New Owner

[hawghead]

Hello all, I have been sitting in weeds reading all of your useful information and I really enjoy this siteNow, I have question for all you experts. I recently purchase an International 254 with a FEL, however the loader is a two lever control. Is it possible to switch from the 2 lever control to a single lever control. If so, how much do you think it cost.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bird]

Welcome to Tractorbynet. And I don't really have an answer for you. I do know that some, if not all, the 2 lever valves can be converted to joystick, and vice versa, but I have no idea what it might cost. I think the vast majority of people use a joystick, but I had one neighbor with 3 big John Deere tractors who said he'd never used a joystick. All his tractors had front end loaders and all were the two lever controls. And when I was tractor shopping in 1995, one dealer had some Kubota tractors with Koyker loaders with the 2 levers, but he said he'd sell them with the 2 levers or the joystick for the same price.

 

[Soundguy]

Both of my ford loader tractors are 2 lever control types. Basiacally 2 da valves. If you swap.. make sure you get a joystick controll that exactly mimics your original valve setups.

On my old fords I'm useing the oem hyd tap on the hyd cover.. thus I'm kinda limited in what I can change out to. however.. i could use my 2 da remote valves to power a laoder valve joystick.. etc..

soundguy

 

[rpoage]

Hello all, I have been sitting in weeds reading all of your useful information and I really enjoy this siteNow, I have question for all you experts. I recently purchase an International 254 with a FEL, however the loader is a two lever control. Is it possible to switch from the 2 lever control to a single lever control. If so, how much do you think it cost.
Thanks in advance.

When I first used a FEL, the dual lever is all there was. There has been a lot of poop pushed, feed fed and dirt moved with 2 lever systems. I think if you work with it you will find there is nothing you can't do with the system you have vs. the Joy stick. I remember being able to use one hand to simultaneously operate both valves. I sure that are a number of other guys on here who currently use the 2 lever system.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

This isn't the full answer, but it will get you started...

Surplus Center Item Detail

$80 for the parts. plus shipping. I'm sure that whoever manufactures the valves on your tractor will have a similar part available.

 

[dbdartman]

I'll throw my 2 cents in just for the heck of it. My tractor bucket has a joy-stick, the back hoe has dual joy-sticks. I started operating fork lift trucks when I was around 18 (35 years ago). These all had dual (or triple) lever controls, & it didn't take much time to get the hang of moving both levers with one hand. Now, I find myself wishing ALL my tractor hydraulics were separate levers instead of joy-sticks (yes, even the back hoe!). It just doesn't seem "natural" to me to be moving the lever left or right & I often find myself moving the stick the wrong way. I also find it quite difficult to make the hydraulics move in two different functions with the joy-sticks. The "sweet spot" is extremely small & that makes it difficult to move smoothly. I'm sure that, for me, separate levers would be faster, easier, & most of all smoother, than the joy-sticks. So I say, give the levers a little time. You might find that they're not as hard to function together as you fear. Otherwise, I'd say check in the hydraulics forum.

 

[jbrumberg]

hawghead:

Welcome to TBN ! I had dual levers on my Ford 1100 for the front blade. I did not have any problems operating the lift and angle simultaneously with one hand.

Jay

 

[RollTideRam]

I drive forklifts all day on 12 hour shifts. The main one I drive has 3 levers. I drive two others with a swingmast in the warehouse. The older one has 4 levers and the newer one only 2. My first Deere had levers and my current Deere a joystick. Your tractor will do the same things if you keep what you have or spend some money on it. I vote to use what you have. JC

 

[herringchoker]

I'll jump in here too. I had a Ford 4500 backhoe/loader for 17 years. It had 2 levers for the loader and 4 for the backhoe. Once you master the multi levers (and it only takes a little practice), you can do anything that you can do with a joystick, and just as smoothly. My B7800 has a joystick for the loader, and I've adjusted to it, but it doesn't do anything more than the old multi levers did.

 

[bx23barry]

I now have joysticks (in fact the CAT dozer I ran as a kid had a joystick and I didn't like that either ) and still get screwed up on the right/left=up/down (or is it the other way around ) thing. Maybe I'm just old but the two/four/six/eight levers make more sense to me and not really anymore difficult to operate. What ever was wrong with rotary phones?