Hydraulics Plumbing

[bcarter]

Has anyone out there done any plumbing/re-plumbing of hydraulics?

I'm in the process of buying a tractor (after lusting for oh so long.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif) with a Woods backhoe. The control pattern on the hoe is the standard (JD) backhoe pattern (boom and swing in the left hand - stick and bucket in the right hand). The problem is that I learned on a CAT excavator that had a standard SAE excavator control pattern (stick and swing in the left hand - boom and bucket in the right). So the swing and the bucket controls are no problem but the boom and stick controls are reversed from what I know! Logic tells me that I should just learn how to operate with the JD pattern and be done with it, but I still operate the excavator and a Case 680 (also with "excavator style control pattern) once a month or so and I'm a little concerned about having to "re-learn" how to run them everytime. I suppose with enough practice I will be able to go back and forth with out much effort, but in the mean time it could be entertaining to watch me "warm-up" when I change machines.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

My thought was to re-plumb the controls on the backhoe to match the pattern on the excavator and then I'd only have to learn it one way... It appears that I'd only have to swap two pairs of hoses to make this happen.

Any comments?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[Mike H]

Bill: I've got a NH backhoe so I can't guarantee everything's the same but . . . on mine, what you're proposing would work. All of the functions are controlled by half a dozen identical valves which are simply manifolded together. Swapping the hoses switches which valve controls them, and consequently which joystick or joystick direction.