Welder Dave
Senior Member
It looks like you're in there pretty good.
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Early Spring Road Maintenance
- Thread starter ovrszd
- Start date
20/80
Senior Member
Was a easy pull, lifted my front end up out of the hole, backhoe pulled the frontend around, literally drove out. wasn't my first day at the rodeo, lol, have been in a lot worst situations, doesn't happen to often but it does happen to the best of us when you do a lot of ditching.
cuttin edge
Senior Member
did some grading on Saturday for Arbec Forest products. Today was their opening day for receiving wood. When I see how much wood they go through, I am amazed there are any trees left. They take everything, hard wood or soft. Some of it looks like broom handles. New Mauldin arrived today. I stopped at the shop to take a quick peek. They have a few things to do in order to get it ready, and Sancton equipment is sending a tech to give it a once over. Took me 15 min to figure out how to raise the ripper. Double click joy stick control B to activate loader control, toggle front toggle switch all the way right or left, then use inside toggle to raise or lower ripper....wtf. Once we get it out on the job, I'll get my truck driver to take some pictures and send them to me to post. Here is a stock photo.
Welder Dave
Senior Member
Controls sound like they could be a nightmare if they act up.
Welder Dave
Senior Member
It probably looks worse in the pic. than it actually was. Sometimes you get stuck just trying to do the simplest things. Not that you really did anything wrong, 6 inches over too far and you get sucked into the mud. Have had this happen a few times with the skid steer and once with a loaded dump truck. The dump was only bad because the next door neighbor wanted 150litres of diesel for pulling me out with his excavator. $175 seemed just a little high for helping your neighbor out. I won't be asking him for help in the future. I would have tried to pull it out with my track loader but it was about 3/4 of a mile away in my other neighbors back field.
20/80
Senior Member
It happens, the key is not to make your situation worst then it already is, most will know you will need a little pull right off, your shop can send their own gear like in my case the backhoe for a little tug , but some will dig and spin and chew there way into needing a wrecker which costs money, pride sometimes gets in the way. lol
Oooppss..
I've only been stuck once. Was cleaning out a ditch and when I broke thru the top crust it became a swamp. Remembered after the fact that when I was a kid you could hide a car in that ditch.....
Graders don't like their nose downhill....
Yesterday I started over all of my roads with a maintenance grade. Most of my gravel has been on over a month. We've not had any damaging rains. But we've gotten small rains a couple times a week for two months now. Farmers still aren't done planting.
I'm getting quite a few chug holes. Also vegetation growth on the shoulders in in high gear....
I ran 7 miles of roads yesterday. Brought the grader home with me last night. Intended to run roads near my farm today. Rained 1.5" last night. So while I'm here I'll give the grader a bath. It's the dirtiest it's been since we bought it. Been cleaning out ditches as I go when possible....
I'm getting quite a few chug holes. Also vegetation growth on the shoulders in in high gear....
I ran 7 miles of roads yesterday. Brought the grader home with me last night. Intended to run roads near my farm today. Rained 1.5" last night. So while I'm here I'll give the grader a bath. It's the dirtiest it's been since we bought it. Been cleaning out ditches as I go when possible....
20/80
Senior Member
Don't take long to get dirt on them messing in the ditches, was just prepping that road for new gravel, didn't have the dozer blade on so got down in the ditch a bit to far, front wheel went down over a little bank, and there I was, lol, came back the next day with the dozer blade on finished the ditching, ditches are still a bit soft here yet, do alot of ditching in August much drier then for that, just finished my second round and all my roads now are sprayed for dust control, that's 120 roads sense the last week of April.
cuttin edge
Senior Member
More grading at Arbec with My Volvo in the morning. Put 3 days on the new Mauldin. Great power over the older model, but man I am hating the electronic joystick control compared to my old directly on the valve controls.
cuttin edge
Senior Member
Pics of the new ride.
A video to, not sure if it loaded
Last edited:
Cat 140M AWD
Senior Member
I’m all done with my spring work have the roads I pulled shoulders on all ready for gravel in a couple of weeks here here are a few pictures of last road I worked up also trying some new cutting edges out trying the cat style triangle bits I like them so far to nice job mixing material 
Cat 140M AWD
Senior Member
I also had a rain day recently so took the time to wash and wax the Deere machine I operate still looks brand new 
20/80
Senior Member
Nice job, those are top of the line stinger bits compared to what they get me, are they carbide tips? mine are suppose to rotate when grading but they never do, those bits would be great for iceblading to, just noticed you have a extender insert in your blade, did your 140 come with a 12ft blade?
cuttin edge
Senior Member
Do your cats have the joystick controls? If so, do they have feed back? My Volvo has the rack controls, as well as all the other versions of the grader I posted. This new little Mauldin is single joystick, and I don't mind the buttons and toggles, but there is no feeling in the joystick, and I find it hard to judge when the movement will start. It was a joy to get into my Volvo this morning and feel the little feeling of the valve opening in my hand.
cuttin edge
Senior Member
Video wouldn't post. They were on my facebookPics of the new ride.A video to, not sure if it loaded
Cat 140M AWD
Senior Member
Yes they are carbide bits they do a really nice job very happy with them and I run a 16ft moldboard on all my machines use a 2ft left hand extension and as far as the machine yes I have joystick controls and there’s some feed back takes some getting used to that’s for suer.
20/80
Senior Member
Nice, a extra 2ft would make a difference for sure, there is some feedback but very little compared to the racks on the H series, you can feel the hydraulics coming on in the levers in the H series, not so much in the M with joysticks, its electric over Hydraulic
Cat 140M AWD
Senior Member
I agree definitely can feel way better with rack controls the joystick controls I still operate a rack control machine have a 2019 cat 140 nice machine and in my opinion for doing road maintenance 16ft moldboard is only way to maintain roads easily I have 22
To 24 ft roads and I can easily 2 pass them.
My neighboring Township to the North uses 16ft moldboard. I use 14ft. My roads need a lot of dozing and upgrading before I could use 16ft. Our terrain changes a lot here also. The Township to the North is much flatter and open.
We are still getting at least one rain per week. Several acres of fields not planted yet. Supposed to get rain again mid week. Not much benefit in planting anything past the first of July. Really sucks for the farmer that's paying cash rent for land and not getting it planted.
I wax my machine once per year.
We are still getting at least one rain per week. Several acres of fields not planted yet. Supposed to get rain again mid week. Not much benefit in planting anything past the first of July. Really sucks for the farmer that's paying cash rent for land and not getting it planted.
I wax my machine once per year.