What have you done to your Branson today?

[Branson Bob]

Bob, wouldn’t it be prudent to shorten your 3ph hoses? My top link is much shorter. Also I redid my backhoe hoses by eliminating it altogether and put fixed couplers on top with a bypass valve.

Those are great ideas and I love your setup. This being my first tractor and having had everything supplied by the dealer I hadn't given that too much thought. The top and tilt hoses I always viewed the way an electrician would view a "service loop." I totally agree that the backhoe hoses are too long and unnecessary on the tractor side.

Thanks for the great tips Moose.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

That's pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ericm979]

Branson Bob that's a nice position indicator for the top cylinder.

I've been finding that the backhoe loop is kind of in the way and connecting it's couplers is a bit difficult, so I may do something like Aquamoose's bypass and couplers.

I originally thought the BH's hoses were way too long but discovered that they're long so you can reposition the tractor to line it up with the BH. So I'll be keeping those long. When the BH is on I loop the hoses and hang them on the top link hanger.

 

[Branson Bob]

Branson Bob that's a nice position indicator for the top cylinder.

I've been finding that the backhoe loop is kind of in the way and connecting it's couplers is a bit difficult, so I may do something like Aquamoose's bypass and couplers.

I originally thought the BH's hoses were way too long but discovered that they're long so you can reposition the tractor to line it up with the BH. So I'll be keeping those long. When the BH is on I loop the hoses and hang them on the top link hanger.

Hey Eric. I bought the top link indicator from Dave from Daveknowshow: daveknowshow
- YouTube

He's given me a lot of great tractor advice.

Now that you mention it the backhoe hoses do have to have some extra length on them for the hookup procedure. It might be different if I had an equipment shed with a perfectly flat floor but that's not the case. In fact I don't really have anywhere on my property at the moment whereby both the tractor and the implement can be perfectly level at the same time. In a few recent posts upthread I showed where I chained the outriggers together to prevent the storage sag which makes the backhoe hookup both physically and hydraulically difficult. I hope that helps. I don't anticipate using the backhoe again till later in the summer/fall when I hope to dig out a root/wine cellar in the side of the hill.

 

[ericm979]

Oooh a root cellar! My wife's been wanting one of those for a long time. The back of the barn is cool but not cool enough.

I've been putting the BH on pavement that's tilted (we don't have many level spots either). I lower it down on blocks to take pressure off the outriggers, and raise it back up to mount it on the tractor. When I do those it crabs to the low side by an inch or so.

 

[ericm979]

Yesterday I finally adjusted the throttle lever resistance. It came way too stiff making it difficult to do small adjustments. Someone here mentioned that it's adjustable, sorry I don't remember who as it was a while ago.

The lever moves a cable which runs to the injection pump. The adjustment is a spring tension with a conical washer and a friction disc. Similar in concept to what the 3pt position control has but that has two bolts and coil springs. You can get to it by removing the four bolts that hold the instrument panel in place. I also removed the instrument panel's side panels which requires removing the steel and glass guards at the front of the floor. My cable had some friction in the cable and I tried bending the bracket that holds the housing under the dash to get it to line up with the throttle lever better. It helped a little, as did lubricating the cable. But changing the friction adjustment made a huge difference.

 

[ptsg]

My 3 pt and draft control lever were also very stiff. I had to bump the lever to make small adjustments. I just adjusted the tension on the spring and now is very smooth and easy to control.

The throttle lever is a bit stiff but not too bad to bother me. Most of the time I just use the throttle pedal.

 

[Cougsfan]

The levers for my rear remotes are very hard to use. They take considerable force to push them plus the neutral detent is very weak. It is very hard to move them hard enough, yet delicate enough at the same time, to find the neutral position. Anyone found a cure for that?

 

[ptsg]

The levers for my rear remotes are very hard to use. They take considerable force to push them plus the neutral detent is very weak. It is very hard to move them hard enough, yet delicate enough at the same time, to find the neutral position. Anyone found a cure for that?

I would remove the levers and clean the pivot point really good and grease it. Maybe paint got in the wrong place and may cause some binding. I suspect this will also help the detent situation.

My remote moves very freely. I don't have detent though but it shouldn't matter.

When I received the tractor, I went through every moving part and sprayed it with WD40. The tractor sat outside for quite some time and some parts had rust.

 

[ericm979]

I wonder if you have different valves on the cab model. The ROPS model has a complex linkage between the levers by the seat and the valves mounted to the transmission above the PTO. It has more slop than I'd like but I've learned to deal with it. There's no neutral detent and it's reasonably easy to feather the valves.

It sounds like there may be a lot of friction in your linkage- usually the valve spool itself moves easily and the detent is easy to find.