On my Case CX135, I have a thumb but no aux hydraulic lines. If I wanted to have a wrist bucket, do I need to get aux hydraulic lines installed or can I disconnect the thumb lines and use them? What about a hammer, what would be necessary for that? Dealer gave me a $6000 estimate for aux hydraulics if I remember. On my arm there are 2 mounting points for the arm cylinder. One is for work and one for transporting. To quote my owner's manual "Warning. When transporting. If the machine is equipped with the 9'4" arm the hooking point on the head of the arm cylinder must be in the transport position" What is the reason for this? I am thinking it reduces the transport height. Any other reason. It was not moved when it was delivered to me, 800 mile trip.
Would the control for the thumb not suffice with an electric divertor valve or will you be removing the thumb ,from my own experience I would fit a Q hitch first. Stock
I am open to all suggestions. I have a wedge type quick coupler on my buckets.
You could plumb a hammer or twist wrist right into that valve block that's mounted on the stick. How you do it is up to you, standard quick fittings could be used or you could have hoses made that would accept the threads for the mounting block and duplicate the setup your thumb has. The easiest route would be to have hoses made that would plumb right into that block. You'd have to use a set of wrenches every time you swapped over, but even with quick fittings I end up having to pull out a 15" crescent anyway to crack hoses on warm days, otherwise I can never get them on. As far as running a hammer, the only difference between that and running the thumb after you get it plumbed up is switching from 2 way to 1 way flow. I'm not familiar with Case excavators so I don't know exactly where the valve would be to do so. Essentially what it does is 1 line is changed from a flow circuit to a return to tank circuit, although it's not a true return to tank as the fluid is still routed through control blocks and the like. I wouldn't worry about the stick cylinder pin position, nobody changes that for transport. I've always been under the impression that sticks with two pin positions are there to allow one of two options; more crowd or more reach. I could be wrong, but I thought that was always the intent.
For a hammer we used a three way valve on the circuit on the right side of the boom. One leg went back to the valve and the other to the tank or cooler circuit depending on which manufacture of machine. We would make and weld a bracket to the stick that would capture the thumb with a pin or bolt and hold it in the stored position. As I recall a wrist didn't need much flow or pressure so the thumb circuit might be overkill since you have one full pump flow and at least 2,100 psi to run it. What does the manufacturer of the wrist say you need for flow and pressure?
I haven't got or bought either a wrist or a hammer yet. I am just thinking out loud. The RB auction in Vancouver has both to fit my excavator. I was thinking what if they were a good deal? How much use is a wrist bucket and hammer? Would they be called for often or rarely in your opinion? Thanks for the replies!
My 311 cat had a wrist but no thumb we made a thumb for it and used an 24v electric diverter valve to switch it .I ran it to an old style floor dimmer switch.Change over is just a click away.As my wrist is a wain-roy it stays on with all buckets so no hose changes are needed. The second hole in your dipper is for lowering transport hieght but if you aren't over 13' 6" high on your trailer I wouldn't mess with it. I'm not sure about your Case but on my cat if you forget and leave it in the transport hole you can hit the cab with certian buckets as it allows the dipper to fold in further. As for the usefullness of a hammer or wist In my opinion let someone else beat up there pins and bushings with a hammer but when it comes to a wrist once you have on you will never want to go without it again.
God would love to have a thumb on my machine. Makes life a hell of a lot easier.
I have another hydraulics question so I thought I would add to this old thread as it has a picture of my machine. I am thinking of getting a hoe pack for driving fence and grape vine posts and I am wondering what I would need for hydraulics? Do I need to buy a kit from a place like HKX or could I use my thumb circuit? Thanks!
I would think you can use you "thumb" circuit for any accessory, after all, it "is" an auxilliary circuit, no additional auxilliary circuit is necessary. The one thing you don't want to do is use quick connects for a hammer, a hammer will destroy the innards of a quick coupler with the pulsing pressure they develope.
We have problem with CAT 5090B, problem with machine, the engine carry load when we unlock the hydraulic lever, the load is remove when we unlock the hydraulic lever. please help me to solve this problem
When you run a hydraulic motor such as a hoe pack you need to have a larger return line than your pressure line. On a 135 size machine you probably have 3/4" lines so you would need a 1" line for your return. You can still use this as one of your thumb lines, just mount a 3 way diverter valve down by the main boom foot pin. One line still goes to the control valve and the other goes straight to tank. On the stick end I always mount high pressure 3 way ball valves, (about where your existing block is)One way the thumb works and the other way has quick connectors to plug in your hoe pack lines. This saves alot of oil spills when hooking and unhooking.
You are correct, it reduces the height by allowing the arm to tuck in tighter so the boom can be brought down lower. And Cascade was also right as most people never do this. We have the optional long arm on our excavator and have never done it either, even though the manual says the same as yours. I guess it might be necessary if it was loaded on a tall trailer.