The Kubota B26, L45 and M59 all use the same foot pedal for their optional hydraulic thumb and I for one have found depressing the far side a bit of a pain. I have noticed in my area that the majority of these TLB's ship with the plumbing and foot pedal already in place for the thumb which makes adding the thumb later a lot less expensive and time consuming. In order to give those owners who do not install the thumb a place to rest their right foot without stepping on the thumb pedal Kubota has designed the pedal so that it can flip up and lay flat against the backhoe hydraulic pedestal. Unlike master fabricator 4shorts I often begin solving a problem before taking pictures so here is a photo of the factory pedal after I started modifications.
You can see the hole in the foot pedal and on the side of the hydraulic pedestal you see a little bump that looks like a pimple. This is where the 1/4" rod was before I cut it off that the hole in the pedal slips over when you flip the pedal up and secure it with a pin. The problem I have with this design as a thumb owner is that it makes pressing the far side of the pedal a PITA. I have my thumb configured so that when I step on the side closest to the operator it closes and I step on the far side to open the thumb. Before I installed my Laurin cab I used my toes to close and stretched my leg out and used the heel to open. This worked fine but it is much harder to control the opening when just pressing with your heel versus having your heel on the platform and pivoting your ankle to open. In any event, once I installed my Laurin cab with the backhoe enclosure my old heel and toe technique no longer worked because my boot would hit the backhoe enclosure before I got my heel on the pedal. I had a lot of rocks to move last weekend and so I had to come up with something quick using materials I had lying around so here is a photo of my modified foot pedal.
I wanted something that would last and not rust so I took a couple of 3/4" thick plastic blocks that actually came with the Laurin cab and a piece of 1/4" aluminum flat stock left over from a previous project and I stacked them on top of each other to raise the far side of the pedal 2". I started by cutting two pieces of the aluminum and drilling them for two 1/4" bolts. The Kubota pedal is almost 1/4" thick so I drilled it and tapped the holes for 1/4" bolts. I then screwed one of the plastic blocks to the aluminum and then screwed the other plastice block on top of that. I then stacked the two aluminum pieces and bolted them to the pedal with two 1" stainless steel bolts, flat washers and lock washers. I used this many pieces because I wasn't sure what height would be best but I find the two inches to work well for me. It gives me much better control when opening the thumb and it should last a long time. I think I an going to add another 1/4" piece of aluminum on top as it will wear slower then the plastic and I think higher is better.
I think any Kubota TLB owner with this thumb foot pedal will find thumb operation a lot nicer with a similar modification on their machine. Do it before you install your Laurin cab because it is really tight working in this area once it is in place!
Happy thumbing! :thumbsup:
Lauren
You can see the hole in the foot pedal and on the side of the hydraulic pedestal you see a little bump that looks like a pimple. This is where the 1/4" rod was before I cut it off that the hole in the pedal slips over when you flip the pedal up and secure it with a pin. The problem I have with this design as a thumb owner is that it makes pressing the far side of the pedal a PITA. I have my thumb configured so that when I step on the side closest to the operator it closes and I step on the far side to open the thumb. Before I installed my Laurin cab I used my toes to close and stretched my leg out and used the heel to open. This worked fine but it is much harder to control the opening when just pressing with your heel versus having your heel on the platform and pivoting your ankle to open. In any event, once I installed my Laurin cab with the backhoe enclosure my old heel and toe technique no longer worked because my boot would hit the backhoe enclosure before I got my heel on the pedal. I had a lot of rocks to move last weekend and so I had to come up with something quick using materials I had lying around so here is a photo of my modified foot pedal.
I wanted something that would last and not rust so I took a couple of 3/4" thick plastic blocks that actually came with the Laurin cab and a piece of 1/4" aluminum flat stock left over from a previous project and I stacked them on top of each other to raise the far side of the pedal 2". I started by cutting two pieces of the aluminum and drilling them for two 1/4" bolts. The Kubota pedal is almost 1/4" thick so I drilled it and tapped the holes for 1/4" bolts. I then screwed one of the plastic blocks to the aluminum and then screwed the other plastice block on top of that. I then stacked the two aluminum pieces and bolted them to the pedal with two 1" stainless steel bolts, flat washers and lock washers. I used this many pieces because I wasn't sure what height would be best but I find the two inches to work well for me. It gives me much better control when opening the thumb and it should last a long time. I think I an going to add another 1/4" piece of aluminum on top as it will wear slower then the plastic and I think higher is better.
I think any Kubota TLB owner with this thumb foot pedal will find thumb operation a lot nicer with a similar modification on their machine. Do it before you install your Laurin cab because it is really tight working in this area once it is in place!
Happy thumbing! :thumbsup:
Lauren
