One of the best advantages offered by the auxiliary lines blocks produced by Faster (among which we mention in particular the 3-ports versions, fitted as standard on the compact loaders of leading brands such as Caterpillar, Doosan Bobcat, JCB, John Deere and Kubota) is the possibility to quickly and easily replace 1/2" cartridges with 3/4" ones or vice versa. The replacement maneuver can be performed also by operators who haven’t particular experience with hydraulics just by following the instructions contained in the cartridge replacement kits, which can be ordered through the Faster network of distributors or through dealers and after sales networks of construction machinery manufacturers; this topic was covered in the video available at this link.
Flexibility in Hydraulic Attachments
The resulting benefit achieved by users, besides ease, is an excellent flexibility in the hose connections of hydraulic attachments to skid steer loaders and compact track loaders by means of auxiliary lines blocks as interface. High-flow attachments, where ¾” hoses and ¾” quick-release couplings are usually installed, are primarily destined to the connection to high-flow carriers but can also be connected to standard-flow carriers simply by replacing the hydraulic cartridges.
Size Conversion
Obviously it’s just as simple to carry out the opposite maneuver, i.e. the downgrade of size, when it’s necessary to hook up an hydraulic implement equipped with 1/2" hoses and 1/2"quick couplings to a carrier where an auxiliary lines block with 3/4" cartridges is installed. We specify however that replacing hydraulic cartridges with others of a different size doesn’t mean having performed a complete upgrade or downgrade of the machine's flow rate characteristics: in fact, to do this, it’s also necessary to replace the pump, the rigid pipes and the diverter valve and these operations are significantly rather expensive, long and complex and require generally the intervention of specialized personnel.
Compatibility and Operator Capability
After carefully verifying that the attachment weight doesn’t exceed carrier’s maximum lift capacity and that there’s performance compatibility between the hydraulic systems of carrier and attachment (flow and pressure put out by the loader match the values the attachment is rated for), the aforementioned changeover of cartridges of different sizes can be made without any concerns even by unskilled operators.