important thing to take away from this is that your two spool valve could have been a five spool valve and would have worked five different items just as well as it does the two. It also means that all you have to do is to interrupt the flow to the existing spool valve and splice in an additional set of spool valves or several sets to get that capability. It is nothing more than simple plumbing. In fact, most spool valves have a fitting on the side known as a "power beyond" port which is there for this very reason. For additional spool valves you run a line from the PB port on one spool valve over to the inlet port on another set of spool valves and remember to allow each spool valve to have it's own free flow back to the hydraulic reservoir. That's it!
Here's where I confess that I'm not sure just where those ports are located on your
L3400 but I think your question was just whether or not you could add them. Believe me, they will be there in your system somewhere and your dealer can point out the best place to hook them up. So the answer is yes, what you want to do is commonly done, it is easy and not too expensive if they do it and quite inexpensive if you do it yourself. I've done it on lots of tractors. Yes, it will give you complete control over the hydraulic flow to any attachment that works off a cylinder....things like a grabber, thumb, or log splitter. That's easy.
There are only a few attachments out there that use hydraulic motors instead of hydraulic cylinders; and powering them is a little different. But your tractor can be made to power those as well if you ever want to do that. It just takes a little more complexity and a little more money. But the tractor is certainly ready.
Enjoy! rScotty
