• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

m grader

B

bladerunner123

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Messages
11
Location
east north dakota
smoothoperator said:
Long days, short nights, broken parts, warning lights.

My 140M suffered severe ice buildup in the area of the two articulation angle sending units (or whatever you want to call them), located within the lower rear frame. The first thing I noticed was failure of the return to straight frame feature. Inconvenient, especially after you have been using it for every corner you take. Next, I lose the ability to shift above 6th gear. Not good, but you can live with it when the snow is heavy and you spend most of the day plowing really heavy stuff. I finished up with my plowing, and had a chance to get into the shop, and wash out all of the ice. I found the two little rods that hook from the front frame to the sensors, broken and bent. Non-stock items at our dealer, so my quick fix for a few hours of snow plowing was to take a couple of pieces of welding rod with 90 degree bends and install them in place of the broken parts. I have been starting my plowing day at 6 or 7a.m. and running until 9:30 or 10:30p.m. Parking in the warm shop has been enough to turn the snow into ice, but not enough to turn the ice into water. I had been aiming a big box fan at the machine overnight, but the fan croaked, and I didn't realize how important the air circulation was to the thawing of the ice in the nooks and crannies of the machine. Live and learn, I guess. Fuel consumption has been running just under 7.5GPH, even when using AWD. I am very comfortable and relaxed while operating the M, the only problem being my 50 year old knees feeling like hamburger after 14 hours of bouncing around on the throne. It is a good thing to love your job.

smoothoperator
Click to expand...

Do you know what the cause is for not shifting above 6th ?? I haven't had either of these problems yet, but I'll be watching for that ice buildup.
 
smoothoperator

smoothoperator

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
90
Location
North Dakota USA
Occupation
County and township maintenance and snow removal,
Safety feature built into the M's keep you from going too fast while aticulated beyond what they think is a safe limit. Losing the signals from the sensors must put it into a default mode, keeping the speed down to 6th gear max.

smoothoperator
 
Tracksoup71

Tracksoup71

Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2009
Messages
24
Location
Fairbanks, AK.
Occupation
Equipment Operator and forman at an open pit Gold
We've had a 16M at our mine now for about a year......We haven't had much luck with it. Granted, it's working 24/7 ( when it's not in the shop...) in a hard rock mine, maintaining heavy haul truck roads through Alaska seasons, but unless we are topping a road with gravel, or scratching smooth, slick ramps, all our blading is done in first gear at about half throttle. We've been through 1 engine, 2 trannies, the circle and blade have been replaced once, and head aches upon head aches of electrical problems. When it runs, it's fantastic! The controls and cab are comfortable, and once you get used to it, feel farely natral. But this fancy new fangled machine doesn't seem to stand up to the tipical abuse that our equipment endures due to the nature of a hard rock mine. Our 16H's have been serving us well for several years, and our 16G's before that. Maybe the first one we got our hands on turned out to be the lemon of the lot....lol.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top