Grading the Mainline

Thought I would post a pic of some grading pics in the woods.
this is the first pass on a new to us 2005 140H, shown on Bishop A-line in Pacific County,Wash.on former weyco ground that recently sold to hancock.
machine is a very big improvment over our older 140 which I thought was pretty good!

LogDog said:

Thought I would post a pic of some grading pics in the woods.
this is the first pass on a new to us 2005 140H, shown on Bishop A-line in Pacific County,Wash.on former weyco ground that recently sold to hancock.
machine is a very big improvment over our older 140 which I thought was pretty good! View attachment 76470

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That's a nice looking grader! I miss that country out there- looks alot like Alaska except you can drive an hour to a real town........not so, here in Alaska.

If you put taller tires on that grader so the blade won't reach the ground your cutting edge will last forever. Also you can cover more road a lot faster and burn less fuel, that's how we do it in California.

Logdog: I'm sure you know, a lot of Weyco's mainlines started out as railroad grades back in the days of steam. Is that how the mainline in the pic was built originally?

My father ran one grader full-time at Vail, operated by Mr. Ken Hart, another first class gentleman. He kept a second machine as a spare/backup. Graders, like everything else, have come a long way since then.

I suspect that there may be someone else here beside me who has been up and down the Melbourne Mainline a time or two.... One of the landmarks I recall on that road was an old cabin beside the road, where an old black gentleman named Bill had lived for years, long before my time there. I had wondered if that was a watering point for lokies or something, and perhaps he tended it for a living years ago.

Dad runs this old 14G.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoJfDi8uFp4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUbFJWZxxtk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrZ_isnXGlY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYs_kpvHRtA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7guKKoPRwWw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o23c8y0-CUM

Road graders sure have come a long way, here is a little Adams I had years ago!

That little Adams would work fine arround the office but I don't think there is enough weight to do much good on the mainline. I will post some grader pictures once I figure out how to get things sized correctly.

I believe there was an exact Adams grader like that in tete Jaune BC. Is Adams from England, cause this grader was from England.

I'm pretty certain it was U. S. built but I could be wrong. It used a little Farmall tractor components. They actually took the engine off the transmission turned it around backwards and mounted on top the transmission. Then ran v-belts down to the trans and a driveline to the controls for the blade. A wheelbarrow load of gravel was about all it would push, still a lot better than the horse drawn one that I still have.

few more misc. from our area,building a crown on lund a-line,
ripping/scarifiying potholes upper wishkah,
grader parked in front of the "million dollar cut" on rayonier 3200 line, story is that what it cost to build for the railroad back in the day.
moving day with the new lowboy tractor. enjoy Roger.

Hey LogDog or I know you better as Hotdog, Where did you get enough sunshine to take those photos? Had snow again this morning. We are getting ready for summer work.Almost all rehab, very little new construction. We are going to put new brakes on my H next week, getting tired of dragging my feet to stop.

Big Creek said:

Hey LogDog or I know you better as Hotdog,

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Thal? ya caught me.
Where did you get enough sunshine to take those photos Had snow again this morning.
been wet here as well,

good machines the old 140H's i prefer the 3306 ones, good tough machine, the tier II 140H's gave us afew drama's but not as much as the 140Ms!

i should come clean, so to speak, this machine was one of the first 140M's into Australia at this stage of its life it had around 3000hrs on it and the job in which is was going to work required very strict quarrentine standards so the machine had to be semi-stripped to be cleaned, then assembled, then cleaned, then srink wrapped and sent to site

what kind a site would require that kind of protection?

plowking740 said:

what kind a site would require that kind of protection?

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Class A Nature Reserve

Grader thoughts?

Great pics!! I am in the process of purchasing a new grader for maintaining our mainlines here in BC - any thoughts as what size is the best? We are replacing an old 14G.

I am looking at a Cat 163H, JD 772C and a high hour Cat 14H. After having the 14G for so many years, I'm wondering if the 163H will handle the job. We mount 2 wings and a front plow for winter maintenance in our snow belt.

Any thoughts appreciated.

I would say avoid the 14H, they weren't as good as the 14G. I've heard nothing but good things about the JD 772C.

I ran a JD 770BH for years. It was bullit prouf, only 1 break down while we had it and that was an after market mod. We traded for a 163H that has been a bottomless hole to put money in. It curently has 10k hours of which I have put 6k on. In 6k hours here is a list of repairs. Ex man studs, Fuel tank split,Front hub failed $6k 6 weeks on parts, muffler x2, AC rebuilt x2 still not working,Radiator leaks, transmission solinoids, new VHP solinoid,New computer,new air comp.new air gov, circle rebuilt, art. cyl rebushed,tye rod end x3, wheel lean cyl broken weld,circle drive box rebuilt twice, broken blade mount,
Since last fall there has been a problem with engine power. The Cat Mechs have been out 6 times working on it they even had it in their shop for a week. So far new fuel lines and fittings, new filters, new check valves, new fuel pump, rebuilt AFR, rebuilt Gov,Rebuilt injector pump, new injectors, new turbo, new dust ejecter, AND it still dosen't run right.
Tomorrow We start on the brakes.
The things I do not like, The front rims are different from the rears so you can't rotate the tires.The upper radiator pipe runs THROUGH the fuel tank. Condensate needs to be drained weekly. The Code reader has a cloudy lense and can't be read. Call the mech. with his computer. The lights suck. They work OK in snow but if you need to road in the dark change them. Here is the real biggie, NO FWD in reverse, You can drive yourself into places you can't get out of.
This winter we could not keep up with the snow so we rented a 140G and it would run circles arround the 163H.I know of 4 163s here in the county.
I run this machine every day and am I tired of it.

Big Creek