L4310 Enhancements

[MChalkley]

Gordon,

The 4 solenoid valves I used to control the 2 double-acting valves on the back are Compact brand, model CP528-2-B-6S-12DS. I paid $75 apiece for them.

MarkC

 

[gordon]

Thanks Mark!! I'll do a search for them.

Gordon

 

[Lono]

Try this...www.partsexpress.com

 

[glennmac]

Mark, re your Akkomsan Starseat (your "single best tractor investment"), why did you not choose an armrest model, and did you ever confirm whether or not Northern's seats are Starseats?

 

[MChalkley]

Glenn - I started to get a seat with armrests, but decided they'd be in the way more often than they'd help. I'm always reaching down beside the seat to adjust the top and tilt cylinders, switch to the rear auxilliary hydraulics, turn the front or rear warning beeper on, etc.

As for the seat itself, it is a Star seat, made in Turkey. But as for the ones Northern sells, it's hard to say. Some of their seats are made in China, some in Turkey, and some in Italy. They're obviously all made from the same pattern, so somebody is copying somebody. I'd lay money that the Chinese ones are copies - they don't seem to design anything, well at least nothing that makes its way to the U.S. Take your best guess as to who the other rip-off artist is. The Italian and Turkish editions seem of equal quality. The Chinese ones look like they were made in China.

To further complicate the issue, the current Northern catalog doesn't list more than half of the seats the previous one did, so I don't know if they've dropped the rest of them or what. One thing I'll say for Northern: if you talk to their customer service folks, they'll tell you where each seat is made. I'm tickled to death with my made-in-Turkey model - still. I'm not sure, but I think it's the only thing I've got that was made in Turkey...

MarkC

 

[MChalkley]

Glenn - Another update on the seat: My friend Jack has a B2250 - he liked the suspension seat so much that he decided to get one, too. He ordered his from Northern via mailorder. He ended up getting one that was made in Italy. As far as I can tell, it's at least as well made as my Turkish one. He likes it quite well. He said it definitely eases the bush-hogging experience... And it cost about 50% less than mine did, too.

MarkC

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Some of the better laser levels have a slope function that lets you define a sloped beam plane instaed of a level plane. Another option is to use a GPS and defiene a slope between two, or many, waypoints. You could have a graphic of the contour lines and just drive the route until the land matches your desired graph cuntour.

Sometimes I wish I paid more attention during math class.

pokey

 

[TonyC]

I was catching up on some older posts and read this one about the backup alarm. What is that wired to? Without reverse lights to hook into, I'm puzzled. I'd also like to see a photo of this bad boy. There's probably is one out there somewhere but I haven't run across it yet.

 

[MChalkley]

TonyC - Sorry, the backup alarm's not that sophisticated. It's connected to a weatherproof single-pole/double throw (or On-Off-On) toggle switch located just to the left of the seat. If I move the toggle to the On position toward the front of the tractor, the front alarm comes on and stays on until I turn it off. If I move it to the On position toward the rear of the tractor, the back one comes on. I had figured out a fairly easy way to rig a couple of pressure switches to the HST pedal linkage under the deck, but I still wanted a switch to disable them, so I just used the toggle switch instead. It's easier to just turn them on when I want them.

As for pics, if you go back about 30 posts before this one, there's a bunch of 'em. If you're looking for something you don't see in this thread somewhere, let me know and I'll take one and post it.

MarkC

 

[_RaT_]

Some of you Tractorbynet forum "old-timers" may remember a few posts I made to the old board about "enhancements" to my L4310HST.

Well, this is Chapter 3 (I think):

Yesterday was a "work on the tractor" day. Nothing too major, but one thing in particular that I thought might be of general interest. I permanently installed a hydraulic pressure gauge so I can see what's going on all the time. As it turned out, fabricating the mount was the hardest part. With the help of a friend, we made a made a bracket that mounts to the "joystick movement minimizer flap" that holds the gauge. It's plumbed into the pressure-In line on the loader valve. In this position, as long as the loader is mounted on the tractor, of course, any usage of the hydraulics on the tractor is shown on the gauge. One thing I noticed immediately is that the hydraulic pump produces almost full pressure at just off idle, as long as there's very little or no movement. This is because the pump puts out very little flow at this speed, so any movement over the amount of flow available reduces the maximum pressure available. I think the gauge will be very useful to have - I'll let everyone know.

Other minor changes: I relocated the switch that controls the electric solenoid valves to the bracket that has the slots in it for the position control, just in front of the three remote valve levers, so I can find it without looking for it. And I replaced the cheesy tire for my hydraulic gauge wheel on my 8' blade with a real boat trailer tire. All in all, not a bad day's work.

I still have to get the loader fork brackets welded on, put on lights, and a million other things... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Mark

This was a fun old thread!