Custom options on B26

[powerstroke444e]

Most used item, I had someone ask about how to reposition the tractor while trenching or using the backhoe. I made a lever out of an old jack handle, i.e. and bent it to fit and added a piece of angle iron to make it stay on the foot pedal. It stays on very well and makes it easy to reposition the tractor and it priceless when moving brush or broken concrete with the backhoe and thumb.
I also built a grapple and have not gotten to use it yet but I would advise purchase not making one as it took twice as long as I thought it would to build.
The second best thing is the pallet forks that have side shift. They are a little heavy but are used all the time.
I also built a 29 mud/sand/grading bucket which is priceless for cleaning up a yard as you can scrape the dirt and leave the grass.
I also built a scraper blade out of a blade off a front mount Kubota mower but have not added hydraulics to it yet.
Comments are welcome and if you can think of something else to build I have AWA(I am a welding addict) or have question ask away.

 

[powerstroke444e]

More photo's

 

[apease]

Very interesting with the pedal lever! It made me think - how about adding excavator-style dual "throttle" levers, just behind the backhoe controls, that would allow forward/reverse and left/right motion. It would be tricky to get all the linkages right, especially into the steering wheel, but you'd essentially wind up with a backhoe that could be run like an excavator.

 

[powerstroke444e]

On the trencher you can control it from the back hoe but it is all hydraulic, I have tried to figure it out and it could be done using the lever I put on there and rear remote but I didn't figure it was worth the effort as its not to hard to steer when moving it from the hoe. The big issue was being able to reach the hydro pedal, which this works well.

 

[jlrsn]

Most used item, I had someone ask about how to reposition the tractor while trenching or using the backhoe..

I'm intrigued by your mods. On my L39 I can reach all the controls while sitting backwards while operating my backhoe except for my brakes but haven't tried it yet. With my GST Transmission I can put my transmission in 1st gear (of 12 forward speeds) and also activate my Shuttle Shift Handle and Hand Throttle while sitting backwards. I don't have to use my clutch pedal. I haven't tried it yet but I will. If I vacate my seat there is a safety kill switch that I could put another switch inline with it to bypass that safety feature. If I were to start rolling forward I can switch my Shuttle Shift Handle to reverse or drop my Stabilizers or Backhoe bucket without touching my clutch pedal or stopping. They advertise how easy it is to change the seat position while sitting on the seat but at 6'3" tall and with size 13 shoes it isn't that easy. On the L45 they offer the creeping while sitting backwards operating the backhoe. Can anyone with an L45 explain how they use the brakes.

Which Pallet Forks do you have. My next purchase will be Pallet Forks. I really miss having a forklift since selling my all-terrain forklift to my brother.
Take care,
Jim

 

[powerstroke444e]

Which Pallet Forks do you have. My next purchase will be Pallet Forks. I really miss having a forklift since selling my all-terrain forklift to my brother.
Take care,
Jim

I went to a forklift place and they had a side shift carriage with 42" forks for $100-$150 I can't remember exact price. Then I went to the local bobcat dealer & they had blank qa plates Bobcat brand for $150 then welded it together, but I did have to get new hydraulic lines for the side shift. I works great for loading & unloading trucks. With your L you should be able to get 2000lbs or bigger pallets I max out a litte before that.

 

[Denwa]

Most used item, I had someone ask about how to reposition the tractor while trenching or using the backhoe. I made a lever out of an old jack handle, i.e. and bent it to fit and added a piece of angle iron to make it stay on the foot pedal. It stays on very well and makes it easy to reposition the tractor and it priceless when moving brush or broken concrete with the backhoe and thumb......

Interesting in that my B20 has a 1/2" or so tube welded to the inside face of the go pedal. When I bought the thing it came with a 3'+ metal rod that fits into that tube nicely, and is for the express purpose of moving the tractor while facing backwards using the hoe.

The B20 is supposed to be a "commercial" machine, so perhaps this little extra was a standard "commercial" feature, or at some point, has become a victim of bean counting adjustments.

Dennis

 

[jlrsn]

Interesting in that my B20 has a 1/2" or so tube welded to the inside face of the go pedal.
Dennis

Dennis,
Did it appear to be a modification or a factory install?
Jim

 

[dfkrug]

On the L45 they offer the creeping while sitting backwards operating the backhoe. Can anyone with an L45 explain how they use the brakes.

I don't have an L45, Jim, but since it has HST, I suspect that the brakes are
not used during creep.

What I do (with my Kioti) is leave the parking brake off when I switch over
to the hoe, setting the loader down for additional anchorage. When ready
to creep from the hoe seat, I use a pole (shovel, actually) to push the
go pedal FWD or REV. After lifting the FEL.

A built-in creep function would be great, but a better thing these TLBs (B20,
B21, B26, L39, L45, etc) have is the engine speed control on the right fender,
accessible while operating the hoe. I added mine.

 

[jlrsn]

Hi Dave,
My L39 has the Hand Throttle Control. I also usually don't lock my brakes and anchor my bucket until I get my Stabilizers down. When I have to move my tractor I raise my Stabilizers enough to allow movement and have always used my BH Bucket to move my tractor.

What I really enjoyed from your reply is I went in and read your TBN Projects. I turned each TBN Project into a pdf file so I wouldn't lose them. You've got a lot of usable data posted!!! I see many future mods coming up!!
Thanks,
Jim

 

[gotcha]

I leave brakes off, tractor in N and use the hoe to do all my moving short distances. It works great for me as I push/pull it into position and also left the rear up to move it side to side.

 

[MarkV]

With the L39 if you can live with diableing the saftey switch lever under the flip seat it is easy to do a creep type of feature. Leave your column shifter in forward, put your gear shifter in neutral, lower your trottle to idle, when you want to creep raise the FEL and stabilizers then shift to 1st gear at an idle. It will give you a very slow controled forward movement. Shift back to neutral after you have moved the few feet you need to creep. Naturaly some common sense would tell you not to do this on steep terrain.

MarkV

 

[dfkrug]

I turned each TBN Project into a pdf file so I wouldn't lose them.

How do you do that?!

As for longevity of web sites, that concerns me, too. TBN has evolved into
the largest tractor-oriented website, and its future looks good.

ISPs and the website space they include with their service has been
somewhat less reliable. My first crude website was in the mid 90s and the
ISP got out of that business. Now with Verizon, I don't want to pay
extra for more space, and what happens when/if I go elsewhere? I don't
want to pay for my own domain if I do not have to.

Anyway, thx for the support. I am working on making my JD into a TLB....
perhaps my best one yet.

 

[powerstroke444e]

I leave brakes off, tractor in N and use the hoe to do all my moving short distances. It works great for me as I push/pull it into position and also left the rear up to move it side to side.

That works good but when loading broken concrete and in mud it I wanted a way to drive the it? But thats just me.
The guys have a clean up job next week to break the grapple in on so I hope it works as good as planned.

 

[jlrsn]

How do you do that?!

I used to use Adobe's Acrobat Writer but since pdf files became a standard used by governments, businesses, and many others including myself I researched and found that there are many pdf converter programs available. I use Nuance PDF Converter Pro 5.0 that I've had since version 3.0. Every time they upgrade it gets better! It allows you to not only save anything printable as a pdf file but also go into existing pdf files and edit them, etc. When you have a thread that has say 5 pages I hit Ctrl P and print every page to a separate pdf file. Then I strip (edit) out all the garbage and starting with the first page I insert the rest of the pages to make one file that has no advertising or other stuff that I don't want but includes all the pictures, and TBNs URLs, etc that I want. I then make a sub-directory for that thread under my Tractor Mods directory and then also include the pictures that are in the file that I opened and copied as full size jpg's in that sub-directory.

With hard drives so cheap nowadays I save and also backup my files to my "1 Terabyte Hard Drives" (1,000 GB) (1 gigabyte = 1000000000 bytes). Right now you can buy 1 Terabyte Western Digital Hard Drive for less than $100. Next come the Petabyte Drives! In 1996 I bought a whopping 30MB CDC Hard Drive for $1,750.

Back in the late 70s I started building computers and writing programs as a hobby. Years ago in the 90's I also started writing web pages using HTML and started to make computers from quality components and then websites for friends. Yesterday I just set up a friend with her own domain name for $14.95 for two years. She has a new Real Estate Office and I set her up with her own dedicated server @ Premium Web Hosting Package Comparison - WestHost

There is too much valuable info on TBN that I don't want to lose. There are many tractor web sites but none compare!!!

Jim

 

[dfkrug]

I use Nuance PDF Converter Pro 5.0 that I've had since version 3.0. Every time they upgrade it gets better! It allows you to not only save anything printable as a pdf file but also go into existing pdf files and edit them, etc. When you have a thread that has say 5 pages I hit Ctrl P and print every page to a separate pdf file. Then I strip (edit) out all the garbage and starting with the first page I insert the rest of the pages to make one file that has no advertising or other stuff that I don't want but includes all the pictures, and TBNs URLs, etc that I want.

That's a great idea, Jim! I checked out the Nuance product, and it is only
$29 at Amazon. I might have to try that.

 

[jlrsn]

Wow Dave,
I've never seen that price!!! If that is for a legal copy of 5.0, or even 4.0, I'd jump at it!!! I usually pay 4 times that just for upgrades. I got burned once on Amazon buying Photoshop 2.0 from what I thought was a legal copy. Then I had problems and Adobe wouldn't touch it!! I later bought a copy direct from Adobe and have since upgraded to 3.0 but I see no need for 4.0. Try Nuance PDF Converter Pro 5.0 and you'll see how you can edit or extract whatever you want from what many think is a locked file.
Good luck,
Jim

 

[Carl Bert]

Most used item, I had someone ask about how to reposition the tractor while trenching or using the backhoe. I made a lever out of an old jack handle, i.e. and bent it to fit and added a piece of angle iron to make it stay on the foot pedal. It stays on very well and makes it easy to reposition the tractor and it priceless when moving brush or broken concrete with the backhoe and thumb.
I also built a grapple and have not gotten to use it yet but I would advise purchase not making one as it took twice as long as I thought it would to build.
The second best thing is the pallet forks that have side shift. They are a little heavy but are used all the time.
I also built a 29 mud/sand/grading bucket which is priceless for cleaning up a yard as you can scrape the dirt and leave the grass.
I also built a scraper blade out of a blade off a front mount Kubota mower but have not added hydraulics to it yet.
Comments are welcome and if you can think of something else to build I have AWA(I am a welding addict) or have question ask away.

Welding is a newly found hobby of mine, which I very much enjoy. Problem I am finding is that the price of steel is so **** high, that in some cases it almost isn't worth building it yourself. This is a perfect example, I recently purchased a rear suitcase weight bracket for my John deere. I paid $55 for it , new. The steel to make it myself would have cost me over $40, not including the cutting cost and hardware. Is steel this high all over or is this just a New York thing?

My other question is, how do you bypass the safety cut off switch, which allows you to operate the hydo pedal when using the backhoe on the B26?

 

[powerstroke444e]

My other question is, how do you bypass the safety cut off switch, which allows you to operate the hydo pedal when using the backhoe on the B26?

My advice would be look under the seat. All Kubota safety switches have continuity when the operator is present. If you wanted to get fancy and stay safe you could wire in a toggle so it was only by passed when needed.

 

[dfkrug]

Is steel this high all over or is this just a New York thing?

What I do is try to get what I need at a steel yard that also sells surplus,
which can be just as good as new. Sometimes, it is just steel that is sold
to the yard as scrap. Just last month, I got some nice 1/2" thick plate
and some galvanized sheet for 0.35/lb. Regular price there is 45-55c.
New can run 75-95/lb and that's often in 20-ft sticks. Sadly, the cost of
doing biz in NY may be even higher than here on the left coast.

Your B26 has a rotating seat like the B21, correct? I don't know how
they handle the operator presence safety device, but when you DO
find it, you will most likely need to short the two leads. Does the owner's
manual talk about running the tractor PTO when not on the seat? There
may be a special switch for that, like on some JDs.