Out with the old....

[michael james]

Out with the old beast,,,and in with the new,
Hi guys, haven't been on HEF for awhile, been waiting patiently for my work to replace my tired old beast. After juggling (polite term) finances for the last four years, it has finally happened,

 

[michael james]

more pics

 

[20/80]

more pics

Congratulations! that's one fine looking grader, you must be very pleased, we don't see many Komatsu graders in my neck of the woods but there is a few around, mostly Cat, DEERE, Champion Volvo, was there many hours on the old girl? like your pictures thanks

 

[michael james]

Thankyou 20/80, l am very pleased with this machine, its comfortable, practical, and the vision to the moldboard, the sides and to the back of the grader is great, l chose the 14 ft moldboard over the 12 ft that our council have always used, so much more practical and time saving, and the engine has plenty of grunt, good torque as well, we did a demo of other brands as well, all great machines, but the komatsu seemed to be the machined that l felt most comfortable with. The old girl clocked up 16,000 hours and we had it for 14 years, not a bad effort but it was getting a bit sluggish, cheers.

 

[Graderfan1981]

Thanks for sharing this photos, looks interesting with the roller Is the roller from Broons?

 

[fast_st]

Fantastic looking machine, what are the pylons for, prevent someone from running into the machine when its parked?

 

[ol'stonebreaker]

Fantastic looking machine, what are the pylons for, prevent someone from running into the machine when its parked?

They're for the texting drivers that can't see a rather large yellow object!! Hopefully they'll hear it when they run over a cone.
Mike

 

[ovrszd]

They're for the texting drivers that can't see a rather large yellow object!! Hopefully they'll hear it when they run over a cone.
Mike

One day a local farmer asked me why I didn't use my roof beacon when grading country roads. I said if they can't see the 30ft long, 10ft high, 8ft wide, large yellow grader in the road they certainly can't see the beacon.......

 

[ovrszd]

Congrats on a great looking machine. Thank you very much for the pics. I know very little about the Komatsu line. What is the HP and weight of the bare machine?? Trying to get a comparison to CAT or Deere. Thanks!!

 

[fast_st]

One day a local farmer asked me why I didn't use my roof beacon when grading country roads. I said if they can't see the 30ft long, 10ft high, 8ft wide, large yellow grader in the road they certainly can't see the beacon.......

I bet there's some regulation on that, we bought a 644E loader from the upper midwest, 44,000 pounds and it has a strobe light on the back, maybe a couple inches high and a couple inches around but I'm willing to bet it filled in some check box on a form.

 

[ovrszd]

I bet there's some regulation on that, we bought a 644E loader from the upper midwest, 44,000 pounds and it has a strobe light on the back, maybe a couple inches high and a couple inches around but I'm willing to bet it filled in some check box on a form.

Oh trust me,,,,, if a cell phone texting idiot ran into me, before I got out of the cab I would flip on the light......

 

[michael james]

Thanks for sharing this photos, looks interesting with the roller Is the roller from Broons?

Hello Graderfan1981, you are correct, the roller is from Broons, a company from south australia, its a new model with the ability to allow you to use your scarifiers without the hassle of taking the roller off, it appears to be a good design and quiet robust. The rep flew over from s.a the other week to see how it was going and asked for feedback, took some photos and went again, alot of people in victoria haven't heard of them but they are involved in alot of compaction projects overseas and pour alot of funds into research.

 

[michael james]

Fantastic looking machine, what are the pylons for, prevent someone from running into the machine when its parked?

Hello fast_st, thanks, l use the pylons for guides markers on the road when l get gravel delivered to help the drivers with the spread rates that we use from time to time.

 

[michael james]

Congrats on a great looking machine. Thank you very much for the pics. I know very little about the Komatsu line. What is the HP and weight of the bare machine?? Trying to get a comparison to CAT or Deere. Thanks!!

Hi ovrszd, thanks, here is some info for interest sake, the gross HP is 196 @ 2,000 revs, 880NM torque at 1,400 revs, the weight is 18,400 kg with ripper assembly and 17.5 wheels and 14 foot moldboard, not sure what the weight of the ripper assembly is, approx weight on rear of grader is 12.7 tonnes and front is 5.4 tonnes, not including roller, front of machine is very stable when doing heavy cutting or loading moldboard up and having the rear roller down just contacting ground helps with front end stability, (a fine line between losing front end or breaking traction sometimes), and the machine scoots along at 52 km/h in top gear. cheers.