L4310 Enhancements

[MChalkley]

Gordon - I hope there's been something here you can use. If nobody does, I wasted all that time describing it all. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

As of now, all I have left is the mounting and wiring of the 5 canopy lights, the oil and water temp sensors (which won't take long because I've already got the wiring under the hood for them, just have to physically mount them and butt-connect 2 wires each), the hidden start-prevent switch that kills the fuel stop solenoid and sets off the alarms, and the beeper-style tiltmeter.

Fortunately, I can't think of anything else I want to do with it after the current plans are completed. Of course, I do want $20-grand worth of additional implements... Why couldn't I have picked an inexpensive hobby, like personal nuclear-powered submarines, or something like that?

Mark

 

[MarkV]

Mark, Have you chosen a brand of lights yet? I like the ones that Kubota uses on my tractor but a set of four was over $350. One nice item on the Kubota lights is a switch on each light. When I look at the auto parts stores I see small trapexoidal units in the $25 range and wonder if they can handle the stress of tractor work. Let us know what you use. Thanks.

MarkV

 

[Bird]

MarkV, I bought a couple of 55 watt halogen lights from Northern Tool (flood for the rear and trapezoidal for the front) for less than $20 each, but they have no switch which was ok with me because I wanted to use my own switch anyway. They've been on the tractor for several months now and worked great for mowing at 3:30 a.m. a few days ago./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

 

[JerryG]

MarkV, The first set I put on my tractor was the $19.97 set with the plastic grill from Wal-mart. They have been on for about 400 hours now. They have worked out fine. About 50 hours ago I put a set of $29.97 ones on and I have not had any problems with them either.
JerryG

 

[MChalkley]

Ok, here's my first attempt at uploading a picture. The link should bring up a picture of the console. It's pretty poor quality because of the low light. It was drizzling today when I took it, but if it works, I'll upload a better one later.

From right to left, you'll see the accessory outlet, a row of 4 switches (spare, rear flood, rear traps, front traps), with the hour meter above them, the rotary switch to select temp sensors, the temp gauge, anti-crank security switch, and the tiltmeter.

Mark

 

[MChalkley]

Ok, a side view, which shows the 4-in-1 bucket (closed, unfortunately), a custom loader cylinder (ok, so they ain't pretty), the tires (two of 'em, anyway), and canopy.

Mark

 

[Bird]

OK, Mark, so where's the picture? I saw the one of the console, but no attachment to this message you posted. And it's drizzling there? The only thing drizzling around here is me; 97 degrees and plenty of sun./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[MarkV]

Bird, Mark's second photo came through for me. Things must be jambed up because I tried to post you and JerryG about lights and could not connect. If this one goes through, thanks for the information. Sounds like I have been looking at about the same units and it sure is nice to have someone else test them./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MarkV]

Mark, Your third post did not show an attachment here. I did get the first two photos. Keep them coming, I for one, am interested in seeing all your tricks. Now if I can get you to move to Georgia and work on my tractor??????/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MChalkley]

Bird and MarkV - I don't know what's going on. I've uploaded the last two messages several times each. I finally got the second one right. Bird, you can see it, if you try again. Every time, it uploads the file then posts it without showing a link to it. Then the whole site goes down and I can't see anything. I'll try again...

Mark

 

[MChalkley]

Next, a front view showing 4-in-1 bucket, toothbar, pallet fork hooks, and, if you look very closely at the upper left (in the picture) of the brush guard, you'll see the forward-facing motion alarm. This perspective also gives you a better idea of what the tires look like and their size.

Mark

 

[gordon]

Sharp tractor those tires look like a tight fit! How wide is your bucket? Oh needless to say I'm jelous!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
Gordon

 

[Rowski]

Mark,

Nice looking peice of machinery. I was trying to visualize how the console was going to look on the canopy. Well it looks very professional and looks like it should be there (OEM). Maybe you should sell the blue prints to the tractor manufacturers and get some residual income /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. When the bucket is used to "grab" how much force is there? Enough to shear small saplings? Anyways looks really good. Have fun. What's next??????

Rowski

 

[MChalkley]

And now a close-up of the front motion alarm. In the background on the left you can see the heavy-duty electric solenoid valves that do the hydraulic switching for the 4-in-1 bucket. Just left of the steering wheel, you can see the stainless steel back of the hydraulic pressure gauge (I'll post a better picture of that soon), and to the left of that the high-tech plastic bottle that protects the thumbswitch on the joystick from the elements. And you can also see why the tractor looks so clean and shiny - it's been raining a frog-stranglin' gulley-washer for the past two days!

Mark

 

[MChalkley]

Lastly (for now), a close-up of the rear electric solenoid valves that direct the flow to either the side-link cylinders or the quick-connect block for 3-point implements with hydraulics.

The solenoid valves are the square shiny things with the hoses going in and out. The black things on top are the solenoids themselves and if you look real close between the left-most one and the one to its right, you can see a bit of the red wire that daisy-chains them together.

You can also see just the tops of the three cylinders.

The handle sticking up beside the top link cylinder is the Freedom Hitch handle.

Just above the bend in the ROPS on the left is the rear-facing motion alarm mounted to the inside of the fender.

On the far right and left at the bottom of the picture, you can see the Bradco backhoe subframe.

Going up inside of the ROPS on the left is the plastic conduit (water pipe) I ran the wire to and from the canopy console in.

Attached to the right side ROPS is the 6-port hydraulic quick-connect block. The top two ports have the lines to the blade gauge wheel cylinder in them now, the middle two are empty, and the bottom two are for the Bradco 609 backhoe when it's attached.

Did I miss anything?

Mark

 

[MChalkley]

MarkV - I'm using the same Blazer lights that Northern sells, though I bought them for less($12 vs. $17) at a local Advance parts store. We'll see how durable they are. They don't have separate switches, but that's not an issue for me. They do have replaceable H3 bulbs, so that's good.

Mark(C)

 

[MChalkley]

Gordon - Thanks! The tires are a tight fit! The bucket is 60" wide. At times I wish it was a 72" one, but most of the time, 60" is perfect.

Mark

 

[richh]

Great pictures howed you get the front tires to fit? IM running in to trouble with clearance to the loader frame. My next try is going to space out the wheels 2.5" to try and gain some room. Any ideas??
Rich
PS keep the photos comming/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

Well, I did finally get to see all the pictures; pretty neat. I don't know why the second one didn't show up the first time, but then I tried to post a message once today and got an error message instead. Of course, if my Kubota was as reliable as my Internet service, I'd drop it off at the nearest junkyard./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[MChalkley]

Rowski - Thanks! I was very pleased with the console myself. The funny thing is that it's made of a piece of Dural window mullion that was originally installed in my friend's house in 1954! I get a big kick out of that every time I look up at it, for some reason. I won't hide the fact that I wouldn't have been able to do that nice a job on it without my friend's help and equipment, though. Every time I leave his shop, it's with a bad case of tool envy.

The bucket has enough force to grab onto anything tight enough to lift the rear end of the tractor (with anything lighter than the backhoe on it) right off the ground, if the object will stand it. That'll clip trees smaller than 4" in diameter off first, of course. That's one place the gauge really comes in handy - you can see how much pressure you're putting on it and stop before you crush it or cut it off. I use it for pruning all the time, though. My favorite use for it is to pull up saplings and small trees, then grab a big pile of them and carry them off. Makes me feel like SuperMan and Tim Allen all rolled into one.

As for what's next, after the pending stuff, I think I'm taking a tractor modification sabbatical for a while - a few weeks at least. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Mark