RedDirt said:
Have you used the hydraulic thumb enough to to see whether the preferred operation method is locking the thumb in position and moving the bucket toward it or having both the thumb and bucket move together.
Having both cyls operate at the same time is vastly better than just
having a fixed thumb. When fixed at one position, I almost always have it
at full retract to get it out of the way for serious dirt digging. My mock-up
with my 2x8 cyl provided all the functionality I current have, except for the
full retraction and I put a bunch or hours on it. (I was waiting for the
right cylinder to come along.)
RedDirt said:
You say "either the bucket OR the thumb moves by itself...". Why is this an "either" situation? Is it just the dead weight of either at a particular boom angle that makes one movement override the other? Is the override predictable? IE can you tell which one is going to move first, as in choosing where to position the boom when setting up to grab something?
Imagine 2 scenarios: the first is where the dipper is extended outward
and both the thumb and bkt are fully retracted. If I operate the curl circuit,
only the bkt moves initially because gravity helps out and the bkt provides
less back pressure on the bkt curl cylinder. As the bkt nears about 3/4 of
its curl travel, the thumb starts to move since now the backpressures favor
the thumb cylinder. In the 2nd scenario, I have the bkt and thumb fully
retracted and a big rock positioned to grasp. As I operate the curl circuit,
the bkt moves toward the rock, then stops as it touches it. Then the
thumb moves toward the rock. It is quite predictable and the rock does not
get moved before it is grasped. If you go back and look at the articulated
thumb I made, where the thumb and bkt actions were linked, I often got
into situations where the thumb action would lift the hoe before I contacted
the object I was trying to grasp. Or the bkt would move the rock before
the thumb could grab it. On an excavator I operated a few years ago,
I would position the bkt on the back side of the rock, then extend the
thumb with the foot pedal. With my current setup, those actions are
automatic. I do not feel I have many ANY compromises by not using a
separate spool valve or full diverter setup.