Quarter Inching..

[ChuckinNH]

I've been a member here for nearly 10 years now, and in that time have come to understand, appreciate, and curse various features (?) that Kubota, and other manufacturers offer. Sometimes it seems that these companies are determined to keep us upset by not changing things that many of us don't like, and complain about. Kubota's famous "quarter inching" adjustment of the 3pt hitch has probably come under as much fire as any "feature" ever has. I was certainly one of those who have been vocal about it because it just didn't seem to work as advertised......... or work at all that I couuld see. When I got my B2620 a slight movement of the control lever would have my rotary cutter jumping several inches fast enough to make the tractor bounce. Of course as we use our equipment we learn more about it, and how to adjust things, but that quarter inching just remained a pain to me when I was trying to grade, or use my middle buster, or even hitch up an implement. Then someone here asked what the adjustable stops in the fender opening were for, and I had to admit I didn't have a clue so I went off to play with them, and find out. In the picture we can see the slot the operating lever rides in, and the two "L" shaped sheet metal stops that are secured with a small bolt. The clearest one is the top one just above the arrow with those irrating hash marks that are supposed to indicate that wonderful quarter inching feature. What I found was that moving those stops (by loosening that bolt) and moving them up, or down in the slot not only changed the speed that the implement raised,(and lowered by the way), but also changed the amount that the implement raised, or lowered with each flick of the operating lever. To say I was surprised would sure be an understatement. Lately I have been doing a lot of grading on my inprocess woods trails the soil is full of large rocks, and it has been wonderful to be able to just tweak the box blade to drop just the right amount of dirt, etc. Moving either stop towards the middle both slows the rate of lift / drop, and decreases the distnce the implement will move with each flick of the lever. I was using mine yesterday, and have to adjust those stops since the amount my box blade was moving was actually too small for what i was doing. I will move those stops, starting with the top one (sometimes the only one you need to touch) away from the center of the slot so that I'm getting maybe an inch of movement with each flick. It isn't position control, but works very well from a reference surface. I find myself having to adjust the top link much less frequently (although I would still like a hydraulic top link) With the operating lever all the way down, the box blade will float, but as you make adjustments with the lever, you also have to manually adjust the height of the implement with the contour of the ground. It seems too simple to work, but it sure does. I only wish that either Kubota, or the dealer would set this feature up before delivery, or show buyers how to do it. While it doesn't give a repeatable position, it does move the implement the same amount from the reference surface (ground, etc.), and sometimes that is actually more convenient. I hope this has helped, or will help someone, and I will try to answer questions as they come up. Once you play with it a bit, it is pretty simple to do though, and can be set differently for different jobs as I'm going to do today. By changing the distance the implement travels with each flick you also change the speed it moves. Now I can get the blade up pretty quickly to dump dirt on one side of a rock, and then ramp that dirt up gently to, and over the rock by just holding the lever closer to the seat, and just bringing the lever up gently as I use the rear blade of the box blade to ramp dirt up, and over rocks that I can't, or don't want to move.

[Danner]

Very interesting.

BTW, I'll be dammed if I came make my BX2660 do any quarter-inching at all. I wish it would, that would help with my driveway work.


(BTW, OP, please put a few paragraph breaks in your post so it's easy to follow).

[jonyyuma]

Okay Chuck whats the silver key do? It looks to be a safety lock?

[magicheater]

Okay Chuck whats the silver key do? It looks to be a safety lock?

I would guess it is to hold the 3PT lever in the down position. And by the way ChuckiNH, that was a very good explanation of the 1/4 inching valve and may explain why so many have problems with it.

[bp fick]

Chuck, thanks so much for this post. Do you believe that "most" of these stops are not set accurately at the final assembly point, ie, the dealerships?

Would it then be your contention that these stops were designed to be adjusted by the owner/operator and thus, no true, singular adjustment, made by the dealer at assembly, could possibly be a "one size fits all" kind of deal?

Simply put, we owners should expect to adjust these and not just assume they were "factory set" at a best use position?

[hawkeye08]

I would expect that if it is the owners responsibility to set it, it would be covered in the owners manual.

[wdchyd]

Okay Chuck whats the silver key do? It looks to be a safety lock?

Mine came with one for keeping the 3PH valve in down position when the BH is in place......

To keep back pressure off the BH control valve (which has no PB)....

[jonyyuma]

Mine came with one for keeping the 3PH valve in down position when the BH is in place......

To keep back pressure off the BH control valve (which has no PB)....

Okay, I just had not seen one, nor- a purpose. But I don't use a BH. I thought I might want to Fab one up.....anyway----but -not..Thanks, I felt I would get the answer..

[wdchyd]

Okay, I just had not seen one, nor- a purpose. But I don't use a BH. I thought I might want to Fab one up.....anyway----but -not..Thanks, I felt I would get the answer..

Hey, I see you're from Memphis......I was born there and raised up here....

Nice place to be from........

[crazyal]

Before I bought my 4240 I got some seat time on a 7800. At first I didn't like the QIV but then the owner showed me how he used it. He would just tap it quickly to raise and lower the box blade a slight bit. He then jumped on and "repaired" what I had graded and it was day and night how easy it was for him.

He told me it's like a gas pedal, if you treat it as on or off you are in for a seasick ride, if you feather it then it works real well. I never used it after he told me so I just stay out of threads talking about it. Since I decided I wanted a GL with the position valve I never really looked more into it.