3-Point Hitch Kioti LK35 3PL Lift/Drop Control

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KiotiLK35

New member
Joined
Nov 24, 2013
Messages
20
Location
Victoria, Sarsfield
Tractor
Kioti LK35
I have a 2010 LK35 which I generally very happy with except there is no control on the speed at which the 3PL (3-point hitch) lifts. There is a dial control under the front of the seat which allows you to vary speed of 3PL drop (or lock out 3PL position) but no control on the speed of 3PL raise. The real issue is that you cannot feather the 3PL lift control to gently raise it (e.g.: with pallet forks on the 3PL). The lift control lever is graduated from 0 to 10 (where 10 is full lift) and I notice that the 3PL does not start to lift until you reach about 6 (out of 10) then it jerks into action. It is pretty much impossible to get it to lift without jerking and I really don't like this either with pallet forks (obvious catapult reasons) or any heavy implement (e.g.: slasher). The tractor is superior in every way to the old (mid 70's) Kubota L2510 we used to have - EXCEPT FOR THIS. With the old Kubota you could feather the 3PL control very delicately and reliably and get a very gentle lift result every time. I am told that this is a feature/symptom of the way the Kioti is plumbed and the fact that it has a very high hydraulic pump output (48 lpm I think) compared to the old Kubota. I understand that the LK series is the low end of the Kioti scale and that is what I chose to buy, however I am hoping there is some cost-effective modification that might be possible to resolve this. I have tried activating the FEL bucket hydraulics at the same some as raising 3PL in the hope that it might divert some of the hydraulic flow from the 3PL (and produce a more gentle result) but it seems you cannot activate the 3PL and FEL hydraulics at the same time. Same applies to the pit of hydraulic remotes on the rear of the tractor. Any ideas?
 
 
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