Educate me on motor graders, I'm looking to buy one

[ovrszd]

Thank you, that's my new thing learned for today

Terraces here are smaller and are farmed over. Same purpose as described by crane operator.

 

[ovrszd]

Friend of mine has a blade he pulls with his tractor. Designed like a land leveler. Distance from tractor hitch to rear wheels is probably 25ft, maybe 30ft. With 14ft moldboard about 2/3 toward the rear. Moldboard angles, lifts, tilts just like a grader table. Pulls it with a 200HP FWA tractor. Maintains his terraces and waterways with it. It's the only one of it's kind I've saw. He probably paid $20K for it, not sure about that. He didn't want to buy duplicate HP that he already had setting in the machine shed. I don't have a pic of it, sorry.

 

[terex herder]

Ok, so I took you guys advise and bought more machine than I was planning on. Not mentioned in the listing is its hydraulic assist on the steer axle. What do you think?

I'll go get it later this week. Any comments or suggestions? I have a 50 ton lay down neck with a 24' well.

https://www.bigiron.com/Lots/1999JohnDeere772CHMotorGrader-3

 

[cuttin edge]

Wonder if it's standard controls or the deere pattern like Overszd runs. I just drive it on, front wheels between the first 2 axles. Should be able to tuck your MB in so you're not over width, throw a few chains on her, and a bag on the exhaust, and bob's your uncle.....

 

[Welder Dave]

If it has all wheel drive is a bonus. Can we ask what it cost? Looks pretty clean and tight but I wouldn't trust the hour meter. If the hour meter is correct it's just broken in.

 

[crane operator]

Looks like the only rust is surface on the thin door panels. It sure is a nice looking machine, and its in the state also, which is a big bonus.

You should be able to just drive the steer axle up on the trailer axles and park it on the bolsters, or do you have wheel well covers?

Come from a county - or you don't know?

Either way- buying more machine than you need is always better than not having enough machine, it looks great.

 

[terex herder]

Cost was $55,250, plus 7.% sales tax I wasn't expecting. I think the hour meter was correct. The Kansas Turnpike Authority sold it in 2010 with 1316 hours showing to the seller. The seller had it into deere for transmission work in 2017 with 2869 hours. My lowboy has wheel covers, so should have no problem parking on the tail. I bought the machine from an oil well service company. They did some terrace work and kept up lease roads. I don't have interstate license on my trucks, so being in state and being able to get it myself is a big plus.

One articulation cylinder pin is hacked, and the lower articulation pin turns in the housing rather than the bushing. It could use the ball joints tightened up, but none are slap bad.

 

[mowingman]

That should be a good machine for you. In 99, I believe I bought one almost exactly like that, same model I think, for a mining operation I was supervising. Last I heard, they were still using it for a backup machine. So, that grader has lasted over 20 years, most of those years, it was used daily.
Jeff

 

[ovrszd]

Wonder if it's standard controls or the deere pattern like Overszd runs. I just drive it on, front wheels between the first 2 axles. Should be able to tuck your MB in so you're not over width, throw a few chains on her, and a bag on the exhaust, and bob's your uncle.....

Based on this pic, it's standard rack controls. The pic shows the levers to the right of the steering wheel. The outer most lever is labeled to lift the right end of the moldboard. A pic of the left side would show the outer most lever lifting the left end of the moldboard.

 

[ovrszd]

Cost was $55,250, plus 7.% sales tax I wasn't expecting. I think the hour meter was correct. The Kansas Turnpike Authority sold it in 2010 with 1316 hours showing to the seller. The seller had it into deere for transmission work in 2017 with 2869 hours. My lowboy has wheel covers, so should have no problem parking on the tail. I bought the machine from an oil well service company. They did some terrace work and kept up lease roads. I don't have interstate license on my trucks, so being in state and being able to get it myself is a big plus.

One articulation cylinder pin is hacked, and the lower articulation pin turns in the housing rather than the bushing. It could use the ball joints tightened up, but none are slap bad.

I believe the hour meter based on the pics.

 

[ovrszd]

Hopefully it comes with the Operator's Manual. JD is good about detailing normal operator maintenance to keep the machine tight.

In the below pic I want to point out a "slack" issue. Look at the brackets the moldboard slides thru to get lateral movement. The top bracket shows a considerable gap. This will translate into a 1/2" or so of moldboard slack. The manual will outline how to tighten this. It's pretty simple. Remove the top bracket "cap". There are shims stacked under it. Remove shims until you get the clearance you are after. When you do the left side extend the blade fully to the right. When you do the right side extend the blade fully to the left. I remove shims until I've got a snug fit in those positions. Then there will be appropriate slack when in the center position where it's the loosest.

There are brass inserts involved also. When you remove the cap you'll see whether they have any "life" left in them or not. With the top cap off you can lower the moldboard until you create slack in the bottom. This will allow you to remove the bottom insert. Look them over and replace if needed. Don't let the moldboard rails wear thru until they are rubbing on the cast brackets. You'll cause damage that's very expensive to fix. The inserts will wear more on one surface. You can swap them side to side and wear on the thicker surface if you choose.

 

[ovrszd]

This machine can be converted to right hand lift very easily. It moves the scarifier control to the outer left lever. Moves the left blade lift control to where the scarifier currently is, second lever in on the right side. Swap the lever handles to put both blade lift levers on the right side, stacked side by side.

Pull the cover off the main frame just in front of the windshield. Trace hydraulic hoses and swap them. Make sure the restrictor plate goes with the lift function. Otherwise the left end blade lift will be extremely fast. And the Scarifier will be extremely slow.

I highly suggest this conversion. Especially starting with a "new" machine. As you are getting used to the machine you'll get used to having the controls set up that way. If you run it awhile as is and then make the swap you gotta learn all over again.

 

[ovrszd]

Here's some reference pics for the lever conversion. This is on a D model but would have the same result.

First shows left side. Second shows right side. Third shows how I run with my right hand. I control articulation and blade lift without lifting my hand.

 

[Welder Dave]

Curious what would have caused transmission and articulation pins damage with such low hours.

 

[cuttin edge]

Some people figure if you don't use articulation, it doesn't need to be greased, but even with the locks in, or out, there is always movement. The center pins on my grader are not serviceable, if that's what he means. I assume they are sealed. We had one fail on one of the loaders. Top was dry and worn, and the bottom was like new.

 

[ovrszd]

Curious what would have caused transmission and articulation pins damage with such low hours.

Deere had some transmission problems during that time. Hard to say what was the cause of repairs in this case.

Lack of grease would be the culprit for articulation failure.

I have always greased the snot out of them. But I use my articulation almost as much as I use the steering wheel.

 

[ovrszd]

Some people figure if you don't use articulation, it doesn't need to be greased, but even with the locks in, or out, there is always movement. The center pins on my grader are not serviceable, if that's what he means. I assume they are sealed. We had one fail on one of the loaders. Top was dry and worn, and the bottom was like new.

It's an assumption on my part that he means the articulation pin, not just the articulation cylinder pin. But you know how assumptions are....

 

[crane operator]

I like the looks of that lever swap. One hand on the wheel and one on the levers that you use all the time.

 

[Terry140]

The C series were a good machine. They were the first Deeres to have the radiator up the back of the machine instead of behind the cab like the A and B series Deeres. I remember the transmission was all new too and they had a few teething problems with them, but once sorted out they worked fine.

 

[ovrszd]

The C series were a good machine. They were the first Deeres to have the radiator up the back of the machine instead of behind the cab like the A and B series Deeres. I remember the transmission was all new too and they had a few teething problems with them, but once sorted out they worked fine.

The problem with the radiator move was they stacked them. Was a challenge to keep the coolers clean. I tried to stay ahead of it and blew mine out frequently. Couple times a year would power wash them. In the beginning our machine sat outside. It was worse then because rain would soak the dirt between the coolers and it would setup like cement. Later years we had a shed which helped a lot.

Now Deere has separated all the coolers and added reversible fans. No more problems. I never have to clean the coolers.