3 point hitch splitter question

[gspren]

   I recently got a homemade 3 point splitter that was well made except for a folding leg that goes under the hitch in use is too bulky. I looked on line and most don't have support legs, I haven't used it yet and wondered if the leg is necessary or even useful?

[logman81]

Probably not really needed unless your hydraulics leak down. You could always just cut a block of wood at the height you want the splitter at and lower down on to that.

[r.man]

Try it and see for yourself. You can always remove it later.

[Piston]

There are only 3 reasons I can think of that a support leg would be neccessary.

1. If your tractor is small and fairly light duty, and your splitter is very heavy duty, then it may be nice to have support under it to take away some stress on the toplink. However, if the tractor was this light duty then it probably wouldn't have enough hyd flow/pressure to run the splitter in the first place.

2.  If its too flimsy on the 3 pt because you can't tighten the sway bars/chains enough.

3.  If your 3 pt hitch leaks down. However, if that's the case, then it should be looked at.

I also have a homemade 3pt splitter and usually never put any support under it, however lately I've been setting it on a round stood up on end, because of reason #2 that I posted above.

[yellowrosefarm]

I have a 3 point splitter made by Yanmar. In use, I lower it flat on the ground, roll a big piece on and raise it back up to save my back when splitting. The only useful thing I can think of for a stand would be to hold it off the ground when you take it off the tractor to make it easier to hook up the next time. But then, my 3 point hitch doesn't leak down and my sway chains are tight.

[Hilltop366]

My splitter has no leg(s), I have seen one once that has one. I think it was the kind that go across the back of the tractor instead of pointing straight out, it also flipped down to a vertical splitter for the large blocks of wood which is why it had the legs to keep it at the right height for that.

[gspren]

  Thanks all for the reply's. I am going to take the leg off so that I can put some side tables on. Both of my tractors with 3pts are cat 2 and the splitter is cat 1 but that usually doesn't hurt anything. Lowering to load and raising to split sounds good on the bigger stuff and is why I'd like some side tables. I've got about a 24" red oak that blew down and I hope to start cutting on it next week.   

[yellowrosefarm]

You will love that splitter for those big oak pieces. I was going to build a lift for my tow behind but when I got the 3 point, I just use it for the big ones.

[Al_Smith]

If you have a fairly modern tractor it won't be a problem .However if you have like an old 8 N Ford ,To 20-30 Ferguson they aren't real friendly at holding heigth.They kind of have a mind of their own .

They do just fine either up or down .In the middle it can be kind of iffy .

[beenthere]

Al
The 8N has position control whereas the TO-20 does not.

The 8N will continually correct itself to maintain the height if the PTO is engaged and running.

That lack of position control when I bought a TO-30 after being used to the 8N Ford was a big disappointment, and at first just figured something wasn't connected to the lift quadrant. When I took it appart to fix it, found out there was nothing there to fix.

[Al_Smith]

It will to a point .Try and run a grader blade with it some time and let me know how it works .

Yeah with a plow it will hold depth but just picking something up say and carrying it you'd better have your hand on the controls .

[Al_Smith]

A little more .My neighbor has a three point hitch splitter he built in high school on the back of a Massey 65 gasser .It uses the hydraulic pump from a dump truck and really does fairly well .It will hold whatever position you put it in .

[gspren]

  My "older" tractor is a 1956 JD620 while my "newer" tractor is a 1988 JD 2355, both are plenty heavy and both will hold the weight on the 3 pt pretty well but today an old JD man told me the 620 should use an open center valve and the 2355 should use a closed center valve so I'll try to figure out what the splitter has and go from there. I would prefer to use the 620 just because I love the sound and could use another excuse to run it!

[Al_Smith]

Neat sound but that 620 will go through some gasoline now .It won't suck it down like pulling a plow but I'll bet it gobbles it up at 2-2.5 gallon per hour .Pulling a plow it's about twice that .

[gspren]

Neat sound but that 620 will go through some gasoline now .It won't suck it down like pulling a plow but I'll bet it gobbles it up at 2-2.5 gallon per hour .Pulling a plow it's about twice that .

In it's day the 620 was one of the most fuel efficient tractors around, I know that running a 6' bush hog mower it uses way less than you mention.

[beenthere]

Fuel efficiency was one of the reasons Deere delayed switching to 4 and six cylinders, as they consistently had the highest "HP per fuel consumption" ratings at the Nebraska tests.
But the demand was for higher horsepower, not for fuel efficiency.

[Al_Smith]

Yes indeed in HP hours per gallon  .On the belt at 40 some HP it was 4.2 gallon per hour as per the Nebraska test .

It might not be bad at all though just running a splitter .

Now then if you are getting by at less than 2.5 cutting weeds they must not be very high because my old 70 JD would suck down right at 4 per hour bush hogging tough stuff .Of course it's a bigger displacement than a 620 but about the same HP .

The 70 was around 11 HP hours per gallon and the 620 around 12.4 or so .

[r.man]

Been there there are add on position controls for Ford 9 and 2Ns and Fergusons that don't have them. Google it if you want to build one yourself or if you prefer to buy a kit try this http://www.bramblett.com/zane/  This is not the only type on the web, I have seen at least one more and the fellow gave instructions on how to build one. As to using a 3 point splitter off the tractor hydraulics gas economy does become an issue with certain tractors over time. A friend had a three point on a JD 6 cyl and said that he had to take a 5 gal can of gas every time he used it. He went from using 15 gallons for a load to about 2 gallons.

[gspren]

  Well Al most of the bush hogging I did with the 620 was weeds in the pasture that the goats or donkey didn't eat, tall but not too thick. Honestly I'm not all that concerned with economy unless its worse than you predict, I just hope it works well, a week or two and I'll know and report.

[Al_Smith]

I was just throwing that out there .These guys running saw mills complain about fuel economy all the time I figured I'd just put some food for thought .

That old Johnny popper won't be loaded all the time anyway just running the hydraulics .

[yellowrosefarm]

  My "older" tractor is a 1956 JD620 while my "newer" tractor is a 1988 JD 2355, both are plenty heavy and both will hold the weight on the 3 pt pretty well but today an old JD man told me the 620 should use an open center valve and the 2355 should use a closed center valve so I'll try to figure out what the splitter has and go from there. I would prefer to use the 620 just because I love the sound and could use another excuse to run it!

The splitter valve is most likely open center as they are far more common. The way to tell is to blow through the "in" port. If it's open center, the air will pass right through and come out the "out" port. If it's closed center, you will not be able to blow through it.  Not sure about the 620 as regrettably, I've never had or worked on one. The 2355 is closed center. I have one and I've worked on a few. I find it annoying since if I forget an leave the loader up when I shut it off, I can't let it down without starting the tractor again. And, all the "cheap$" implements are open center. I use my splitter on a JD750, a Yanmar in disguise, which is an open center 18hp diesel. It uses less fuel than the 5hp Briggs and Stratton on my tow behind.
If anyone is interested, open center means oil moves through the control valve all the time the pump is running. When you move the handle, oil is diverted to the implement. With closed center, the oil only moves when the control handle is moved. To make that happen, the closed center pump is a lot more complicated and costly. They are around $1000+, open centers are more like 300. Most newer open center valves can be converted to closed center by adding a plug.

[gspren]

  The splitter has an old Gresen 575 valve which research says is open centered so should be good on 620. The JD man that told me about the open/closed systems said if you use an open valve on the 2355 it will over heat the Hyd oil, I didn't ask how fast but I will. I still want to change the Hyd oil in the 620 because it might just be motor oil but I can't figure out where to drain it! I ordered a operator manual because my IT repair manual doesn't show where the drain is. There's a bunch of plugs with adjustment parts behind and nothing is obvious like the engine oil drain is.

[beenthere]

2 plugs for oil draining the tranny.
# 27 in pic, hex heads with aluminum washer # 26



 

[gspren]

 beenthere, on the 620 the powertroll hydraulics are separate from the transmission.

[beenthere]

Okay, then did you find the powertroll reservoir? Where the dip stick is to measure oil level? and where you add oil ?

There is a plug just like the tranny under it. A hex head too.

Which model 620 is it? The orchard 620 has a separate reservoir, I believe.

The other models have the reservoir in the rockshaft and powershaft housing. There is a drain plug below it too.

Give us a pic under the rockshaft housing, and maybe we can point it out. Hopefully....

[gspren]

  OK, I got it all figured out now that I got an operators manual. There are 5 drain plugs on the bottom and the Hyd drain and the pto clutch drain both looked like possibilities and when I first tried the hyd drain it looked thick and black while the dipstick showed clean which made me stop after the first few ounces thinking gear oil. Now that I knew which plug I tried again and the first 2 quarts or so were black and then got clear so I was really over due to change this. After changing the oil I hooked up the splitter and was pleased with the operation, I only split for about an hour but it worked. At a bit over half throttle the ram takes about 9-10 seconds whether splitting something or not and that's fast enough for this old man, if I had a helper I'd rev it up some. After splitting I felt very little heat in the lines.