I finally switched from cable to hydraulic dredge controls on an old Ellicott

I've been running this 1960s Ellicott for about 8 years now and always hated how stiff the cable controls got when the weather turned cold. Last month after three days of fighting frozen cables on a job near Baton Rouge, I decided to give hydraulic conversion a try. The retrofit kit ran me about $4,200 and took a full weekend to install with my buddy helping. First thing I noticed was how much lighter the levers felt, like night and day difference when I'm digging in heavy sand. I'm still getting used to the finer adjustments though, it's way more sensitive than what I had before. Anybody else made this switch and got tips for dialing in the hydraulic response curves?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_john1mo ago

You ever notice how everything in life that's old and cable-operated just feels like you're fighting the machine, but the second you switch to something smoother you realize you were putting way too much effort in before? I swapped from a manual tiller on my boat to hydraulic steering a few years back and had the same shock you're describing, especially with the sensitivity thing. The trick I found was to stop trying to muscle it like the old setup and just relax your grip more, let the hydraulics do the work. It's like learning to trust a modern car's power steering after driving a 70s pickup with no assist, you gotta unlearn the habit of fighting it. Give it a couple weeks of just running the levers gently and your muscle memory will catch up, but that first week is gonna feel weird.

umamartin1mo ago

@the_john nailed it... gotta retrain your hands to be gentle.