Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way.

   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way. #1  

Steve in MT

Silver Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2011
Messages
105
Location
Billings, MT
Tractor
kubota L3400, Farmall 'A', Farmall F-14, Ford 860, JD 4520
Its a true fact that some people should never be left alone with their thoughts. Now arm this person with welders, torches, grinders and sharp pointy objects and the out come could be anything from fantastic to outright disaster. I am that person and theres a pretty good chance that if your reading this, then your a member of the same club. There is some very good info here on TBN and else where on how to add a rear remote to a Kubota "L"series tractor. Every one of these that I've seen requires running a hydraulic hose from the loader valve all the way back to a ROPS or fender mounted remote valve, a power beyond hose run to the hydraulic block and then putting a "T" in the block for a tank return. This is a fairly quick, simple and dirty way that just plain flat works. BUT,,, being left alone with my thoughts for too long led me to a different way to add a rear remote valve but with the same end results. Todays victim is my Kubota L3400 that will need a rear remote to power a post hole auger down pressure attachment (that is my next project)
I've been staring at that empty optional draft control slot and decided that would be a good place to install a valve. I bought a Prince "MB" series single spool valve from Surplus Center. It's a nice compact valve and has an 8 GPM flow rating.

valve 1.JPG

Step one , remove the rear wheel ,fender, and the 3 point housing cover/floor board thingie.

start 1.JPG

Holding the valve up against the fender bracket showed that the welded on fender nut is a good fit for one of the valve mounting holes.

fender nut.JPG

However, that nut needs to go.

fender nut removed.JPG

A second hole was drilled in the fender bracket for hole number 2 (that all most made sense) Then I made a vertical tab for the 3rd valve mounting bolt, welded it to the fender bracket and splashed a little paint on it.

fender bracket.JPG

A little paint on the valve and bolt it into place.

valve mounted 1.JPG

OOPS, the dull pointed lever isn稚 going to screw into the valve through the slot. So, while digging through the bolt bin for 3 proper spacers, I found this whizzy coupler nut. I cut the head off of a bolt and welded the coupler nut to the bolt, problem solved.

lever nut 1.JPG

Continued on the next page, wait for it.
 
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   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way.
  • Thread Starter
#2  
Next up is what to do for a tank return line. I’ve been staring at this plate wondering what its for. Internet research said that it is for mounting the optional draft control valve. Nowhere could I find a hydraulic flow chart for this tractor.

block off plate.JPG

Lets take this plate off and see what’s behind it

plate removed 1.JPG

The rear port (left) is drilled into the housing about an inch and then cross drilled all the way to the top front of the rock shaft housing, nothing useful here. The front port (right) turns out to be a straight shot right to the top of the transmission gears. This port measures dead on 3/8in. Hmm, same size as the I.D. of all the hydraulic hoses. BINGO, I’m going to make some use of this port. I dug up a nice chunk of 3/8 plate to make an adaptor. Plans are to weld a 3/8 pipe coupler to the face of the plate. The inside of the coupler is way bigger then the port so I took a die grinder with a burr bit to make the port sort of funnel shaped . A large drill bit would do the same thing. This way there are no sharp edges that might restrict the oil flow

return plate 1.JPG return plate 4.JPG plate mounted 1.JPG


Continued on the next page, wait for it.
 
   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way.
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Now I need to find a place on the tractor to tap into for a high pressure in and a power beyond port. I would like to mention that I have a degree from the Red Green Skool of “Resourceful Repurposing” and was able to use that knowledge in the next step. This is a picture of the hard line that feeds pressure to the 3 point. I’m going to remove this line, cut a short section out of it, and add a pair of JIC fittings to it. Here goes.

high presure 1.JPG

This is a picture of a “Resourced” hydraulic line.


JIC 3.JPG

I cut the JIC blocks off of two of these, drilled the tubing out of them and then brazed them to the 3 point hard line. Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures during this process but you’ll understand from the pictures. Used hard lines can be resourced from tractor shops, hydraulic shops and tractor wrecking yards should you decide to go this route. For those that like the easy non Red Green way, flared and flare less compression fittings are available. I welded a short piece of 1/2in square bar stock between the 2 JIC fittings to keep the hard line in one piece.

hi line 2.JPG high line 3.JPG high line 4.JPG

Pictures of the line installed.

line 1.JPG line and plate.JPG

Continued on the next page, wait for it.
 
   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way.
  • Thread Starter
#4  
The final chapter, promise. The method that I used to add a rear remote will work on the Kubota “L” series basic tractors like the L2800, L3400, and L4400 and others. This method might also be used on different brand and models, it just depends on what your tractor lay out is like and you’ll have to look for yourself.
Any ways, enough of the blah, blah, blah, time for more pictures. Any questions? Ask away.


return hose 1.JPG valve plumbed 2.JPG valve plumbed 1.JPG

valve plumbed 3.JPG complete 1.JPG seat up.JPG

seat down.JPG coupler 2.JPG
 
   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way. #5  
Very good. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

As a side note, the down pressure hydraulic for a PHD is a single acting unit with pressure reliefs so as not to damage anything. Need to keep that in mind if you didn't already know. ;)
 
   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way.
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Brian, yep, got that one figured out. I ordered a transmission oil fill cap from Kubota. It's made from alluminum and has a 3/8 female pipe taped in the center of it. Pretty much all I need to do there is screw the cap into the fill spout and run my return hose into it. When finished with it, remove the alluminum cap and hose and put the factory fill cap back on. Thanks for the thumbs up
Steve
 
   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way. #7  
That three bolt cover plate on the side of the tractor I believe is for an optional hyd outlet.

Isn't one of the ports pressure and the other return to tank?

I believe this is how Kubota dealers add hyd to the back for implements that have there own valves like log splitters, post hose diggers, etc.

So if you uses the factory adapter plate,you should have been able to just add some short hoses and QD's for implements to just plug into.
 
   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way.
  • Thread Starter
#8  
J.J.
The Kubota parts site (Kubota Tractor Corporation - Parts List) shows a optional draft control valve. This valve bolts directly into place on the side of the rock shaft where I removed that plate. There is not a factory adaptor plate to add a rear remote to the side of the rock shaft housing. I could not find a hydraulic flow chart anywhere that would show me how the draft control works. I am pretty positive that I cannot use the so called pressure port on the rock shaft and that is why I split the 3 point feed line. I was able to use the return to tank port and am pretty happy about that. I looked at the Kubota add on rear remote kit and it is basically set up the same way as what most every one else does. The set up that I did keeps the lengths of all the lines to a minimum and I didn’t need to mess with the loader valve or the hydraulic manifold (the one mounted under the floorboard next to the hydraulic filter) As I said, my way is the hard way and is nothing more then a different way to add a rear remote to an L3400 tractor, I just wanted a cleaner way to do it. Did I succeed ? Thanks for your comment.
Steve
 
   / Kubota "L" series rear remote, the hard way. #9  
 
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