I have a 60's HyHoe and i am looking to swap out the hydro controls for a more recent one. If you know what the controls are on a hyhoe you bucket with your feet, basicly you look like you are at a arobics class operating this machine. If anyone has suggestion or a plan of attack please let me know.
Why not go to electric over hydraulic?
Is this the one with the extra pedal for the stick cylinder?
I don't know if modern pilot controls would work with that old machine, the hydraulic systems are different. If I remember correctly there was an option for 2 lever controls in the later model Hein-Werners, (like C-14B) those machines were similar to Hy-Hoe, (maybe Hy-Hoe had an option also?) if you could find one in a junkyard with those levers, maybe you could convert it over, the only thing I can think of.
I have and old Hein Werner that i got a complete set of joy sticks out of and old john deere backhoe and i modified them into it. It took me a couple of days to get all the linkage into place but what a different machine after that I could do 4 times the work in quarter the time with just my hands, and my feet and brain could have a rest because i was not trying to remember what my feet where doing while my hands where doing something else.
Well it all depends on how far you're going with the control replacement. You'd have to swap out or highly modify the valve banks but the upside is no fooling around with linkage. I mean a hydraulic system is really pretty basic, especially on an older machine. A inlet side which is then split into however many functions you have. Running electric over hydraulic would allow you to have the valve banks wherever you want without having to worry about trying to run linkage to them and eliminating almost all the operator effort of trying to manipulate them. If you're going to completely redesign the control system anyways might as well make it easy on yourself and use solenoids. Nice thing with those is changing a pattern is as simple as unscrewing the locking bolt (small screwdriver) and plugging the wire into another spot on the bank!
Like Mapleleaftrucks mentiond ,I would get the "wobble sticks" & linkage from a John Deere 690 excavater. Welcome snohed,here is a link to a HY-HOE thread.
I have a C-451 Bantam with 4 foot pedals. 2 are for the stick and 2 are for the bucket curl. When I got the thing about 15 years ago, it was a struggle to run it. I used it for loading a dump truck. I smashed into the box and tailgate quite a few times and did some damage. Now I have it in a gravel pit and use it only occasionally. Yesterday I got on it and ran it like a pro and I hadn't been on it since last fall. I usually run my EX-120 Hitachi or my mini Kubota KX-91, both of which I jumped right on and had no major problems learning. The Bantam was another story, but like I said, now I can go back and forth, no problem. FWD