i bet this is a simple question for someone

[Hotpot]

Ive purchased my first tractor this week, a International 354 gas. There is a few things i dont know what they do . Plus whats a good manual to buy?

1. What are these Silver knobs for and how the heck are you suppose to turn them? They seem really tight.

 

[fatjay]

Opens/closes hydraulic blocks. Chances are they're open if there's lines connected to them, and closed if not. Normal operation you should not need to touch them.

Congratulations, what do you need it for?

 

[Hotpot]

hydraulic blocks?
im going to use the tractor to maintain a 3 acres church campground.

 

[fatjay]

Hydraulic lines from the pump can't just be shut off. You need to always have flow, one way or another. Look at your second picture. Those really big bolts are most likely hydraulic hookup's in the block. If you were to connect them to something, nothing would happen because the valve is in the closed position, meaning the high pressure line that goes into it goes back to the resivour insteadd of the ports. If you open it, those ports will be active, so fluid will flow out one of them and back in, then back to the resivour.

 

[kebo]

hydraulic blocks?
im going to use the tractor to maintain a 3 acres church campground.

Nice looking tractor, congrats! Will you be using it to pull a finish cut mower, a bush hog, or both? Are you in Lancaster, PA, or SC?

 

[fatjay]

If it's PA it's spitting distance from me.

Unless you're doing strait lines on level field, 3pt mowers are a pain. The turning, backing up, hills, they're no good for htat, you really want a belly mower if that's your terrain. Bottom plow, disc, etc it'll do that quite well. Push a snow plow decent enough, too.

 

[Cataclysm]

Port side silver knob controls how fast the 3pt hitch lowers down. You can see where it says "SLOW" and "FAST".

Starboard side opens and closes hydraulic flow to that block under the seat. I can't see for sure what that block does. Can you get a picture of that block and where the hydraulic lines from it go?

 

[Hotpot]

Thanks everyone. I think i understand now.

Im in Lancaster Ohio

The three acres is wooded, brush ...ect. so ill be pulling out the down trees, brush hogging and running a scraper blade to level up things for use by the church. Im a long way from finish mowing anything, i think for a while anyway.

I wasnt able to turn either knob. is that normal ? is there a sequence to run to make them turn?

 

[fatjay]

It's normal, it likely never got turned from the day it rolled off the factory. I have a few like that as well, it's just stuck.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

If it's PA it's spitting distance from me.

Unless you're doing strait lines on level field, 3pt mowers are a pain. The turning, backing up, hills, they're no good for htat, you really want a belly mower if that's your terrain. Bottom plow, disc, etc it'll do that quite well. Push a snow plow decent enough, too.

I disagree about the 3pt, it's much easier than a trailed mower. I have a 10' full mount brush hog and I love that thing.