Toplink hydraulic top link

RobertN · Apr 27, 2005

You have good advice already. I would add this though; add a side link too while you're doing all this work and effort...

I find the top and side adjustment usefull all the time. I think I use the top adjustment most, but use the tilt adjustment a lot too.

WhiteRock · Apr 28, 2005

Think you will be getting any CAT II hydraulic tilt links?

seapea · May 26, 2005

( I'll second that!

I think if you ask most folks that didn't get the double piloted check valves the first time around will tell you that they were sorry and added them or a new cylinder at a later point in time.

The savings without them isn't practical for what you give up in quality. Cylinders easily drift without them. )

How serious is the drift issue without a check valve? Are you talking about having to make minor adjustments every 10 minutes or so? The Gearmore kit my dealer normally installs (which I think are actually made by Rankin) don't have a check valve. He said it will probably bleed some if left overnight, but won't really be noticed while operating the tractor. I also have him looking into the CCM and Integrated Engineering kits, since they both have check valves.

KubotaOne · May 27, 2005

I do not have the check valve on mine and I can tell you that they do indeed bleed, rather quickly. I find with my boxblade I'm constantly making adjustments to compensate, probably every 10 or 15 minutes. I now use the standard fixed top-link because of it - set it and forget it.

For my 3pt Forks, the hydraulic top link is a must, and because I'm not carrying anything for a long period of time, drift is not a problem.

Glenn9643 · May 27, 2005

How serious is the drift issue without a check valve?

This depends on your cylinder as well as your control valve.
My top link cylinder drifts very little, but some. My tilt cylinder requires adjustment every few (10-15) minutes when under heavy load such as bush-hogging. I've tried swapping the hoses to see if the problem is in the valve or the cylinders and the problem seems to stay with my tilt cylinder. I installed the manual adjust tilt arm on the left side when I installed the tilt cylinder on the right. I had to adjust the manual arm so that the implement was level with the tilt cylinder retracted all the way up to make quick adjustments back to level on-the-go. Otherwise tweaking back to level is a major pain.

troweller · May 27, 2005

I really like the tnt setup, but I only use with box scraper and rake. I probably don't have check valves. The tilt valve really drifts with the mower. I was using the pushing gravel in reverse the other day and a hydraulic hose fitting on the top cylinder blew up, I first thought the gravel was really wet. Napa had the part, and it took about 10 minutes to fix.

DK35vince · May 27, 2005

I recommend the check valves.
My first set of top/tilt cylinders did not have check valves. My tilt cylinder would need readjusted about every 10 minutes ( a major pain in the a**).
I replaced them a while back with the CCM/check valve cylinders, huge improvement. And the CCM cylinders I'm using now never leak off..

seapea · May 27, 2005

I feel stuck. It sounds like I should really get the check valve. However, other threads have indicated length problems with the CCM tilt cylinder on a B series. I'm hesitant to send my dealer down the CCM path when they probably only have experience with Gearmore TnT kits. They probably aren't familiar with the CCM tilt cylinder length issues, or how to solve them.

Are there other solutions? I'm not interested in gathering parts from 8 different sources and possibly also doing some modifications. I want a no hassle quality TnT kit with check valves for a B7610, and I want to be able to tell my dealer where to go get it. I don't want to have to worry about installation issue that wouldn't turn up if I went with the Gearmore kit. Am I asking for too much? If so, I'll probably just put this on hold until something changes for the better.

MadReferee · May 28, 2005

( Are there other solutions? I'm not interested in gathering parts from 8 different sources and possibly also doing some modifications. I want a no hassle quality TnT kit with check valves for a B7610, and I want to be able to tell my dealer where to go get it. I don't want to have to worry about installation issue that wouldn't turn up if I went with the Gearmore kit. Am I asking for too much? If so, I'll probably just put this on hold until something changes for the better. )

I don't believe that there are any other solutions with check valves that are available as a single unit. I don't think the over priced Gearmore kit has check valves, in fact I have one of their cylinders for a Kubota tilt link and it has NO check valves.

The CCM top link works fine with B-series Kubotas. The tilt link cylnder needs a little modification to work OPTIMALLY. All you need is a hacksaw and a drill to make the mods. Contact Tim (8561) as he just made the relatively painless minor mods to the CCM tilt cylinder to get optimum performance on his B2410.

Your best all around solution for the money spent is the CCM setup. Tried and proven by many TBNers.

8561 · May 28, 2005

As the MadRef has referenced, I have purchased both the top link and side cylinders from CCM and made it work on a small frame B series. First of all, the top link is perfect as is, works great, no issues. On the side, I cut about 1 3/8" off the mounting housing where the threaded rod for the yoke on the cylinder side mounts. It left about 6 threads which is more than enough. The threaded rod bottoms against the cylinder itself. I then picked up 2 inches by drilling the hole in the bottom yoke higher than the factory. There is no penalty in the operation of the 3 point hitch for doing this and is a mod I would suggest for anyone trying to gain lift height in a B series. I then dropped the hole in the top yoke about 1/2", again no penalty in operation. Overall, I picked up close to 4 inches in reduced length. The closed length of the side cylinder is now about 15 1/8" with the standard fixed length rod being about 17 1/4". Accordingly, although not quite perfect, I can put the stroke at almost halfway and get almost equal tilt both ways. Of course, I'll put the maual adjusting lift rod on the left side and have ultimate adjustability (with the exception of Henro's double cylinder setup, that being the ultimate in easy adjustment). I'll simply adjust the rod to make it equal, and on those occassions I need more lift height, like with my rake and back blade, I'll simply shorten up a little on both. In theory, I could hold the hydraulic cylinder closed and adjust the manual side short and pick up about 2 1/8" in overall lift height (while still having hydraulic tilt to one side) on those occasions where I need the additional lift. Of course 2 1/8" at the cylinder mounting pins translates to a lot of extra lift at the end of the arms where the implement mounts. Although I haven't tried it and measured, it should make a huge overall lift improvement. By the way, the referenced measurements are all taken center of pin to center of pin.

We're camping this weekend and I just stopped home for a few minutes. I'll try to take some photos next week to show the whole thing, including my Eaton/Cessna 3 spool valve setup.