Good work Rebekah.
The longer stick will certainly give the model a better range of motion for loading & digging.
Something I've discovered with my own Fumotec hoe is better control of the hyd arm functions by limitng the EPA of some valves more than the others. trackandtreadsandlou has one of these Damitz hoe's & I ran it a few yrs ago. The hyd swing motor seem to dominate the flow whenever activated, which made the model difficult to operate fluently. Limiting the valve opening of the swing motor should help to not starve the rest of the hyd system so you could lift & swing simutaneously to the trk. Just an FYI if you're interested in trying.