[dhitching]

Recently I added a Bradco quick attach plate to my 6018, and it's been a huge improvement in its utility around the house. Being able to switch between a small bucket for digging, a big bucket for moving material, and my pallet forks has made the tractor even more useful than it was before.

^ The first thing I did after getting home with the 6018

^ My 6018 next to the 644 I bought exclusively for the quick attach setup it came with

^ Everybody needs a set of pallet forks

^ Tiny 42" bucket for digging work

^ Big 52" bucket for everything else


Recently I got the itch to go the next step and add front hydraulics to the tractor to run an auger. The girlfriend likes that it'll make planting a lot easier this spring, but let's be honest, I'm just excited for one more toy to play with 🤣.

^ My 6018 dreaming of bigger things...


There's a ~7yr old thread of @bknight187 converting his 7020, but those photos were all lost to the Photobucket purge (except for those saved by @sdunt here Ingersoll 7020LQA), so I'm starting this thread to document the process as I go. Hopefully 7 years from now they'll still be available for other people to use as a reference.

^ End goal!

 

[dhitching]

Brian with Salem Power Equipment is my go-to dealer because he's incredibly knowledgeable, he's local to me, and he's always willing to help over the phone (shameless plug 🤘). He's already been a great help to this project, getting me a Bill Of Materials (below) and install guide (attached) for the HPAPF7 "remote hydraulics kit" that was available to retrofit any Case/Ingersoll loader with front hydraulic PTO and attachment lift.

Many of the parts are No Longer Available, but I was surprised how many parts were available and had inventory, being that it was such a low production item. I placed an order earlier this week, once everything shows up I'll be able to see what all I'm missing and need to source elsewhere.

 

[DDudeinar]

Dang how heavy are those wheel weights? Doing some serious heavy lifting in those pics...

 

[dhitching]

Dang how heavy are those wheel weights? Doing some serious heavy lifting in those pics...

Wheel weights are 150lbs per side, I had the tires filled with beet juice for ~120lbs per side, weight box is ~400lbs. She's got some heft for sure haha. Still picks the rear end off the ground before the hydraulics run out of lift capacity!

 

[dundee222]

Recently I added a Bradco quick attach plate to my 6018, and it's been a huge improvement in its utility around the house. Being able to switch between a small bucket for digging, a big bucket for moving material, and my pallet forks has made the tractor even more useful than it was before.
View attachment 128872
^ The first thing I did after getting home with the 6018

View attachment 128874
^ My 6018 next to the 644 I bought exclusively for the quick attach setup it came with


View attachment 128873 View attachment 128875
^ Everybody needs a set of pallet forks


View attachment 128876
^ Tiny 42" bucket for digging work


View attachment 128877 View attachment 128878
^ Big 52" bucket for everything else


Recently I got the itch to go the next step and add front hydraulics to the tractor to run an auger. The girlfriend likes that it'll make planting a lot easier this spring, but let's be honest, I'm just excited for one more toy to play with 🤣.
View attachment 128879
^ My 6018 dreaming of bigger things...


There's a ~7yr old thread of @bknight187 converting his 7020, but those photos were all lost to the Photobucket purge (except for those saved by @sdunt here Ingersoll 7020LQA), so I'm starting this thread to document the process as I go. Hopefully 7 years from now they'll still be available for other people to use as a reference.
View attachment 128880 View attachment 128881
^ End goal!

Rock on! Like I've always said, having a loader with only one bucket is akin to having a drill with only one bit!

 

[propane1]

Impressive. That’s quite a unit. Thanks for the pictures.

Noel

 

[bobneumann]

Welcome to the quickattach club!

You're going to love having the third function/front hyrdraulics. At the moment I'm about to finish up installing a selectable relief valve for my front hydraulics, because without it my brush grapple cylinder exerts 16,000 lbs of force, way more than enough tear up the bucket and the grapple mounting if I'm not careful when clamping onto something big.

So I've mounted a 3-way selector valve that allows me to tie either of the front ports into a pressure relief valve. The valve has a handy gauge mounted, so I can pretty much adjust it on the fly. Or set the valve to "off" and both ports run the full 2300psi. I'll probably keep the relief set to about 250 psi. That should be enough for the grapple to grip firmly, but not tear itself apart.

I'll post some pics of the setup in a new thread once I have it done.

 

[dhitching]

At the moment I'm about to finish up installing a selectable relief valve for my front hydraulics, because without it my brush grapple cylinder exerts 16,000 lbs of force, way more than enough tear up the bucket and the grapple mounting if I'm not careful when clamping onto something big.

So I've mounted a 3-way selector valve that allows me to tie either of the front ports into a pressure relief valve. The valve has a handy gauge mounted, so I can pretty much adjust it on the fly. Or set the valve to "off" and both ports run the full 2300psi. I'll probably keep the relief set to about 250 psi.

That sounds like a pretty trick solution to a legitimate problem posed by high pressure hydraulics routed to the front. I'm looking forward to seeing your thread with the details!

 

[dundee222]

Factory grapples size the cylinder so that it uses full pressure without harm.

 

[bobneumann]

Factory grapples size the cylinder so that it uses full pressure without harm.

That could be tricky. I figure there should be no more than about 2000lbs of force from the cylinder. Beyond that you risk tweaking the grapple or even the bucket itself. At 2300psi that means a 1" cylinder ID, which would then have a... 5/8" OD rod? I don't know where you'd even find such a thing. Maybe something pneumatic, but then it's pressure rating would probably be too low.

But I already had a cylinder that has the correct extension length, it's just a larger ID than needed. So I adapted to what I had. But I think you'd need to pressure relieve pretty much any commonly available cylinder. Even a 1.5" ID cylinder will put out 4000lbs of force. That's not enough to destroy the bucket outright, but it could sure bend and twist the grapple.

I think you can probably buy fancier control valves that have variable pressure relief for each spool, rather than the whole valve assembly. And that would be ideal for this. But I expect those arent cheap.

And I figure that having this selectable pressure relief may come in handy for any other things I end up connecting to the third function in the future.

Bob

 

[dhitching]

Parts came in from the dealer! 🥳

Obviously... not exactly an entire kit hahaha. However, the parts I'm most excited for are the tower brackets and the lift arm crossmember brackets. I was surprised they were still available, and purchasing them will save me a decent amount of fab time.

In order to better make sense of the entire assembly and what all is missing, I took the BOM and brought it into a Google Sheets so I can categorize and filter.

Parts I was able to source from Brian at Salem Power Equipment:

Most importantly, everything that I'm missing is a generic piece of hardware, hydraulic hose, or hydraulic fitting. The only bespoke pieces I wasn't able to order are the two steel hardlines that run through the right hand (passenger side) lift arm (C48393 and C48396) for the PTO hydraulic circuit (the attachment lift circuit runs soft lines the whole way).

Hopefully I can run hose or bend my own steel lines there, I'll have to see what fits.


Parts remaining:

Parts remaining if I filter out generic hardware:

Parts remaining for just the PTO side (minus hardware):

I figure any parts that are duplicated on the attachment lift side (like hardware) I'll order now, but I'll save any extra attachment lift parts for later and focus on completing the PTO side first, I don't have a use for the attachment lift circuit yet.

As you can see, it's definitely still a large list of bits, but it should be pretty achievable! I need to give Brian a call on Monday and see if he has any additional info on some of the parts where I had some difficulty deciphering the BOM shorthand (evidenced by my question marks in the description column haha).

 

[bobneumann]

So far so good, you're making great progress.

If you do end up having to fabricate hard lines, it's not super difficult, especially for bends that aren't terribly sharp.

Something like $200 worth of tools, somewhere around $25 raw materials cost for each assembly.

I'll be fabricating a couple hard line assemblies when I finish up the relief valve setup in the next couple days. I'll document the process and post it separately.

Bob

 

[dhitching]

Hydraulic couplers came in!

Because any attachment I use on the front of the tractor is going to likely be designed for a mini skid steer, using 1/2" flat face skid steer couplers seemed like the prudent choice. I was able to find a set that came with -8 JIC bulkhead fittings already attached, so that was nice. Switching to this style should have a minimal overall effect on the BOM. Man the body of these things is quite a bit larger than the Pioneer connectors though!

On the unfortunate side of things, after struggling to find one myself, Brian from Salem Power Equipment was able to get ahold of Ingersoll who confirmed that the tee fitting from the PTO valve on the rear fender (C48399) was a custom hydraulic fitting made for Ingersoll that is no longer produced.

That being said, it should be relatively trivial to switch to a different tee fitting and adapt it to 1/2" NPT. Seeing as they ran a M-M adapter for some reason anyways, it won't really impact the overall appearance of the setup or total number of parts necessary. Lord knows a standard tee will probably be cheaper than however much that custom fitting was.

On the very very positive side of things, during Brian's talks with Ingersoll he was also able to ask them if they could quote producing the steel hardlines (C48393, C48396) for the PTO circuit through the loader arms, which they did. Their supplier confirmed that they'd be willing to do a run of the hardlines! There's a bit of a wait time which is unfortunate, but I'm just happy that I'll be able to use the OEM parts for that section of the circuit. I'm quite excited that Ingersoll is willing to make the effort to get the parts produced. Fingers crossed it all works out! In the mean time, I'm going to work on getting the rest of the fittings and hardware ordered so I can start sizing the rubber hydraulic lines.