nickel plate
Veteran Member
Island,Just don't wrap the long hoses around your neck and I think you'll do just fine.
You have probably already thought it through but you do need to be careful routing the hoses from the rear remote up to the grapple. I suppose there are alternatives but this is what I did: from rear remote down and over the left rear axle, under the operator station (lots of zipties to keep the hose tight against the bottom so they don't snag anything), then up the left FEL post and forward along the left loader arm to the torque tube. If you are neat you will weld a mount for the hose/fitting on the torque tube. If you are a slob like me you will use zipties to hold the hose to the torque tube.
I used a lawn hose to do a dry run to make sure I left enough for gentle bends without having too much extra hose. Once you have that measurement you just need the fittings and couplers and you're RTR.
I realize this might be a resurrection of this thread-so be it. When you (or others) rout the hydraulic hoses from the rear remotes and you are now at the FEL post and your tractor has a FEL disconnect feature, do your hoses break there too? Not that a lot of us will ever remove the FEL but what if you ever need to?
kennyd,
Your posted photos of the FEL/grapple plumbing on your JD are how we all would want ours to look like! You are truly a mechanical surgeon. Now don't tell us that some tractor shop did that for you-unless it's your tractor shop.:thumbsup: