W.R. Long 4in1 Photos

[Keoke]

Hi Bill, a couple more questions on your 4 in 1 bucket.
1. Did you plumb your bucket rams into the bucket roll or the bucket lift arm hyd circuit?
2. Did you get the optional anti spill plate attached that Richh put on his bucket?

thanks again,
george

 

[Bill_in_MI]

George,
I plumbed the 4 in 1 "clamp" to correspond with the bucket "rollback" position, and the 4 in 1 "open" to correspond with the bucket "dump" valve position. This is per the Mark Chalkley teaching. (By the way, I learned alot from him and the history in his posts. We were sort of kidding about his recent absence from this board, but I am beginning to think not so lightly about it after this length of absence. Has anyone solved the mystery?)
I did not get the spill plate. Don't know if it is an option for the HJ2 model (this is a lighter duty version of the HJ1, I believe) Anyway, I was already pushing weight considerations so I didn't even ask about it.

Oh, in an earlier post I mentioned that the dealer did plumb the 4 in 1 cylinders into the bucket lift circuts...I changed it immediately because it really seemed awkward.

Hope this helps.

 

[Keoke]

Bill, yes I too read Mark's post on plumbing into the bucket roll circuit instead of the lift circuit. It all made very good sense to me. Long's used to recomand plumbing into the roll circuit but I understand has now switched to the lift circuit instead.
Somebody said they did this to conform to the majority of commerical units who are said to be plumbed to the bucket lift instead of roll circuit.
I hear what you are saying about the weight considerations in regard to the spill plate.
I am too, wondering about Mark. He was very helpful to me when I was shopping for a backhoe. His posts on the 4-1 bucket are priceless.

take care,
george

 

[Bill_in_MI]

Muhammad,
I did some experimentation tonight to time the open/close cycles of the Long 4 in 1, HJ2-60" mounted on my Kubota B2910 w/LA402 loader. It was about 35 degrees (F) outside so I let the tractor warm up for several minutes and worked all the cylinders through several cycles. Then set the rpms to 2000. Clocked the cycles several times with my wrist watch.

Results: Time to OPEN from fully closed: 3.5 sec
Time to CLOSE from fully opened: 2.5 sec

I belive these to be accurate within 0.25 seconds.

Here is another issue I discovered that may be a SAFETY CONCERN under unusual circumstances. This has to do with having both the non-regenerative and regenerative capability available with the 4 position valve spool for the bucket. When the 4 in 1 is plumbed to OPEN (w/solenoid engaged) in the normal DUMP position, moving the FEL joystick further to the right..beyond the detent...puts the 4 in 1 cylinders into a regenerative mode. The already OPEN bucket will immediately CLOSE under its own weight. Happens in about 2 seconds! So the scenario could look like this: Trying to open the bucket just a tiny bit further, or by accident, you move the spool into regen mode and WHAM! the bucket closes. Remember...normally to CLOSE you move the stick passed center in the OTHER DIRECTION. We all know it would be foolish to have anyone near the tractor in any circumstances while working...but, it's not too hard to envision a lack of judgement involving someone near the bucket and "body parts" caught in the squeeze of a couple hundred pounds or thereabouts. Just thought I should point that out. Clears my conscience a bit. Hope the rest of the info is useful to someone.

 

[Djwalker]

I have a Long's 4n1 as well and it is plumbed into the roll circuit. Having used it for a while I can see that having it plumbed into the lift circuit instead might actually be better. The reason is (at least the way I use the bucket) that when you are trying to fill the bucket by closing the jaws you tend to alternate between bucket close and bucket roll. Rarely do you adjust the height. If the open/close was plumbed into the lift circuit you could roll and close at the same time which would be smoother than alternating between the two which tends to be jerky. It had never occurred to my to plumb it differently but I can see how it might be useful.

Dave

 

[patton]

Bill,
Many thanks. I have one more request: Could you take a picture of the switch?

Thanks,
Pat

 

[Bill_in_MI]

Pat,
The attached includes a shot of the switch. The whole assembly you see on the joystick is included in the elecronic valve kit. It replaces the plastic knob that is normally there. The red button engages the solenoid. Also a shot of the tooth bar attched. I tool the wear bar off this weekend to try a little digging out of some small trees and brush. I didn't expect this, but the tooth bar fits up differently to the bucket edge than the wear bar. The wear bar was installed by Long's at the factory. I had to drill two new 3/4 inch holes to match the fit of the tooth bar. They are about two inches different than the holes for bolting on the wear bar. Not a big deal, but it surprised me. I'll tell you one thing, I am not too concerned about the durability of the Long products. Just lifting and moving around the wear and tooth bars was about enough to give me a hernia.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I'm also pretty pleased with my 4n1, there's a couple of little things I'm goin' to 'tend' to /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif ......one is a grease fitting on the bottom pin and the other is the seal screws.

There's two grease fitting for the pins on the top part of the bucket, but nothing for the bottom pin. The opening between the bottom of the cylinder and bucket gets caked with dirt and I'd like to give that bottom pin a shot of grease evey once in a while. I think if I take the cylinders off I can drill and tap a zurk fitting for the bottom pin.

The other thing is the four recessed allen screws on the top part of the cylinders, ( some day when the cylinder starts to leak they're going to have to be unscrewed.)They seem to fill up with dirt, and are starting to rust. I'm thinking about cleaning the holes out and filling them up with somethink like caulk or silicone to keep the dirt out.