Gradall, JLG, Lull 944 experiences?

[Speedpup]

Anyone have any Gradall experience for masonry work? How do you land on scaffolds up high? What is the difference between Gradall and JLG now they are combined? I see the steering mode on some. Booms all look the same now since JLG bought them all. How does the hydraulic drive hold up and maintenance on them? Do the rear pivot pins hold up? Thanks!

 

[landrvrnut22]

Most masons I have worked with use Gradalls, and given a preference I would take one over any other machine.

The rear steer makes the Gradall spin about one front tire when at full lock. This makes it very manuverable in tight jobsites. The rear steer holds up very well. The Gradall 534-9 I use has 6000+ hours on the original pins, and steering hydraulic lines. They are very reliable, and do well on rough jobsites. The down side is the rear steer tends to tear up the sub-grade quickly, and can make a mess out of a jobsite quickly.

The JLG's are 4 wheel steer with 3 steering modes, front, 4-wheel, and crab. While the steering modes help on pavements, and minimize damage, the turning radius is actually much larger than that of the Gradall.

I think the booms have been very similar for several years, so I cant comment on the differences, but of the various models I have used, I have not noticed a huge difference.

As far as reaching the high scaffolding, it takes alot of practice, and good depth perception.

The 534-9 has a 45' reach with a max load of 9,000 lbs. The largest model the 544-10 has a 55' reach with 10k max load. The 544 is a beast, but makes quick work of heavy loads, and tall buildings.

I will say, most large jobs are nearly impossible without a telehandler of some kind. My favorite machine was a 544-10 with 200 hours, full cab with air and heat, with winch and rotating 8' fork carriage, and material bucket. That machine could do of move any load I used it for.

 

[Speedpup]

Good point on tearing up the site. I demoed a 544 years ago at the factory but didn't see how it was easy to land a load at 40+ feet. You are going more by feel and not depth perception. Thanks for the input. I always wanted a Gradall pivot steer. Handy even if used with two or three scaffolds which most of my jobs are. I see them going for near nothing on ironplanet. Now I just need the confidence to spend some money.:beatsme

 

[CM1995]

I have a 1998 Gradall 534D6 36' footer with framers carriage, quick connect and a light material bucket, owned it since new. The Gradall, we call her ol' blue, is one heck of a machine. Very reliable, low maintenance and no computers. Most electrical parts can be bought at NAPA and have you back running again. We have not had any problems with hydraulics or the rear steer, just like every machine maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. The little Cummins performs well.

It has 2800 some odd hours on it and has built 5 town home projects, couple of commercial projects and a handfull of houses. Haven't put a whole lot of hours on it but it sure is a handy machine to have around.

The light material bucket on front makes building retaining walls easier. We had one project where we could not backfill the blocks from the topside. We would lay 2-3 courses of block, using the forks to set the pallets up, then switch to the bucket to backfill. Worked pretty well.

 

[okney1lz]

My two cents:

Here in South Eastern PA I see mostly Lulls and Gradalls on brick & block jobs nowadays. Anywhere from late 70's to late 90's vintage it seems. I see the Lulls in Center City Philly too. Seems as though the Petibones have faded in the past 15 or so years. It also seems to me that the Gradalls are on the more "open" Jobsites that I see.

Having grown up in a family full of industrial and residential masonry contractors and having been on both ends of just about everything out there I would have to swear by Lull. Purely for the fact of the traversing carriage. I like the older models better, because I feel more comfortable on them, but that's just me. I like five finger Case Backhoes too.

We went from ladders and hods to elevators to jungle-jim Petibones and Lulls to just Lulls. The Petibones were too fast and operators would drive them into the ground from going to fast. We tried others through out the years but Lull has always been our choice. It has also seemed easier to give employees a safe working knowledge of the Lulls. Drive to scaffold, raise load, transverse, set load, retract carriage, lower, done. Proportional controls or not the carriage has always seemed a better system when working around high scaffold with heavy loads like cubes of rockface block. I would say anything over 3 bucks high isn't as safe without a spotter up top.

I've had some lifts in some pretty hairy situations on brick jobs and never had any problem with a Lull. Tower scaffold, 60' high, tight quarters, yadda yadda.

 

[Speedpup]

thanks for your input all:drinkup