hydraulic upgrades

[eyedoc]

I am looking into my first tractor and one of the subjects that seems to come up alot on the forum is the capacity of the hydraulic pump to operate the FEL and other implements. My question is, can the pump or pumps on a given tractor be upgraded to improve the FEL operating speed? It seems you can change or upgrade about anything on a car or truck to improve the performance. Why not on a tractor? Maybe this is just my ignorance about tractors, but why can't this be done?

For example, the JD 2305 seems to be great for mowing, but when I drove it, I noticed that the FEL moves very slowly compared to a competitor with a slightly higher capacity pump.

Is it impossible to upgrade the pump?

 

[kennyd]

Welcome to TBN

The short answer to your question is NO, the hydraulic pumps are built to attach directly to the engine, and space is very limited. Then also is the fact that the existing valves, sump tank and lines are already sized for what's installed.


As to why there are no after market upgrades?>I'd guess there would be a very limited market for such...especially when a good pump alone could easily cost $400-$500, then add a mounting kit, R&D, marketing, supply, shipping, parts and technical support and then finally profit-the upgrade could easily be $1500 or more. And at that price, added to the price of a machine can usually just get the next size machine.

 

[Superduper]

Yeah, what KennyD said. Further still you may have noticed that many tractor owners are pretty cheap dudes, not a knock, just an observation. Many shop frequently at such discount stores like harbor freight tools, which sell clearly inferior but impossibly priced (if you are a US manufacturer) goods. Unlike many car parts which are easily adapted to other models or even manufacturers, tractors are unique in that almost all of the mechanical parts are built unique for that one machine. To create an upgrade kit would cost tons and the manufacturer of that kit would have virtually no chance of recovering the initial cost to develop that kit from the likely VERY LIMITED number of sales. That kit, once developed would likely be specific only to that one model and not easily made portable to another model.

 

[Dirthog]

The other reason why there is no upgrades is most small tractors do not have the needed hp to run a bigger pump.

 

[257NH]

Eyedoc dont write off that JD yet,talk to the dealer about it and ask him to see if its set correctly.There are adjusments that can be made to it to change the speed.

 

[kennyd]

There are adjusments that can be made to it to change the speed.

And what exactly is that?
The only way to get more SPEED is to increase the volume of fluid pumped, That's called GPM (Gallons Per Minute).

You can increase the pressure to gain more lifting power by adjust the relief valve, but there is a safe limit to that also.

The 2305 mentioned by the OP only has a little over 2 GPM available to the implements. It's NOT gonna get faster!

 

[dirt clod]

While your looking make sure to get options that you need such as, remotes and QA bucket. also any other option you can think of ever needing. You may think they cost alot when you buy it, but its a REAL lot of money to get those things later. It's important to plan out what future attachments you may want when you buy. There's been posts where people have bought new and declined a option only to find later they needed and it was many times more money. If you post what you want/need to do you can get good opinions on needed attachments as well as on tractors.

 

[john_bud]

Actually, you CAN often upgrade the pump. But Whee-O-wow! it will cost.

Often the pump from the next size larger tractor can be adapted. The hard lines may or may not fit. Custom pipes can be bent to fit by a competent hydraulic shop or well equiped auto / machine shop.

Pump will probably run in the 800-1500 range.
Adapting it to fit will be from 0-1000 - depending on what level of engineering is needed to make it fit.
Labor would be in the 2-10 hours - again depending on what is needed to make it fit.

So, if you have no problem parting with the long green - it can get done. As the drag racers say, "speed costs - how fast you wanna go?".


Often, it's cheaper to upgrade the whole tractor to the next larger size.

 

[257NH]

And what exactly is that?
The only way to get more SPEED is to increase the volume of fluid pumped, That's called GPM (Gallons Per Minute).

You can increase the pressure to gain more lifting power by adjust the relief valve, but there is a safe limit to that also.

The 2305 mentioned by the OP only has a little over 2 GPM available to the implements. It's NOT gonna get faster!

Well if in fact there isn't any way for it to be an adjustment or a restriction of flow from a manufacturing defect then I guess I'm wrong.
My landscaper has a small cub cadet that he can change the speed of the loader on,I thought perhaps JD might have the same on the smaller ones.

 

[3RRL]

Well if in fact there isn't any way for it to be an adjustment or a restriction of flow from a manufacturing defect then I guess I'm wrong.
My landscaper has a small cub cadet that he can change the speed of the loader on,I thought perhaps JD might have the same on the smaller ones.

I'm guessing your landscaper has a pressure reducer or flow restrictor on his cadet to make those adjustments. His pump is probably more gallons per minute flow and he turns it up and down, but only up to it's max limit the pump makes.

 

[Farmerford]

257NH

I think Rob has the answer: your landscaper probably put adjustable flow restrictors in the FEL circuits. I did the same thing on my little Kubota B2400 because at medium to high engine speeds the FEL moves too fast (or maybe I just move too slow) because the cheap Husco valve does not have feathering spools. So I installed an adjustable, pressure compensated flow control valve in the raise and lower sides of the boom circuit. The Parker inline valve screwed right into the Husco valve body (with an appropriate ORB/NPT adapter) and the quick disconnects connect to the flow control valve.

 

[PILOON]

I run a Mitsubishi MT180D and my FEL was real slow.

Research showed that the crankshaft pulley was designed to run an optional 'clutched' front PTO (as for snow blower)

I fabbed an attachement to replicate the factory part and drove a larger hydraulic pump that I mounted using a U-joint and splined shaft.
My FEL had a built in reservoir in one of the posts, so I simply re-plumbed the loader valves to the new pump.
This resulted in abour 50% increase in loader operation speeds.(and frees up factory pump for my planned power steering project).

Have been operating this dual pump installation for about 7 years without a hickup.
And believe me since I added a homemade tooth bar I really use it a lot to excavate tough soil conditions (and rocks).
Just this spring I extracted a boulder (about 3' x 3' x 4') that I could only roll due to the weight!