What is needed hydraulically for a grapple?

[IslandTractor]

I didn't mind the cost. A buddy I went to school with runs the local hydraulic shop. Had hoses made to length, couplers and fittings at cost.

Understood. It is still relatively clunky compared to plain single piece hose though and offers four, eight or more additional places for leaks. My bottom line is that because I simply zip tied the lines under the operator station, it would be trivial to snip those and just leave the whole kit in one piece with the FEL. Otherwise you have twice as many caps etc to fool around with each time you remove the FEL. You also need to secure the QCs on the FEL mount mast to keep them from banging around or getting snagged.

Don't get me wrong, the dual hose multiple connector system works fine. That is actually what I used. I just wouldn't do it again.

 

[caddison]

I got my valve and wiring harness from Fasse (Farm Equipment Solutions | Fasse Valves) I did need to modify the wiring harness as it did nto reach to the places I wanted it to for how I wanted to connect it. But the switch is a nice weather proof rubber covered thing that mounts nicely on the joystick with a couple small zip ties. They were really very helpful, especially for such a small order (to them).

You can see the black rubber switch on the joystick, if you look closely. It sort of looks like a gray blob just below the knob in the pic, with the wire running down the joystick shaft and through the boot.

Oh yeah - it took me 2-3 good days to get everything connected up including trips to Metalsupermarkets, the hydraulic shop (twice), hardware store, marking/drilling/cutting and just putzing around with how I wanted to do everything. Don't plan to bang this out in an afternoon unless you are very experienced in this type of thing.

Dave.... Here are some pictures of the valve.

 

[teg]

I'm planning on the same location... I was going to plumb it in with fittings vs. connecting it with hoses... I bolted on a piece of 2" angle that I was going to weld on for the bracket.

I removed the 2" angle and went with a flat plate above the FEL... I ended up using hose to plumb it in. For the whole write up: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...7948-instructions-add-extra-spools-l2800.html

 

[mkane09]

When I bought my MX4700, I had Brady (Barlow) order a 56 inch WRLong grapple, electric/hydraulic valve, and install it all. $1695. My grapple switch sits on top of the FEL control lever. Works great!

mkane09