Kit Cleans Up Older Deere Hydraulic Mess

Kit Cleans Up Older Deere Hydraulic Mess TRACTORS Hydraulics Scott Grove cleaned up leaky hydraulic valves on his older Deere tractors with a simple insert The long-standing problem is one the company has yet to fix Grove says it forces him and other owners of Deere tractors to replace O-rings on a regular basis only to have the mess return Grove’s fix eliminated the mess and the need to replace parts     “With my dad Jim’s help I made the original kit for one of my tractors 4 years ago and it worked great ” says Grove who started a company called Wapsi Innovations “Then I made a few more for tractors that belonged to family and friends I realized there might be a demand ”     Grove has kits for 20 30 and 40 series Deere tractors They consist of inserts couplers dustcaps and expansion plugs In addition to eliminating leaks kits convert the old-style outlets to ISO with one-hand push-pull connection and couplers that connect under pressure and offer a breakaway feature     Installation consists of stripping the OEM outlets down to the block removing the barrels and O-rings and replacing them with the inserts Grove then adds the after-market ISO coupler that threads into the insert     “A kit takes roughly 45 min to install ” he says “It’s very easy ”     Grove bought a small lathe to make the prototypes After getting a patent on them he incorporated Wapsi Innovations and set up a website He also purchased an old turret lathe a predecessor to Computer Numeric Control CNC machines     “I used the turret lathe to produce the first 150 kits ” relates Grove “Last July we hit some dealerships and independent repair shops and they all liked the kits Then someone posted a link to AgTalk online and demand exploded ”     Grove has since upgraded to a CNC to meet the increased demand Once again a family member is helping out     “My dad’s machining background helped when designing the prototypes ” says Grove “My son Mike is a machinist and did the programming for the CNC I do the production and the inserts are still made here on the farm ”     Grove says he has a design ready for the older 10 Series Deere “I plan to eventually do kits for the 50 55 and 60 series taking the kit all the way through the early 1990’s tractors They all have similar leaks ”     Kits are priced at $329 Grove suggests checking with the local Deere dealer or calling Wapsi Innovations directly     “We are starting a dealer network and have 3 territory reps ” says Grove “We are already shipping a lot of units to Canada ”     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Wapsi Innovations 1969 260th St New Hampton Iowa 50659 ph 641 229-7413; scott@wapsiinnovations com; www wapsiinnovations com

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