Auxiliary hydraulic hook-up for dummies (me)

[ramonajim]

Long time follower of this group, all y'all have taught me an awful lot even though I've not posted often. First time trying to use the auxiliary hook ups on my Montana 3840, and I'm looking for some help. Let's just say that the Korean-to-English translations in the owners manual for the Montana are somewhat lacking. The entirety of hook up instructions are attached to this thread.

I just picked up a Long 1200 back hoe attachment. Managed to get it hung on the 3 point, and putzed with the hydraulic hook up for a bit. Confirmed that all four functions (up/down, in/out, curl/uncurl, and swing left/right) all work, and paused to replace the one leaking hose on the backhoe.

Problem is trying to figure out the right combination of knobs/levers/connections. What "worked" was backhoe hoses in the bottom (single/double acting) connections on the tractor, and having both hydraulic levers pulled up. I think the single/double action knob was twisted to "double" but not 100% certain (I tried multiple combinations).

The levers are spring loaded, returning to neutral (not pulled, not pushed). I can't imagine their function is limited to devices operated solely from the driver's seat, so I assume I'm missing something.

Long way to ask: what goes where?

Follow up question: the left side connection on the tractor, both top and bottom, seems significantly harder to fully engage the hose connector. Is this because that is the pressure side? If so - is there a way to relieve the pressure while making the connection?

 

[mojoinco]

Well that was informative. It took me close to 15 years to realize my loader had a 'float' feature, so I may not be a lot of help.
My loader (NH TN series with factory loader) has the lift arms as primary (when I operate both the bucket and lift arms, the lift arms clearly get 'first shot' at the pressure). You may have some sort of similar issue. As the Montana line is a rebadged LG (iirc), take a look through some of their manuals for guidance. NH sold a rebadged LG line as well for a few years, could be better written manuals. I am assuming the same engineering standards and design style were followed in the newer equipment.

 

[LouNY]

It isn't really to hard, the single action or double action is refering to cylinders that have 2 lines on them double action hydraulic power to move both ways, single action cylinders will only have one line and hydraulic power is only applied in one direction, when the lever is returned to the other position it opens a port that will allow the hydraulic fluid to flow back to the tractor from the weight of the implement pushing it.

As far as your backhoe it can be run from either configuration. In the single action mode only one port is active for each lever, that port would supply hydraulic to the backhoe and the return from the backhoe could be dumped into the tractor reservoir.
Using the double action one line the supply will connect to one pressure port for the single valve and the other line will connect to the other port for that same valve. Activating the vale in one direction will provide flow in the correct direction, activating in the other direction can cause the flow to be backwards into your valve stack on the backhoe.
You will need to use a bungee cord or tie the lever into the working position as you apparently do not have detents on those operators. It is very common to do so.

As far as the tractor ports being difficult to connect with the tractor shut off move the levers to both operating positions a couple of times that will relieve any internal pressure.

Good luck with that hoe that looks to be a good sized unit, many little tractors can not handle those stresses on the tractor and have been know to break in half. So be gentle with her.

 

[jfsawatzky]

As mentioned, be cautious with the 3 pt hookup. It’s too easy to transfer too much stress back into the tractor and cause a lot of damage. Not to say it cannot be done, there’s some users here who have used a 3 pt hoe for some time but there’s probably a lot more who wish they had not used a 3pt. Look for a subframe for the tractor and bh.