donnyviking said:
First comment is the joystick and the valve are two different things. They make loader valves with the joystick mounted right on the valve body (typical of a MF2615 installation for example) and also make the joystick coupled by cables to the valve body (like mine and most of the larger 50 hp and above tractors.) I have a MF2660 low profile with DL250 loader. The cable joystick normally used is the same one on a NIMCO CV432 loader valve on your 400 series tractor as it is on mine with a CV152 loader valve (going by the AGCO Parts Book.) They are good solid joysticks and claim to be heavy duty. I find the pedestal mounted one I have very convenient and "in the right place" both for seat to stick access and for not being in the way if I want to climb on and off the tractor on that side. Others I have seen (e.g. the 2615 that use the joystick right on the valve body) inherently means that all 6 hoses going to the valve body and all 4 coming out are up there "somewhat in the way." Ten hoses can get in the way. There's a lot to be said for mounting the valve body down underneath and out of the way with all that plumbing and just the joystick with 2 cables up where you can reach it. But back to the functionality of what you are getting: By far the majority of loader valves have a detent in the "lower the boom" axis only and none in the curl-the-bucket axis. My John Deere 4700 was that way and it was lovable. Right stuff. My DL250 loader has a detent in both axis which I find unnecessarily fancy. The detent in the curl axis (going into regen or "float") is intended to allow very quick gravity drops of your load without waiting on the hydraulics. My valve was unfortunately mismanufactured and never would force the bucket tip down because of the detent in the curl axis. NIMCO is sending me a fix which I hope will correct that issue. I know if I had a choice, I'd go with simplicity and reliability and have a detent only in the boom axis. It depends a lot on how you intend to use it.
