MT125 Backhoe owners question - Do you have a boom float?

[LS Tractor Owner]

Thanks "LS mt125 owner", definitely the Mrs. comes first but I'll be interesting to see the picture and hear your report when you get the machine out and try it. If the manuals are handy check out the manual for the LB1107 Backhoe on page 14 and see what that says............

Appreciate your help and I'm anxiously waiting for your report.

Regards,

Lisa

Yes my manual states "pushing the lever fully forward into the detent position, allows the boom to float". I'll hopefully see tommorow if I get the chance.

 

[tomplum]

It would seem odd to me that you would be able to install a kit on the valve body. There isn't even a breakdown in the parts manual on my hoe for the valve body on mine- just a reference number for the assembly. I guess it is possible that there isn't an actual detent on your MTs. I'm just comparing it with mine which is a different model. You would think that they would use the same style valve body? On mine they seem to show 2 different ones -it looks to be after a 11/11/2013 build. Mine should be the later
40294372 8WKEXP2058 VALVE,WALVOIL SD6/6
40294009 8WKEXP2124 VALVE,WALVOIL SD6/6 2013.11.11~

 

[mslisaj]

It would seem odd to me that you would be able to install a kit on the valve body. There isn't even a breakdown in the parts manual on my hoe for the valve body on mine- just a reference number for the assembly. I guess it is possible that there isn't an actual detent on your MTs. I'm just comparing it with mine which is a different model. You would think that they would use the same style valve body? On mine they seem to show 2 different ones -it looks to be after a 11/11/2013 build. Mine should be the later
40294372 8WKEXP2058 VALVE,WALVOIL SD6/6
40294009 8WKEXP2124 VALVE,WALVOIL SD6/6 2013.11.11~

Well "tomplum" now you understand my confusion with my dealers response. They didn't have a clue what I was talking about either. Now I have the service manual for the MT125 tractor itself and the loader control valve is considered part of the tractor. There is a hydraulic schemitic for the loader valve showing the "float" spool valve. Then I went to the LB1107 backhoe book. In that book is a schematic of the hydraulics for that big valve and sure enough there is an identical schematic drawing for "float"; or at least I am assuming it's the float spool.

Now you made a good point about a series change with date. According to my book there is only one backhoe controll valve assembly for the LB1107 backhoe; so far or at least to the printing of my owners manual.

Here is another point to "LS mt125 owner", he mentioned having to "hold" the boom control forward while pulling the dipper control back and it "floated". Okay, that had me thinking too so I went out and tried that today. All the valves take their common control pressure from one common source - the pump. So I set the machine up in my shop and I extended the boom and dipper with the bucket flat against my floor. I pulled the dipper control back followed quickly by shoving the boom control forward against it's stop. The back of the entire machine raised up off the outriggers about 2" and stopped. I was also operating the curl control at the same time so I was using a lot of hydraulic resources. I essentially had a "float" going on until I eased off the dipper and curl and then the hydraulic pressure went to the boom and raised the hoe even higher off the floor. So it wasn't really "floating" but it didn't have enough hydraulic "resources" to power the machine further off the floor when using the other controls. But when I eased off the other controls "releasing resources" the machine sent that power to the boom cylinder and would lift the machine again. Bottom line is I don't have a float holding when holding that control fully forward.

I'm going to be an expert on the hydraulics of the MT series when I'm done here. But here's the bottom line if you want to try something. Put your loader bucket on float and go stand in front and grab the bucket and you can lift that bucket a little and actually bounce it off the floor. A true float give no resistance to the bucket movement up or down at all. Just and interesting thing I tried as these buckes and loader arms are truly not that heavy. Of course I didn't power lift it off the floor but I could move it a little and that's my point.

We're all learning this together now I guess.

Thanks for your help.

Lisa

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Sorry it took so long to get back, I finally got a chance to get to the tractor. No, there is not any backhoe float on my unit. Apparently I just simultaneously lift the boom and pull back on the dipper while simultaneously curling the bucket. I believe since I am doing multiple functions at once, the hydraulics are spilt enough that the control of digging seems to be very smooth and even, like a "float". My manual does show "float" position, but I definately don't have a detent on the BH lever like on the loader. I'm kinda glad I don't have the float because while using the hoe today, I paid attention to what I was doing, and for sure use a LOT of down pressure to get through our hard packed clay soil.

 

[mslisaj]

Thanks "LS mt125 owner" for giving it a try today. Well don't feel bad as it seems LS didn't put that feature on any of the LB1107 backhoes. In the last three days I have made a dozen phone calls and I have had more BS stories told to me about the backhoe boom float or lack there of then you can believe. But as a woman I'm kind of used to that. I had one service guy tell me that our MT125's didn't have the power for a "float" to another guy tell me that these machines were only designed for light digging like "putting in sprinklers". When I raised the issue that I went out and looked at Mahindra, Yanmar, New Holland and John Deere and they all had boom floats all the way down to there 22hp models the guy didn't want to hear that. So the bottom line is this. Some where along the line LS, after they wrote the manual and put in the hydraulic schematic in our manual, decided not to put this feature in because they could get away with it. Do you need it? No. But all the other hoes out there have it and we got short changed. I looked at one little Yanmar machine yesterday and noted the decal on the backhoe clearly showed the boom float postion and with the machine not running I reached up and sure enough, I could push that lever into the detent position for float.

So this kind of ends this thread and my original question of "Do you have a boom float?" and the answer for the LS MT125 owners is NO.

But okay, as I woman I don't give up. I looked up the valve in our hoes and it's a very well made valve and built by a premier builder of valves for hydraulics called "Walvoil". This is a big international company and if you want to get crossed eyes reading about valves I can give you a link to them (see below). But our valve is a SD5 model with six spool valves (SD5 actually designates size and flow rate). These valves can be ordered in any configuration of float, detent, joystick operated, electrically operated and it would blow your mind what they can do. So the "SD5" is the key piece of information here. By the way, don't bother with your LS dealer (as I have, as officially LS says this feature is not avaliable through LS). After the first of the year and after the holidays I'm going to look for a Walvoil distributor in the USA. Then I'll talk about the SD5 and that I want a spool valve with a "float" position. THEN, I want to add a detent option to that spool. They will look up the SD5 series move across the choices of options for this one valve and I can order these parts. It should take all of an hour to install this "system" in my hoe and I will have a unique LB1107 backhoe with an option that everyother SCUT manufactures offers (and our owners manuals instructs us how to use). Do I need it? No. But I want the whole enchilada and I'm into customizing my equipment and I did this professionally for 40 years in business. So this project is not over for me. For the the men that have been following this thread and maybe owner's of MT125's, now you know that a feature that was on the original design is not there. And if you have read the manual and looked for this feature as I have, now you know it's officially not there and LS left it off.

So here is the link to the Walvoil list of catalogs. Have fun with it:
Walvoil - Hydraulic Control Systems

So thank you gentlemen for hanging in there with me. We finally got to the bottom of my question on this thread. It was a long ride over a week, but now we know.

Always a pleasure to interact with with your gentlemen.

Regards,

Lisa

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Thanks "LS mt125 owner" for giving it a try today. Well don't feel bad as it seems LS didn't put that feature on any of the LB1107 backhoes. In the last three days I have made a dozen phone calls and I have had more BS stories told to me about the backhoe boom float or lack there of then you can believe. But as a woman I'm kind of used to that. I had one service guy tell me that our MT125's didn't have the power for a "float" to another guy tell me that these machines were only designed for light digging like "putting in sprinklers". When I raised the issue that I went out and looked at Mahindra, Yanmar, New Holland and John Deere and they all had boom floats all the way down to there 22hp models the guy didn't want to hear that. So the bottom line is this. Some where along the line LS, after they wrote the manual and put in the hydraulic schematic in our manual, decided not to put this feature in because they could get away with it. Do you need it? No. But all the other hoes out there have it and we got short changed. I looked at one little Yanmar machine yesterday and noted the decal on the backhoe clearly showed the boom float postion and with the machine not running I reached up and sure enough, I could push that lever into the detent position for float.

So this kind of ends this thread and my original question of "Do you have a boom float?" and the answer for the LS MT125 owners is NO.

But okay, as I woman I don't give up. I looked up the valve in our hoes and it's a very well made valve and built by a premier builder of valves for hydraulics called "Walvoil". This is a big international company and if you want to get crossed eyes reading about valves I can give you a link to them (see below). But our valve is a SD5 model with six spool valves (SD5 actually designates size and flow rate). These valves can be ordered in any configuration of float, detent, joystick operated, electrically operated and it would blow your mind what they can do. So the "SD5" is the key piece of information here. By the way, don't bother with your LS dealer (as I have, as officially LS says this feature is not avaliable through LS). After the first of the year and after the holidays I'm going to look for a Walvoil distributor in the USA. Then I'll talk about the SD5 and that I want a spool valve with a "float" position. THEN, I want to add a detent option to that spool. They will look up the SD5 series move across the choices of options for this one valve and I can order these parts. It should take all of an hour to install this "system" in my hoe and I will have a unique LB1107 backhoe with an option that everyother SCUT manufactures offers (and our owners manuals instructs us how to use). Do I need it? No. But I want the whole enchilada and I'm into customizing my equipment and I did this professionally for 40 years in business. So this project is not over for me. For the the men that have been following this thread and maybe owner's of MT125's, now you know that a feature that was on the original design is not there. And if you have read the manual and looked for this feature as I have, now you know it's officially not there and LS left it off.

So here is the link to the Walvoil list of catalogs. Have fun with it:
Walvoil - Hydraulic Control Systems

So thank you gentlemen for hanging in there with me. We finally got to the bottom of my question on this thread. It was a long ride over a week, but now we know.

Always a pleasure to interact with with your gentlemen.

Regards,

Lisa

Wow! You have been busy! Keep us posted on your fix. (Part #'s etc...)

 

[rider7767]

I'm just asking if other MT125 owners with LB1107 backhoes have a float position? If the main consensus here is "they don't have a float" then my backhoe is working normally. If the majority of the responders say "they do have the float" then I have an issue with my brand new backhoe and I would like to get it fixed. Pretty simple. If I never read the manual for my machine telling me how to use this feature I would have never asked this question.

I never hurts to know that you know! Thanks for looking into this. I will try mine out when I put the backhoe on. It will be a while. It has been raining for two day straight. Mucky Mucky.