3-Point Hitch MF 2660 Lift Design

[JWR]

My 2660 low profile tractor picking up a Bush Hog model 297 uses only about 3/4 inch of control lever motion to raise the hog. This makes control of the implement way too touchy and difficult. Most of the range of the position control is unused and useless with only the top 3/4" used. This means with lever position numbers 1 through 6 I am able to use the tiny fraction between 5 and 5.8 or so. A quarter inch or less control change moves the hog up or down by 4 or 5 inches. Obviously not right. Two dealers have no ideas why this is the case. One dealer adjusted the linkage to the control lever which had zero effect. Meanwhile another 2650 cab model was tested and it is even worse. No lifting of the lower arms occurs until about a 4 on the control lever and the lift is at max height by a setting of 5.5 on the control lever. Over 12 inches of lift rise for a single number increment on the control !
Anyone else experience this on MF2600 series HD tractors ? Apparently they all have the disease. I assume it is a design flaw.

 

[MFRED]

What position is your toplink in? Different holes have an effect on 3pt movement.

 

[Mike476]

Sounds more the way the draft control lever would act then the position control lever.

 

[JWR]

What position is your toplink in? Different holes have an effect on 3pt movement.

Unrelated. This issue has to do with the height above the ground that the lower links provide at their tips in response to the position control lever. The issue is that the hydraulically lifted lower links on my 2660LP do not even get up to the implement hitch points until the control is above a 4 almost 5. That leaves only about 3/4" of total lever movement to control the implement rise, all at the top of the scale. That's the case no matter if the top link is present or the bush hog even hooked up.

 

[JWR]

Sounds more the way the draft control lever would act then the position control lever.

The Draft lever is fixed at the uppermost setting and locked there per dealer instructions (and consistent with the manuals.) In this case I am just lifting and lowering a bush hog so the draft control is not needed. I have of course tried the draft control everywhere along it's range but it has no effect on this issue. For position-only control I am told the draft control should stay all the way up. Like I say, the 2650 cab model on the dealer lot was even worse.

I'm just trying to see if other owners of 2600HD series tractors have noticed this and what they did.

 

[JWR]

My 2660 low profile tractor picking up a Bush Hog model 297 uses only about 3/4 inch of control lever motion to raise the hog. This makes control of the implement way too touchy and difficult. Most of the range of the position control is unused and useless with only the top 3/4" used. This means with lever position numbers 1 through 6 I am able to use the tiny fraction between 5 and 5.8 or so. A quarter inch or less control change moves the hog up or down by 4 or 5 inches. Obviously not right. Two dealers have no ideas why this is the case. One dealer adjusted the linkage to the control lever which had zero effect. Meanwhile another 2650 cab model was tested and it is even worse. No lifting of the lower arms occurs until about a 4 on the control lever and the lift is at max height by a setting of 5.5 on the control lever. Over 12 inches of lift rise for a single number increment on the control !
Anyone else experience this on MF2600 series HD tractors ? Apparently they all have the disease. I assume it is a design flaw.

UPDATE: Massey has now told some dealers that
1) ALL 2600HD series tractors have this hypersensitivity to position control (my name for the disease, not theirs). And ...
2) There have been "discussions on the topic in engineering" within the company. Boy I 'd like to have access to those guys.

 

[JWR]

My 2660 low profile tractor picking up a Bush Hog model 297 uses only about 3/4 inch of control lever motion to raise the hog. This makes control of the implement way too touchy and difficult. Most of the range of the position control is unused and useless with only the top 3/4" used. This means with lever position numbers 1 through 6 I am able to use the tiny fraction between 5 and 5.8 or so. A quarter inch or less control change moves the hog up or down by 4 or 5 inches. Obviously not right. Two dealers have no ideas why this is the case. One dealer adjusted the linkage to the control lever which had zero effect. Meanwhile another 2650 cab model was tested and it is even worse. No lifting of the lower arms occurs until about a 4 on the control lever and the lift is at max height by a setting of 5.5 on the control lever. Over 12 inches of lift rise for a single number increment on the control !
Anyone else experience this on MF2600 series HD tractors ? Apparently they all have the disease. I assume it is a design flaw.

PROBLEM SOLVED. The regional rep for Agco out of central Ohio knows how to change the 3pt lift linkage to the control lever for improved travel per amount of lift. He had a WV dealer do the modification and it increased control lever travel from a fraction of an inch to about 2" for raising a std model 297 Bush Hog from the ground up to the full top lift point. Not great, but a huge improvement.
Time consuming mod as a bunch of sheet metal stuff has to be removed and put back around the control lever area. It should never have left the factory with such silly linkage settings in the first place and secondly should have been a better design. One wonders if the replacement 4600 series (made in Japan instead of Brazil) will have a similar issue or be "normal." [Note: this problem of mine was on a 2660HD flat deck model and I also verified it on a 2650 Cab model and a 2660 Cab model. They all were apparently delivered with the disease.]

 

[jeepcj7]

4600 linkage is completely different on the on I saw. Yes - 2600HD cab and platform have the same issue and there is a fix for it on both cab on ROPS tractors.