Converting Prentice 600B to joystick controls

[justagyppo]

I'm looking at purchasing my first shovel,it is a Prentice 600B on a rubber mount carrier.
It appears to be a really well taken care of machine,not wore out at all and runs great and the price is right.
My only hang up on pulling the trigger is it is a lever machine.
All the shovels I've ran have been newer,faster machines with pilot controls so I looked like an imbecile attempting to run it today. Haha
I feel like it's something I could get used to but between the levers and the machine just being plain slower than I'm used to I'm hesitant. I'd like to see if anyone has info on switching the levers out for joysticks.
My cousin mentioned a valving system called 'quadraport' or 'quadravalve' so I'm going to do some searching on that tomorrow.
Thank you for any info you might have!

[Don P]

@BargeMonkey has a converted Barko... heres that thread;
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=108988.0

[BargeMonkey]

 You want to go from 5 levers on the floor to mechanical controls, goofy joysticks or true pilot control ? Converted over our 230 long bunk also so kind of been down this road. 
 My Barko set up is slick and simple how they did it, wonder why more guys dont do it. I can get some pictures in a couple days, she sits in my yard right now with the engine on the ground 🤣 

[justagyppo]

If I had my way in a perfect world I'd be tickled to death if I could get true pilot controls plumbed into that thing but I can't find any info on doing that. The closest I've found is people switching the linkage around and running joysticks to the valves the levers control. At this point I'm open to all options,just researching and weighing availability,cost and downtime to see if any of it is worth the effort. If you can get pics I'd be very grateful.

[BargeMonkey]

Another guy here looked into changing his 180D prentice over to actual "pilot control" and it was some stupid amount of money figuring in the labor. We changed the forwarder over relatively cheap using a compound joystick valve section from surplus center. Honestly the way my Barko is set up I think its efficent and cheap if you've got the tools and a welder, I bet I could duplicate it for 3-400 bucks ? Yeah I will get some pictures, couple brackets, cable clamps, 4 adjustable cables with heim joints and 2 joysticks with U-joints.