Front blade on a grader

I know I haven seen many front blades on graders here but ive seen pics from Europe where most have them. I read an old Brochure on AC's D grader with front blade but that was a smaller machine. I guess it would be handy to knock down piles when spreading. Theres a big Deere down by the Divide Overlook park about five miles away with one on the parallel lift. I have a friend that works for a rural county and they have on for 20 miles of gravel road they maintain. He says its handy in a Washout of a road as the backhoe can stay at the pit or stock pile and load a few loads of gravel and he can push the pile in the wash then finish it with the blade. It saves time with the dozer or backhoe comming to push off.

He also says its nicer as its got spot lights all the way around an all weather cab. He said when the road way floods he can take the front blade and atriculation and pushed a curved drain way our in the woods and still leave the tandems on the road. One of theirs was modified Degleman dozer blade off a large Steiger tractor. The other one is a factory Imac unit. Most folks I know say they like them but folks like my brother say he wouldnt have one as its not designed for it on a smaller machine.

Id like yalls thoughts and opinions on them and other uses.

I've only ever seen them used for snow

It was an option to have a straight, non tilting blade on my '62 AW, and my '64 Galion. The operators manual for the AW (32,000 lbs, and 6x6) even shows a method of grubbing out stumps with it.

The AW uses the same cylinder and lift linkage as the mid-mounted ripper. I have a blade off a log skidder sitting at my shop waiting to go on it. I think it will be good for knocking down piles of gravel on narrow roads.

Front blade on grader

I can not imagine life with out a front blade. All of mine have had a front blade. Curent one has a 4 way blade. What can you do with one? Push trucks,push trees, push stumps. move bolders,knock down piles,ditchouts, backblade, lift flat tires into a truck, lift front of grader, plow snow... the list is endless.
What I don't understand is how those of you that do not have one keep the front of the grader on the road with out that extra weight on the front axle. The few times that I have removed mine the front tires skate all over the place.

Big Creek

We have a Champion 720 A with a blade on it and I would not be without it. We grade a lot of farmer's fencelines that have small piles of rock in them as well as small trees and the blade is invaluable for clearing them out of the way before grading. We also use it for knocking down piles and anything else that needs shifting.

The one drawback I have found with the blade is working in confined areas, I have been concentrating on the main blade and forgotten about the front blade protruding three feet out the front of the machine. I have collected a couple of posts while turning, but one day I looked up and the front blade was about three inches from a large water tank.

RnR.

I thought you guys had them on there to protect the tires from the grade stakes.

joispoi said:

I thought you guys had them on there to protect the tires from the grade stakes.

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No Man! that's what the lowered bumpers on the trucks are for. Grader operators USE grade stakes.

The county where I grew up had a front blade on their 14G. I have seen them pioneer in roads in some pretty rough terrain with it. It was on a quick coupler, and in winter was swapped out for a "V" plow for the snow.

I have wished I had one many times, as it would be very handy knocking down piles ahead of the main blade.

I think my brother and others that dont like them never have used on and dont see them as handy. I know mmy brother has run a large Cat grader with a push block for scrapers. On vacation in St Augusting Florida about every year we see at least 5 graders with blades on them. Every thing from Huber Mantainers Leeboy and old 12F Cats to a 14 and a 140 we saw. On the little Huber machines alot of them ran a rake on one side of the front blade that hinges up for clearing palmetto off shoulders.

i seen one on a contractors 140H CAT he loved the extra weight on the front if nothing else

Front blade with combo scrfier teeth

We manufactured our first compact grader in 1980 and it had a front blade with combo flip down scarfier teeth. I don’t remember who else offered a front blade at that time. (I was only 8) My grandpa wanted it for working in tight places, knocking down piles, back dragging in corners, etc. Its funny that our very first grader would have it and still today it is the most popular attachment we sell. This image is slightly newer than 1980 but the design really hasn’t changed that much.

I saw a little 2 axle Champion at St. Augustine FLorida last year on a road maintenanc crew with a blade on the front doing some clean up work. I wanted to operate that badly lol.

This is the front blade that we have been buying for our graders. I've always had a front blade. As said above, it comes in handy for many different things. The blade that you see below is an excellent product...

Taylortractornu said:

I saw a little 2 axle Champion at St. Augustine FLorida last year on a road maintenanc crew with a blade on the front doing some clean up work. I wanted to operate that badly lol.

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It could have been this one!

Grader4me said:

This is the front blade that we have been buying for our graders. I've always had a front blade. As said above, it comes in handy for many different things. The blade that you see below is an excellent product...



View attachment 81214

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Is this blade comeing with the new graders
I run an old 720vhp with a front blade the welder made up
still it works great use it a lot pushing trees off road
knocking piles down etc

tigtim said:

Is this blade comeing with the new graders
I run an old 720vhp with a front blade the welder made up
still it works great use it a lot pushing trees off road
knocking piles down etc

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Yup...you must work for DOT?

Yes i work out of Rexton

Welcome to HEF! I work out of District 5 (Instructor). Hey Gramps!..there are 2 of us here now...lol. Are you getting a new Volvo tigtim?

I dont know doubt it . my old girl is getting tired .
was a hard winter on it 21 days straight
cutting banks wideing roads cutting ice
had fun still not a job

I hear ya..my last grader was a 1996 Champion 720 VHP. I got it brand new, run it till 2001 then took this job. Its still going strong...good machine..