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?

 

[DonT-B7500]

Boy, if you don't like joysticks don't go out and buy one of these
Mercedes Benz F 200 - Ultimatecarpage.com - Images, Specifications and Information

 

[hawghead]

Thanks for the reply's, I was doing some work with the FEL and I noticed, that I can not use both levers at the same time, meaning when raising the FEL, the bucket will not tilt, or tilting the bucket the arms with not raise or lower. Is this typical of older FEL or is their plumbing issue?

 

[Bird]

Thanks for the reply's, I was doing some work with the FEL and I noticed, that I can not use both levers at the same time, meaning when raising the FEL, the bucket will not tilt, or tilting the bucket the arms with not raise or lower. Is this typical of older FEL or is their plumbing issue?

I don't really know on that model, but I'd guess it's normal. On my Kubotas, with the joystick, the manual shows to not raise the boom or arms at the same time as you curl (tilt back) the bucket. The reason is that both functions require hydraulic pressure from the pump and you are opening both valves simultaneously. When you do that, the one that requires the least amount of pressure will be the one that works. Now when that one reaches the limits of its travel, the other one will start to work. But you can raise or lower the arms while simultaneously dumping the bucket, and you can curl the bucket while lowering the arms.

 

[Soundguy]

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.

Ditto that.. my hand can span both levers easilly.. and do the dump/curl and lift/drop...

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

Thanks for the reply's, I was doing some work with the FEL and I noticed, that I can not use both levers at the same time, meaning when raising the FEL, the bucket will not tilt, or tilting the bucket the arms with not raise or lower. Is this typical of older FEL or is their plumbing issue?

Depends on how your valve is plumbed. My old ford valves let you dump/curl, AND raise/lower the bucket at the same time... Heck.. you can even lift the 3pt as well.. the only hitch is that the pump is 4gpm and that is the limiting factor.. if more than one valve is open at a time.. you are spliting the flow ...

Soundguy

 

[hawghead]

I guess it is operating the way it supposed to, I am just used to operating more modern equipment with joysticks and Hydro trans. I just got to get used to a manual trans & two lever controls. I only have about an hour seat time on this tractor. I can not tell you how many times, I wanted to go forward and I was in reverse and vise versa. Their is a lot going on with shifting gears, clutch, working FEL, foot throttle etc.

 

[bx23barry]

I guess it is operating the way it supposed to, I am just used to operating more modern equipment with joysticks and Hydro trans. I just got to get used to a manual trans & two lever controls. I only have about an hour seat time on this tractor. I can not tell you how many times, I wanted to go forward and I was in reverse and vise versa. Their is a lot going on with shifting gears, clutch, working FEL, foot throttle etc.

Now you are learning what an "operator" does. Anyone can "drive" one of them new fangled automatics.

 

[Creag]

I am an old fellow who is/was considering switching to a joy stick from a 2 lever system...after being on this site for less than 10 minutes I'm reconsidering my options... I'll do a little more reading but maybe the two lever system isn't such a bad thing after all.

 

[PHPaul]

I am an old fellow who is/was considering switching to a joy stick from a 2 lever system...after being on this site for less than 10 minutes I'm reconsidering my options... I'll do a little more reading but maybe the two lever system isn't such a bad thing after all.

I dunno, I ran a JD750 with a two-lever system for 27 years and I LOVE the joystick on my new Kubota.

 

[DaveNJ]

Joy sticks are fairly new to me. Really like the loader stick over the two lever. On the backhoe, I'm still trying to push non-existent foot pedals to swing the boom and miss the single function levers. . . .