Toro kit for power steering on a 520h

[jimbo7921 8]

just wondering if anybody had ever heard of a kit offered by toro for this application. Have an add posted here in Canada on kijiji that has some kits for sale, quite dear but real interesting. Not sure if I'm allowed to put a link up or not so let me know if i can or messenger me if u want to see it. I just thought it wasn't even an option on these tractors. thx jim

[Forest Road 594]

Any chance that its a kit or parts from a 520 xi? its a totally different tractor.

[Kelly 1,029]

I have seen a post a few years ago where a dealer was installing P/S on tractors, including decals on the hood, but I can't say it was a factory kit.

[AMC RULES 37,125]

:wwp:

[kpinnc 11,867]

Here's a picture of the dealer-installed setup. I can't remember if it was factory spec or not. I think it was Jason (Casual Observer) who had seen these up close, so he may have more info on it.

[JackC 617]

Based on the hood decals that could be a pre-gear reduction 520H (I believe 1990 did not have gear reduction steering).

Looks like a nice set up.

[Kelly 1,029]

That is the set up I was thinking of, glad you found it Kevin.

[jimbo7921 8]

here is the add that buddy had listed if anyone cares

That's right, there was an actual Toro manufactured hydrostatic power steering kit for the Wheelhorse 520.

Included steering valve, steering hydraulic cylinder, lines, tie rod, steering column and brackets. The only thing I don't have is the factory hood decals which said "power steering" in yellow beside the Toro. They did exist but I've never seen a set in person.

Easy setup to install. It will take approximately three hours if you are so inclined. Completely reversable, you can put your original setup back at any time. Works with either the 1991+ 520's with the gear reduced steering or the '88/'89 tractors with straight axle and standard steering. It will not work properly with the 518's or 516's without hydro lift. It needs the valve. If you have such a machine I can sell you the power lift kit (valve/cylinder/lever and lines) for another $200.

Makes steering with a front end loader, snowblower or front mount mower a breeze.

There are very few of these in existence. My price is fair. Contact Parker and ask for an HGF series 8 valve for a reference price. And that's just the valve. I don't want any trades, and I won't sell for less than my asking price.

Expensive, but worth it. Even if you already have the gear reduced steering, this will give the tractor effortless steering and zero backlash.

Please don't bother with lower offers or explaining why you can buy various valves/cylinders from eBay for less. They're easy to buy, not so easy to install. This system is designed for the tractor, and designed to be powered by the charge pump in the Eaton 1100 hydrostat with existing valving.

Unfortunatley I don't have pictures of it on the tractor, and I've never been able to get hold of a copy of the dealer manual for it. But, setup is rather easy and I can show you how and where to mount it on the tractor. It's very clever and simple really.

[Kelly 1,029]

How much??? I might be interested if not to high of a price. send me a PM.

[leeave96 487]

FWIW, my thought is the power steering would be nice, but I find the gear reduction steering really easy to use, even with front wheel weights installed year round. I can't imagine how much easier the tractor would be to steer with a steering wheel knob too!

Thanks,

Bill

[mattd860 162]

That power steering cylinder looks very similar to the standard hydrostatic lift cylinder that comes with the 520-H. I wonder if a lift cylinder can be installed as shown in the pictures above and used as a steering cylinder?? How can a steering wheel be used to actuate a cylinder though? If I can better understand all this - I may just have to develop custom power steering kits like my custom foot control pedal kits :)

[Kelly 1,029]

This I'm sure is not the same but close to that set up, I did on my 195 I used a steering control valve from a large golf course mower, and a cyl. from a Simplicity tractor.

JD, Cub cadet, and simplicity all have PS on there top end garden tractors, and the parts can be used to make your own conversion, but the parts are not cheap, the steering control valves or obital valves as some call them, used are $100-200

[mattd860 162]

Yeah you're right. The steering control valves are impossible to source cheap. There are a few on ebay that I may get just to make my own setup like you did but unless someone wanted to pay $1000 for a custom power steering setup, it wouldn't be worth producing brand new kits.

[TDN74 1]

On 10/25/2012 at 4:04 PM, jimbo7921 said:

I would like to contact the person who was selling these Power Steering Kits for my 520H.  I know it been a few years but I was lucky enough to get one of these great tractors with good hours!

 

 

 

here is the add that buddy had listed if anyone cares

 

 

That's right, there was an actual Toro manufactured hydrostatic power steering kit for the Wheelhorse 520.

 

Included steering valve, steering hydraulic cylinder, lines, tie rod, steering column and brackets. The only thing I don't have is the factory hood decals which said "power steering" in yellow beside the Toro. They did exist but I've never seen a set in person.

 

Easy setup to install. It will take approximately three hours if you are so inclined. Completely reversable, you can put your original setup back at any time. Works with either the 1991+ 520's with the gear reduced steering or the '88/'89 tractors with straight axle and standard steering. It will not work properly with the 518's or 516's without hydro lift. It needs the valve. If you have such a machine I can sell you the power lift kit (valve/cylinder/lever and lines) for another $200.

Makes steering with a front end loader, snowblower or front mount mower a breeze.

 

There are very few of these in existence. My price is fair. Contact Parker and ask for an HGF series 8 valve for a reference price. And that's just the valve. I don't want any trades, and I won't sell for less than my asking price.

 

Expensive, but worth it. Even if you already have the gear reduced steering, this will give the tractor effortless steering and zero backlash.

 

Please don't bother with lower offers or explaining why you can buy various valves/cylinders from eBay for less. They're easy to buy, not so easy to install. This system is designed for the tractor, and designed to be powered by the charge pump in the Eaton 1100 hydrostat with existing valving.

 

Unfortunatley I don't have pictures of it on the tractor, and I've never been able to get hold of a copy of the dealer manual for it. But, setup is rather easy and I can show you how and where to mount it on the tractor. It's very clever and simple really.

 

[Pullstart 62,751]

@TDN74   most of the people in this posting are not active on RedSquare like they used to be.  I have heard of only one person who knows about these kits, @Bow_Extreme care to shed any light?  It seems it was an independent dealer selling the kits , not Toro?

[Bow_Extreme 544]

On 10/9/2020 at 8:33 AM, pullstart said:

@TDN74   most of the people in this posting are not active on RedSquare like they used to be.  I have heard of only one person who knows about these kits, @Bow_Extreme care to shed any light?  It seems it was an independent dealer selling the kits , not Toro?

First off, Kelley’s power steering kit is 100% custom and very cool!!  Secondly, I’m fairly up to speed on the one kit that was offered through an individuals business specifically made for Wheel Horse 520H tractors.
 

The individual who made these kits had his own business.  In fact he owned one of the largest dealerships around.  This business has since been sold to his former employees.  He was not associated with Wheel Horse.  He was an independent designer and custom built prototypes for Wheel Horse and many other entities such as chainsaw manufacturers.  He worked directly with the lead engineers from Wheel Horse.  
 

The first Prototype, power steering unit 520H, was presented at the AIlen county Indiana fair.  Wheel Horse was their to see it but did not pursue the purchase of the design.  Instead kits were built aftermarket and sold to several Wheel Horse dealerships.  Some of these dealerships put them in every 520H sold.  
 

The prototype power steering 520H was designed using a custom hydraulic bypass valve to allow the hydraulic steering to operate without being interrupted by the hydraulic lift system.  Later units had this built in to the kit.  The steering wheel on the prototype was off an early model Wheel Horse. It was not an original 520 steering wheel.  The steering shaft was off a Cub international and was custom machined to fit the hydraulic steering valve.  Later kits has the steering shaft built in.  The prototype tractor also had yellow, cursive, decals on the hood that spelled out, “Power Steering”.  I own the prototype tractor.  

 

Approximately 125 power steering kits were built.  No one seems to know if they were all sold.  There could be a chance that a kit still exists in one of these dealerships.  The tooling and fixtures still exist although they are not for sale.  And there are 520’s out there that have the kit installed with very low hours on them.  They are somewhat hard to find.
 

Many of the components used are still available for purchase today as they were off the shelf items.  Hydraulic valve rebuild kits are available as well.

Edited October 10, 2020 by Bow_Extreme

[Bow_Extreme 544]

Article has been updated to reflect new information from the designer/owner himself.  I spoke with him this morning.

[TDN74 1]

That’s great information!  Thank you!  I have two tractors at home.  A JD111 and a WH520.  I was giving my son the JD and I wanted to keep the WH for myself.  I’m kind of fixing it up before the JD moves out.  I thought it would be real nice to have power steering. The 520H has power for days!  Do you know of a dealership that might have a kit still laying around? 

Edited October 10, 2020 by TDN74

[Bow_Extreme 544]

On 10/10/2020 at 12:45 PM, TDN74 said:

That’s great information!  Thank you!  I have two tractors at home.  A JD111 and a WH520.  I was giving my son the JD and I wanted to keep the WH for myself.  I’m kind of fixing it up before the JD moves out.  I thought it would be real nice to have power steering. The 520H has power for days!  Do you know of a dealership that might have a kit still laying around? 

Sounds like you have a couple nice tractors.  I don’t know that anyone has them anymore., I’ve personally never seen a kit for sale.

[KrazeyOlDave 860]

Why not just use a outboard hydraulic steering kit? Very simple to do, not a ton of fab work. 

[Damien Walker 246]

Hi everybody, I have just completed the restoration of a 518H and I fitted power steering. All tested and running well now. Steering is finger tip light. It is arguably a little 'slow' (ie too many turns lock to lock) but that is no bad thing really...might be able to move the ram mount position closer to the King pin to speed it up but it is fine really.(photo shows the original ram mount position - same as track control rod...that really IS slow!)

 

I managed to get a Danfoss OSPM valve with power beyond and a ram from a 520xi off ebay and the rest is fairly simple fabrication work. The steering valve mounts on a flat plate 2mm thick welded on a suitable slant about halfway down the height of the sheet metal centre console towards the front, and inline with the original steering column. This position ended up not being quite ideal (interferes with the motion control lever) and so the valve was finally mounted lower down from that plate on standoffs. I used the wheel off a C Series because hydro static steering does not maintain a centre zero (518H wheel is asymetric). I added a much more robust bearing to the top of the column, which is just a piece of 3/4" bore tube and well greased. Welded in place at the correct angle. The OSPM uses a splined fitting which is no longer available, but luckily, it also has a hex socket in the input shaft. The steering was made up from the usual 3/4" bar with a 1/2" square machined on the bottom, such that it plugs into a standard socket wrench universal joint, which in turn drives a 1/2" to 6mm (I think) hex drive key. Finally, there's a standard collar around the shaft as in the original, to stop the steering wheel lifting out.

 

The hydraulic supply is the line to the lift valve which is then supplied via the steering power beyond port and the steering and lift returns are t'd together just prior to the transmission case.

 

The column mounted lift lever is not affected by this mod, but the motion control is. I'll post some photos but the motion control arrangement is just the same but I had to shorten the shaft and make a new bearing (3D printed) to support the shaft as it goes through the battery mount plate. I had to make minor mods to the motion lever interlock switch plate to get that to fit again but it all works very nicely and was very well worth doing. There is a minor issue in that to mount the ram where it now is (not as in the picture), I had to mount the track control rod underneath the steering arms. This means the mower belt rubs on it so I'll have to tweak this a bit.

[Damien Walker 246]

There's more photos but I've bust the 1tMb upload limit!

[Damien Walker 246]

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the 520H swept front axle too.....hopefully to make fitting the mid mount mower much easier.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

This new info with pictures is pretty awesome!

Thanks!

 

Please consider becoming a Supporter and those upload limits will cease.

[Damien Walker 246]

6 hours ago, DennisThornton said:

This new info with pictures is pretty awesome!

Thanks!

 

Please consider becoming a Supporter and those upload limits will cease.

 

Hi Dennis, thanks for your kind comments. It all fitted in quite easily, the only major mod being the motion control lever. On the earlier version and the C Series, it would be an even easier mod. As I did it all piece by piece, I don't have any drawings..stupidly didn't take any before and during pics either, but if anyone wants to know more, just ask and I'll try to provide more detail. The OSPM valve appears to be the smallest on the market and so is very recommended for the space available. The tractor just needs some decals now and it will be finished..more photos coming! (Thanks for the invite...I'll look into 'supportership' )