milling_drum
Senior Member
Just thought I'd put it out there what everyone's favorite mill is and why.
Being that I'm a little strange to most people, I do not have a favorite mill. I've run pretty much all of them at one time or another. The only ones I have not are Dynapac, Bomag, and the assorted mill head attachments found on backhoes, excavators and graders. (Don't even get me started on 12ft mills)
Of the Half-lane mills, they are all good in different ways. Obviously Wirtgen make a great machine however the quality factor has dropped off since they started mass production. The older DC series were also excellent machines as well. From what I can remember back in the early 90's it was only CAT and Wirtgen that made a machine that really could hold grade with all 4 tracks where others either couldn't do it or did not have that option.
Back in the late 80's and early 90's CMI pretty much dominated the market with the best forward loading, powerful mills out there. When they released the PR800-7 everybody went nuts for them. However around the same time Roadtec had some good mills as well which, despite them not having the HP that CMI had could still pull a decent amount of asphalt up per day. The older Roadtecs main problem was getting the load off the ground, if you went at it too hard the lower conveyor couldn't handle it. Back then they didn't have bulkhead/front mouldboards of which to raise to ease the load on the tail pulley...but if you knew how to run them...they got it done nicely.
Ingersoll had a half-lane mill that was pretty consistant as well, lots of bad things were said about them over the years but the time I spent around them they seemed alright, the grade system was a little to ahead of its time and not perfected but their drives and loadout systems were excellent.
I could go on and on but its your turn now
Being that I'm a little strange to most people, I do not have a favorite mill. I've run pretty much all of them at one time or another. The only ones I have not are Dynapac, Bomag, and the assorted mill head attachments found on backhoes, excavators and graders. (Don't even get me started on 12ft mills)
Of the Half-lane mills, they are all good in different ways. Obviously Wirtgen make a great machine however the quality factor has dropped off since they started mass production. The older DC series were also excellent machines as well. From what I can remember back in the early 90's it was only CAT and Wirtgen that made a machine that really could hold grade with all 4 tracks where others either couldn't do it or did not have that option.
Back in the late 80's and early 90's CMI pretty much dominated the market with the best forward loading, powerful mills out there. When they released the PR800-7 everybody went nuts for them. However around the same time Roadtec had some good mills as well which, despite them not having the HP that CMI had could still pull a decent amount of asphalt up per day. The older Roadtecs main problem was getting the load off the ground, if you went at it too hard the lower conveyor couldn't handle it. Back then they didn't have bulkhead/front mouldboards of which to raise to ease the load on the tail pulley...but if you knew how to run them...they got it done nicely.
Ingersoll had a half-lane mill that was pretty consistant as well, lots of bad things were said about them over the years but the time I spent around them they seemed alright, the grade system was a little to ahead of its time and not perfected but their drives and loadout systems were excellent.
I could go on and on but its your turn now