simple grader advise

[stumpjumper83]

So i'm tossin the idea around about gettin a grader. I have a 7 ton excavator,a 10 ton trackloader, single axle dump. Access to a skidsteer or ctl when needed though not very often.

I want to expand my business offerings, one hole I have is in the grading department. - no dozer. I live in a rural area with alot of dirt roads & driveways that need maintaining, and there is a wave of heavy trucks coming in with the marcellas shale gas rush.

I'd like to have a machine small / nimble enough for ditching a driveway & with enough weight and muscle to handle smoothing out the hard packed, pot holed haul routes to the drill sites.

I was looking at the mini graders like the psi's. I was also lookin at gallion 503's and deere 570's. but do I need to be in the 770 class for handeling these haul roads?

Also what do I gain or loose when the blade is pushed dozer style on the small machines?

I have no intention to punch scrapers or run a 12' v plow. I would like some rippers, and the ability to clean a ditch, crown a road, handle tailgated road material, and might get caught leveling up a large yard or cleaning a diversion ditch or something with it.

Is a grader the tool for me?

 

[YELLOMTLMILITIA]

Transportation is a critical aspect of determining equipment size all most as much as application needs.

Do you plan on roading it everywhere or will you haul it also??

 

[Motor Grader]

Stumpjumper,
First, I think a grader is exactly the right tool for your expansion. Big decision is just how big of a tool do you need.? I agree with Yellomtlmilitia in that you have to weigh out your desired applications against transport of the motor grader. Sometimes it’s not feasible to buy a large grader and then have to buy a truck, trailer, or both just to haul it. Although a compact grader is never going to out push a large grader, the savings in transportation cost and overall operating cost sometimes out weight the extra weight and horsepower. Most of our customers just use their dump truck and tag along trailer.

Sounds like you’re at a cross road in that you have roads to maintain and also driveways. What’s just right for one application could be too big or too small for the other. I have more and more customers that are finding out that their compact grader when equipped properly can handle the average road maintenance as well as the driveways and parking lots. A rear ripper can make re-grading a heavily compacted gravel road very easy on both you and your grader. The front dozer blade makes quick work of leveling tail gated material especially when the driver leaves you a 4 foot pile. Front blades are great for knocking down piles and working up into corners that you just can’t get the main blade into. They are also nice in that if your grading into an intersection you can quickly reach into the intersection and back drag the front blade which not only makes life easier, but also safer. Add in all wheel drive and you really have a work horse of a machine.

The biggest application that compact graders have a hard time doing are deep ditches and tall steep banks. If you do a lot of that then make sure you take it into consideration. Some customers find that it makes more sense to buy the compact grader and do 95% of the normal applications and then just rent a larger grader when the tough stuff comes up. Hope this helps in your decision.

 

[ziggy]

For lease work and if they are doing drilling in your area then get a grader and the work will come to you,an older 14 cat or smaller 700 series champion will handle anything the drill companies throw at you,ditching and sloping arent usuall tasks asked by drilling companies,they just want their rig moved in and to fix roads after their moved in as they can pass road bans if they promise to fix the road after the rig move.
I did a few years doing this type of work and sometimes had to road my grader for 140 miles to do one mile of road,they paid for it and because gas and oil companies usually work one field in quarter or whole sections then the work stays local for about 3 years and you will become the preferred contractor.
While doing this in central Alberta I used to be amazed at the number of farmers and consultants that would stop me on the road and ask if I could come do their roads or leases because I was there at the time.
Once your in your in.

 

[bigbob]

I have created a small nitch for myself by grading driveways. I have a Cat 268B skid steer which i have added a Bobcat grader attachment to. Marring the controls consisted of switching a few wires in the Bobcat plug. I also have a D 3 dozer to clean the ditches out and spread new crushed gravel with. The skid steer will also spread the gravel if I first tailgate spread it with the dump truck. You can crown the road and does a much smother job than a dozer and is fast.
I was working on an out of town job last week and a contractor from Vt did the private road. He brought in a small Fiat grader, a tractor with a front end loader and a rear box blade mounted on a three point hitch along with a small dump truck and a vibratory compactor. He hired a tri axel dump to haul in a few loads of 3/4" crushed ledge pack gravel.

 

[John C.]

Out in this part of the country we see a lot of LeeBoy graders doing the small stuff. They are built cheap to stay that way but they seem to do most everything in the driveway business. They are nimble in the right hands.

I've looked at a couple of PSI machines and thought they really weren't long enough or heavy enough to run an accurate grade. The welding was about the same as the LeeBoy but all the hydraulics are run with hoses. I don't recall seeing any tubing inside the machine at all. All that I've looked at were hydrostatic drives so you couldn't road them very far without possibly getting the hydraulic system hot. The cabs were not insulated so it was like you were sitting in a speaker box sound system.

Just some observations.

 

[stumpjumper83]

I'm afraid that the skid steer grader idea will not have the muscle or the visibility that I'm looking for.

Transport wise, I was thinking road gear for the 30 mile range, then hired lowboy for farther. Unless I can stay under 20k or so and move it with my truck. But I don't know how graders fit on tag trailers... I'm guessing not well.

Additional equipment, will I need york rakes and rollers? what about packers on graders?

Rear rippers vs. mid mount scarifiers? Will a rear unload the back making me loose traction, and mid make me loose steering? The trackloader has been my ripper currently, just point the teeth down and lower them in about 4 to 6" and everything is nice and loose.

When did the cats go hydraulic, i hear lots of bad stories about the gear drive buggers.

Moldboards, reg. edge to carbide buttons? 12' was about as large as I was thinking, but what width road do you need for a 14 to start being effective. and how narrow is a 14' comfortable to crown with?

 

[YELLOMTLMILITIA]

They went hydraulic with the G's and Electrorhydraulic with the Ms. I've been running a 120M AWD with cross slope for the last several days and Im liking it more and more and more. I graded out about 3 acres of a pretty rough area this afternoon with it. I was almost able to finish it on the the first time across. I just got me a good windrow going set the cross slope at .5% up to the heel and worked it across one time in both directions and it tied in perfectly with exisiting ground when I made it across. I then cleaned up the edges and I was done.

 

[rsherril]

My experience with the JD 570 A for driveway and subdivision road maintaince has been mostly positive. At 20,000 lbs it has enough weight to move a blade full of material in fourth gear, (mine was repowered with the turbo engine). The 12 foot blade is reasonable for my 15 foot roads. It is economical with fuel and so far hasn't been expensive to maintain. I like the articulated steering for turning around. Snow plowing is better with tire chains.

Some of the negatives are poor cab insulation, noise especially. No AC so cab temperatures can soar in the heat, which means doors open and dust in.

I would recomend that you acquire a parts book and technical manual. Most of my issues have been with pressure switches and old electrical wiring which I've been able to handle.

 

[Motor Grader]

I'm afraid that the skid steer grader idea will not have the muscle or the visibility that I'm looking for.

Transport wise, I was thinking road gear for the 30 mile range, then hired lowboy for farther. Unless I can stay under 20k or so and move it with my truck. But I don't know how graders fit on tag trailers... I'm guessing not well.

Additional equipment, will I need york rakes and rollers? what about packers on graders?

Rear rippers vs. mid mount scarifiers? Will a rear unload the back making me loose traction, and mid make me loose steering? The trackloader has been my ripper currently, just point the teeth down and lower them in about 4 to 6" and everything is nice and loose.

When did the cats go hydraulic, i hear lots of bad stories about the gear drive buggers.

Moldboards, reg. edge to carbide buttons? 12' was about as large as I was thinking, but what width road do you need for a 14 to start being effective. and how narrow is a 14' comfortable to crown with?

The Champions haul just fine on a tag trailer. We have several small paving contractors that transport them that way. I have roaded a C86 grader from one end of Las Vegas right into the convention center door for ConExpo. We also have several municipal customers that never put the machine on a trailer. 20 to 30 miles and no oil overheating problems. Over that then I would just advise being aware of the ambiant temperature and keeping an eye on it.

Rear ripper over the mid mount anyday! The rear ripper sucks the rear tires right down and you actually achieve maximum traction without giving up your front axle weight needed for steering. Mid mount does transfer weight to the rear tires but it also takes weight away from the front tires making steering sometimes more difficult.

12 foot moldboards seem to be a pretty good standard. We have done a 48" wide rear compaction roller attachment. Compaction plate tampers have been popular on other graders in the past also. Seem slike skid steers have stolen some of that business away from us but it can still be done effectively on a grader.

Hope this helps.

 

[DonBC]

It is surprising what a compact grader can do. Don't laugh but I have a little old 1959 Allis Chalmers Model D that I use for building and maintaining private driveways as a hobby and a little boost to the retirement income. It weighs about 10,000 lbs and is about 22' long and could easily be trailered but it can bugey along at about 25 mph so I just drive it. It had a 12' moldboard on it but I am mainly working in forested and hilly areas so I cut it back to 10' so it was easier to get between trees. I mounted a ripper from a JD 350 crawler on the back and I can bury the shank and pull it through tree roots up to 4" in diameter and rocks up to 16" diameter. The newer Allis M65 and the Fiat-Allis 65B's and 65C's are physically similar to my grader but heavier and more powerful. They could handle your type of work.