Do It Yourself Touch Control

[ricky racer]

If you purchased a Cub without a Touch Control but wanted the added convenience of hydraulics to raise and lower your attachments, what would you do? Spend a couple of hours and a few hundred dollars adding a factory Touch Control unit to your Cub? Bolt on the pump, lines and the TC unit, hook up your implements and go to work? Or would you spend a few hundred dollars, hours and hours of design and fabrication time and make your own?

Well, I saw this at the Winamac Show today. It's always fun to see ways that others resolve problems by using what they have on hand or just by taking a totally different approach to resolving the problem.

[havoc1482]

This is what I see: Belt runs mower and pump. hydraulic controls are mounted to steering column. hydraulic piston moves the rocker to the front and the drawbar to raise and lower the mower.

Very cool! Personally, I would have done the lines in a way that kept them neat and out of my way, having it hang over/around the shifter like that would drive me bonkers.

[Smokeycub]

Very inventive. That pump looks like a repurposed power steering unit off an old GM truck, including the bracket. Probably cheaper and less headaches doing it like that vs. a touch control add on. Interesting fab job on the dual purpose pulley. Down side would be that the rear lift arm isn't available for anything else and the drawbar is pretty much stuck in place. It's fine for a dedicated mowing tractor though. Probably doesn't need the spring assist anymore !

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Looks like quite a bit of engineering, and a pretty neat job just to raise a belly mower, unless he has more front/belly mounted stuff to go with it. I am assuming it was built with available parts, but I would have probably gone for a pump from a `154 so I had live hydraulics. But i also have to take into consideration he may not have known about the 154 pump. I would not have before the internet was available.

[TomE]

It looks like a lot of head scratching went into that design.

[Rudi]

I too enjoy seeing how other folks solve issues/needs with their Cubs. This is interesting and a rather clever way to solve the TC thought.