Quick disconnects on front loader

   / Quick disconnects on front loader #1  

gboyd

New member
Joined
Jun 5, 2003
Messages
18
Location
Winchester Va.
Tractor
Branson 4020
I am thinking of eliminating the quick disconnects near the joy stick control because of o-ring that constantly leaking. I am tired of replacing them. I have never taken the loader off of my tractor and dont forsee myself needing to in the future. Is there any special fittings needed to do this. If so what would i need to get before doing this.
 
   / Quick disconnects on front loader #2  
Are you tired of replacing the O-Ring, or the quick disconnects?

I have seen very few quick disconnects leak...on tractors or in other military and industrial applications (other then those occasional leaks one reads about on TBN and when they wear out after years of use).

If it's just the O-Ring, I'd suggest you replace the QD (or QD's) that leak in their entirety..male and females ends. If you're not happy with the ones you buy from the Branson dealer, buy an American made QD.

Before you start any disassembly, look over the situation carefully. Those QD's should unscrew from a fitting swaged into the rigid lines and hoses. However, they might be swaged directly into the hoses and rigid lines (to keep manufacturing costs down). If they are swaged into the lines, the work gets quite a bit more complicated. I'm not going to go into that in this post.

If you really want to replace them with a fixed setup (and I don't recommend this...as soon as you do, you'll want to remove the loader!), relieve all pressure from your hydraulic system and unscrew the QD's. Have a bucket and caps or plugs handy to screw onto the fittings that you unscrewed the QD's from. Otherwise, you'll lose all your hydraulic fluid and have a heck of a mess to clean up. Since you probably will spill some fluid, have a bag of Speedy Dry or kitty litter close at hand. It may be advisable to drain all the fluid out of the system to minimize the mess. However, still cap off those lines while everything is disassembled to prevent foreign object from contaminating your system.

Take your QD's to a local hydraulic supply house. I don't know what all you'll need, but it'll probably be a couple male to female connections (or female to male) and a union to tied the loader and tractor lines together.
 
   / Quick disconnects on front loader #3  
Roy,
I have a hydraulic hose question for you. The input and output openings on my pump and loader control valve are 3/4 inch. The hoses that the previous owner put on the system are 1/2 inch or smaller. My question is, would my system be better off if I replaced the existing hoses and fittings with 3/4 inch.
Farwell
 
   / Quick disconnects on front loader #4  
To be honest, I don't remember enough of hydraulic theory to answer your question. I do remember enough to state that a given pressure (system pressure) through a smaller diameter tube will increase velocity of the fluid. I'd guess you might see your loader operation slow a bit if you went to a larger diameter hose, however the increased volume (of the larger ID hose) might make up for the reduced velocity.
Also, safe maximum hose pressures decrease as the ID gets larger. The web site I just looked at gave a maximum working pressure of 2500 PSI for ¾ hose. ½" hose has maximum working pressure of 3500 PSI.

Are you sure the previous owner went to a smaller diameter hose? What diameter is the rigid tubing on the tractor?

Personally, if the loader works to your satisfaction, I wouldn't change anything.

Wish I could help you more, but the brain cells aren't what they used to be...
 
   / Quick disconnects on front loader #5  
Roy,
Thanks for getting back to me.
I just installed a new Prince control valve because my old valve was giving me problems. Since installing the valve everything has been working fine. The reason for the question was there were several brass and iron reducing fittings and adapters on the pump side of the control valve. I was thinking that all of the fittings looked like after market installations. The tractor is 41 years old and I assumed that the previous owner cobbled the plumbing together.
The rigid pipe is 1/2 inch as well as the output fittings on the control valve.
I will take a look at another tractor of the same model and year to see if it is the same.
I do have a small leak coming form the area of the pump but have not removed the sheet metal to check it out.
You helped me out quite a bit. If nothing else you have started me thinking.
Farwell
 
   / Quick disconnects on front loader #6  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( guess you might see your loader operation slow a bit if you went to a larger diameter hose, )</font>

Actually the you will see loader operation slow a bit with the smaller diameter hose. That's why we always recommend using 1/4" hoses for top links and grapples. The lower flow means that you have better control (ie feathering) of the cylinder. Same principle applies to using a flow restrictor. Restrict the flow and slow the operation down.
 
 
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