Toplink Hydraulic side link is too sensitive

Mosey · Mar 12, 2003

I just added the tilt part to my top and tilt, Top and Tilt project is now complete, and tried it out for the first time yesterday (besides just starting the tractor and seeing if it moved the 3pt arm up and down and check for leaks). I used my pallet mover to move a pallet of firewood. It wasn't very heavy, since there wasn't very much wood on it and it's real dry wood, so the total load including the pallet mover was about 200 lbs.

I was disappointed with the hydraulic side link because it is way too sensitive. I would move the lever and nothing would happen ... move the lever some more and nothing would happen ... move the lever some more and then it would jerk the 3pt arm too far. I almost spilled all the wood. Is there some way to adjust the sensitivity of the hydraulic control? The top link is fine.

JimMc · Mar 12, 2003

Have you cycled it enough to purge all remnants of air from the valve, hoses, and cylinder? If not, it may just be a matter of working it out. If you have, you may need orifice restrictors to slow the cylinder action.

hazmat · Mar 12, 2003

yeah, what Jim said.

Is your valve proportional?, or maybe it's full on / off?

Try the cycling first.

Mosey · Mar 12, 2003

( Have you cycled it enough to purge all remnants of air from the valve, hoses, and cylinder)

How much is "enough"? I have cycled it from all the way in to all the way out at least a dozen times now.

Mosey · Mar 12, 2003

( Is your valve proportional?, or maybe it's full on / off?)

I don't know if it's proportional or not. I'll try to find out.

Bird · Mar 12, 2003

Danny, I felt the same way about my hydraulic top 'n tilt when I first installed it; would have used some kind of flow restrictors as JimMc suggests, except that I couldn't find anything that wasn't terribly expensive. So instead I did nothing, and sure enough with a little practice, time, and experience, I got to where I could "feather" the lever and make it work just fine.

Mosey · Mar 12, 2003

( would have used some kind of flow restrictors as JimMc suggests, except that I couldn't find anything that wasn't terribly expensive)

After reading JimMc's and Hazmat's posts, I called the dealer and asked them about it. He said as far as he knows, the valve is not proportional. He said they had another guy with the same problem and they added the orifices to reduce the flow. He said he would look into the details and get back with me. It seems like such and item wouldn't be real expensive, but if it's some special low volume sales thing, then it might be.

jhburke · Mar 12, 2003

On my fel I complained to my dealer about it being real jerky in movement. He had me bring it to him and he took hose off and tapped a reducer fitting, drilled a pipe plug, put the plug in the reducer fitting. Then put the hose back on. Works real well. No labor or parts cost. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Hoeman00 · Mar 12, 2003

I used 1/4" hyd. hose and fittings on my top link cylinder (2x8"),this will cut flow too.

JimMc · Mar 12, 2003

You shouldn't have much more than $10 in the orifices. You will need one on each hose for best control. Start with the smallest orifice, you can always drill it out. You can source them from your local Royal Brass distributor. If you can't get them locally, let me know. We use a modified valve with flow control built in for our systems.