Feathering Backhoe Controls

[SLOBuds]

I have a post over in Owning/Operating which asks folks to give me hints on how to come up to speed on the backhoe. I'm very uncoordinated and it's taking me a long time to get the hang of it.

One fellow told me this - which says that my tractor, a Kubota L35, was hard for him too because the controls seemed to be 'all on' or 'all off'.

Well I'm not the best to judge because I am still learning and have plenty of jerky motions with my hands/arms going in the wrong directions. But it does seem to me that I have to very carefully move the joystick to get the different backhoe motions to move slowly. I almost have to push it with a couple of fingers to get the motions slowed down.

Is there a way for me to adapt my hydraulics so that the joystick is more gradual in its operation? Or is that effect due to a basic engineering design on my backhoe valves?

Thanks.

 

[shvl73]

I have no hydraulic knowledge but, I wonder if someone who does thinks you could put some bushings or restrictions in line to lessen the hydrauic flow, thus slowing the response to control input?
All that aside, I thought mine was too quick and jerky but, after some quality seat time, I think it is about right. For me, it was mostly the swing speed. Now I don't want it slower, I've gotten a little bit better at the controls.
Has anyone mentioned less engine rpm's? trouble is, it slows everything down.

 

[ultrarunner]

Is the L39 similar to the feel of the L35 TLB?

 

[hayden]

How fast are you running the engine? When I was learning to use mine someone suggested running the engine at a low speed to start off. As you get the hang of it, you can speed it up. For me this was great advice, so I'll pass it on.....

 

[SLOBuds]

I am running the engine at low rpm, after that recommendation from the owning/operating forum.

L39 vs L35: I don't know the difference in feel.

 

[Dmace]

Yeah, run at a slow engine speed. The backhoe will not bog the engine much at all. My 21hp CK20 HST operates up to 3000 rpms max, 2750 rpms to reach 540 pto rpms. I normally operate at about 2200 rpms for backhoe work and 2400 for loader work but only at 1700 rpms while learning the backhoe. There is no difference in power of the backhoe between rpms, the only difference is in speed. The higher the rpms, the faster all the movement is. It stil hits the relief valve at the same time.

 

[RonMar]

Any slop in the controls will make repeatable fine control difficult. You could also try extending the control levers. This will add control resolution or a larger hand movement for a given valve movement. I am a pilot and also a flight simulator enthusiast and that is the biggest control issue in the flight sim, going from a real aircraft with 18" of control stick movement to a computer joystick with 6" of movement(1/3 the control resolution).

 

[sugarmaple]

In the manual for a Woods 9000 hoe, it is suggested that operating two bh functions simultaneously smooths out the hydraulic response and this indeed was my experience with the Wood bh-7500 I had previously.

 

[ttkeeler]

How fast are you running the engine? When I was learning to use mine someone suggested running the engine at a low speed to start off. As you get the hang of it, you can speed it up. For me this was great advice, so I'll pass it on.....

Exactly the same thing I was told this fall when I got mine. Start out with a slower engine speed until you get the hang of it. So far I am still trying to get the hang of it.

 

[ttkeeler]

Any slop in the controls will make repeatable fine control difficult. You could also try extending the control levers. This will add control resolution or a larger hand movement for a given valve movement. I am a pilot and also a flight simulator enthusiast and that is the biggest control issue in the flight sim, going from a real aircraft with 18" of control stick movement to a computer joystick with 6" of movement(1/3 the control resolution).

Extending the control levers is an excellent idea.

 

[bx24]

ttkeeler

With practice you WILL get better. When I first learned how to drive an over the road truck, I was grinding the gears like there was no tomorrow. I would have bet my life that I was never going to get better. But within a short amount of time, I was shifting smoothly without thinking about it ... it becomes second nature. There is no way around the learning curve. The good news is that it is a curve is an exponential curve. Each hour you will be twice as good as the hour before and it stays that way for a while.

As far as specific advice, practice using both hands at the same time. You keep the power (with higher RPMs) but you eliminate a bunch of the jerking because the fluid it going through two or more valves and not "slamming" into the closed valve when only one operation is being performed. If you have not ever used one before, maybe no one ever told you this, but you will almost always be doing two things at at the same time anyways once you are a pro. You really do have to "feel" what the machine is doing.

When you are digging, you want to make sure the teeth are pointing towards where they are going. Again this sounds obvious, but sometime folks don't pay attention to the bucket position and try to muscle their way through things. If you are on a large excavator that is fine because it will rip through almost anything, but on a smaller rig, stuff like this is key.

You'll get there ... but practice doing multiple operations (curling, lifting, pulling) all at the same time.

 

[CurlyDave]

How fast are you running the engine? When I was learning to use mine someone suggested running the engine at a low speed to start off. As you get the hang of it, you can speed it up. For me this was great advice, so I'll pass it on.....

This has been exactly my experience also.

Fast engine speed = jerky motion, make mistakes, break things.

Slow engine speed = smooth operation, learn faster, get more done; can now get into areas where I would never have tried 50 hours ago.

The most amazing thing is that I am now faster with the hoe than when running at higher speed.

 

[ragkar]

I had the same problem with mine. The dealer looked into it and then disassembled the joystick console to find that a couple joystick bolts were loose. Just a thought.

 

[dillo99]

I would definitely check to make sure the controls are all tightened up as ragkar suggests. Slop in the controls makes it more difficult to do minor controls.

I have used a couple different backhoes and there is definitely a difference in the controls - some are more fine grained than others. With that said, if you follow the advice people have given above and keep practicing you will get the hang of it in no time. It really does become easy over time.