I'm interested in hearing from those who operate a Burchland LGX grader blade on a CTL. Especially from those who have also operated the Cat GB124, Sharpgrade or Bobcat type grader blades. I'm not interested in box blades at this point. Which do you prefer and why? Can the Burchland blade hold grade as good as the grader blades with wheels out front? Does the roller behind the blade cause problems when grading wet dirt? How does it compare to the Cat smart dozer blade? Whichever we end up with will be operated both manually and by GPS/UTS and will be grading clean gravel, base rock, sand, and dirt, both subgrade and finish grade. We'll be pushing it with a Cat 299D3 and a Cat 285 which is on order but not yet manufactured.
I can speak about the Sharp Grade G128 and the BC grader blade. The BC can side shift, and the SG can not. The BC has a larger range of motion on the end of the blade. This allows you take dig deep with the attachment or higher on the other end depending on what your doing. The SG has or can have hyd ends that you can open and close. So you can essentially create a box blade if you chose to. The SG allows you to raise one end of the blade without changing the elevation of the other end of the blade. SG is much heavier built. Being heavier it holds the grade better, the BC will start pushing up earlier because its lighter and so you cant push as much without getting way out of grade. I use a Case DL550 Minitour on the SG. That machine weighs 18600 and just under 25K of push effort. You can push 2.5 yards of material in front of the blade is you want to. The SG is very accurate. We use a TopCon LPS system. We graded just under 2 acres of asphalt parking lot and were 6 tons under the estimated bid of asphalt. It is incredibly accurate. I haven't used the CAT or Burchland grader blade. You can fold up the front wheels on the SG and essentially have a similar design to the Burchland. It may not matter to you, but if you are getting rippers on the 285, you can rip ground making it easier to grade, Comes in real handy when cutting down areas to subgrade. I wrote up my thoughts on this in another thread. You might find it under Sharp grade in a search here. I am happy with the SG. I miss the blade articulation of the BC but that is about it. The bigger the machine you can put on the grader I think the more value you can get out of it. The 299 being lighter with less track on the ground will not work as well as the 285 will. Its really not about hp, much more about tractive effort and weight.
Here is a pic of the sharp grade
OK here it is. This Winter, I drilled a couple holes in the steel tube that connects the front wheels and was able to get just under 200 pounds of lead shot inside it for more weight, without having to hump tractor weights around. I haven't used it enough to see what difference it makes, but it should help hold the front end down more.
That's That's a sweet setup! I grew up on Case skid steers but haven't run one for years. I'd love to spend several days in the Minotaur. There are zero Case skid steers or CTLs in my area so that probably won't happen. You may have posted this elsewhere but are you running the Sharpegrade controls in your machine or did you do a custom control setup? I haven't operated a Sharpegrade but I did sit in a machine that had one mounted and their multiple tiny button controls looked and felt like they wouldn't be comfortable long term.
Funny you mention that, the tiny buttons are functional, and not as uncomfortable as it appears, but my new buttons just arrived today and I making a new button arrangement. It takes a lot of functions as most of these do to make everything work. I don't have enough electric/hyd buttons to make everything work without their set up. The Minitour is an impressive set up, both with the dozer and with the SG. Your 285 should be much the same on a SG or whatever you chose, just a little lighter.
That's good to know. First impressions aren't always accurate. Be sure to post photos of your controls when you have them up and running. I enjoy reading your posts. I'm looking forward to getting the 285. We're hoping to get the scarifier for it too but the Cat sales people say they're not available for order yet.
I have run a variant of the Burchland that has a skid plate instead of the roller for stability. The Burchland with roller is said to pack up and start acting like a squeegee if the material is wetter or thick. The skid plate variant is thought to eliminate this issue, but creates others in my experience. If you are primarily grading out GAB, 57’s, or dry, packed clay, then the Burchland does well. If you plan to grade a variety of materials that includes softer stuff like sand or even 89’s, your stability and pressure with that skid plate will change. The plate also has a tendency to cut a secondary grade that can differ from what you put down with your cutting edge…especially in the softer materials. If you are typically putting down GAB and getting a roller on it before a final trim, AND running automation for most of your work, the Burchland style might suit you. If you’re wanting a dual role attachment that’s equally useful when running manually, then you may want to stick with the traditional grader style units, or the SKEER. The Burchland style is very clunky and not well suited for a lot of manual work past knocking down a pile (which doesn’t do it the way I’d like) and then going right into Auto. That’s said, the Burchland variant with the plate is in development to come out with a hydraulically adjustable skid plate, to allow smooth tuning for the material of the day. I prefer versatility, and went with the Skeer. While it has its own quirks, some of which may be truly alleviated in the near future, the attachment is just as much useful manually as it is in Auto. Maybe one day I can get the big Sharp Grade to compliment the Skeer. Like you, I am also waiting for a 285 with ripper. Currently running a Takeuchi TL12V2 (also what was used to demo the Burchland).
Thanks for posting j-dubya. Your experience with the Burchland is about what I expected. I was hoping to get a little more feedback that would hopefully disprove my expectations. We did demo a John Deere 335P with the JD dozer attachment. To my surprise it worked very well in manual mode and while there was a steep little learning curve I was able to carry grade manually after an hour. The disappointment to me was the automatic control. It came setup with dual laser. I tried everything I knew and everything the JD rep suggested to get it to carry a consistent grade but the closest I could get it was +/-1/2". We were placing AB3 which is typically easy to get a tight grade with, especially on the final trim after it's been compacted. With our D6N running laser or UTS I'm often able to get +/-1/4" in the same material. The Cat Smartgrade grader blade was able to get +/-1/4" with dual GNSS. I would expect it to be a little tighter with laser or UTS. I think the skid plate the Burchland has would help with the tight grade with AB3 but we run in a lot of different material types that I think would end up with the secondary grade you mentioned due to the plate. And then we want something that we can grade with manually. I think the Burchland controller looks kinda clunky for that application but I could be surprised. I hope to demo a Burchland soon. The Skeer looks interesting also.