B2601 Upgrades

[Philly20]

Thought I'd share some of changes I've made to my 2601 since I got it a few months back. First, I intalled the Kubota block heater. As others have stated, this is not a difficult job but you WILL need a 35mm socket to fully tighten the heating element. A crescent is not going to cut it in the tight space. You will need some tourqe.

Next, I got rid of stock cheap-o plastic tool box and replaced it with a metal box with a latch. I was not confident the plastic one would stay closed in bumpy situations with just a tension fit. Honestly, the "toolbox" was the only disappointing thing about the tractor so far. The metal one cost me 10 bucks.

Finally, the must-have ROPS lights. I bought a pair of 27w led's off Amazon for 30 bucks. The 2601 only offers 5 amps for the work light circuit. These lights draw 2.25 amps each, so I'm close but good. I modified the dash a bit to accept the larger switch. $40 for the Kubota switches seemed ridiculous to me. For the mounts I simply used some angle iron cut into 6 inch pieces and drilled. BTW, I know others have stated the welded nut on the ROPS is 10mm, but I had to use 3/8 sae--and even that seemed tight. I splurged on the Kubota ROPS paint to match.

Overall, I love this machine. It has performed great so far in snow removal. Can't for summer to get some real work done.

 

[Philly20]

BTW, any idea how to stop the pics from posting sideways?

 

[Builtough]

Nice post. Were you able to mount the steel toolbox to the existing mounts? I have the same opinion of the cheap plastic one that came with it! Also- where did you buy the new toolbox? Good tidbit on the 5 amp lighting circuit. I got the factory rear light kit (halogen) but realized this winter that I need more forward lighting when pushing snow (the bucket blocks the headlights). I'm planning on adding a top-n-tilt and side mirrors this year. I'll post when complete

 

[Philly20]

I got the toolbox from a store called Family Farm and Home, which is like TSC. You could use any box of similar dimensions. This box was slightly larger so I had to mount it back on the rail a bit so it wouldn't block the top link from going in its hook when not in use. When I got the box where I wanted, I just used a pick tool through the existing holes to score a mark on the box and drilled it out. I used the bolts that came with the plastic box.

My original idea on the ROPS lights was to mount 4: two forward, two toward the rear. However amperage was an issue. My solution was to mount 2 but on the left light (not pictured) I left enough slack in the wire so the light can simply be turned around. I will replace the hex nut that comes with the light with a wing nut so it can be loosened and tightened by hand. I figured one of these lights should be plenty at night for my needs.

 

[coachgeo]

BTW, any idea how to stop the pics from posting sideways?

yeah.... You do know that the way the loaded here is actually the way they are saved on the phone's/tablet's/laptop's/computer's drive right? *These days photo's are saved however the device the pic was shot with does it (landscape or portrait). BUTT it saves it with identifiers coded in that tell the most modern phone's/tablet's/laptop's/computer's which way is up. These devices will read that code and display image with the right side up no matter how it was saved. BUTTT when you copy a pic to web pages and many thousands of other applications/devices that don't process that coding...... and all yous see is how it was originally stored. Today that is usually sideways since most pics these days come from phones and tablets.

Not sure anyone is in a rush to change that. So before posting always open your pics in a photo editor AS saved so you can discover what orientation they are really saved in. Then edit if needed and resave. You can do this with edit software in the device/computer, or online via edit software such as:
http://www.flipmyphotos.com/
There are ton of sites like that one.


*lot of details left out that I don't know/understand thus but this gives you the jist of why it ends up sideways.

 

[Philly20]

Thanks for the info.