I purchased a Champion 730A and it is a series II. I just found out it is a 1986 model. I can't find a manual online for series II machines but was wondering if float position is standard or an option? The machine used to run a snow wing if that makes any difference. Also guessing it's not uncommon for the gear indicator to be hard to read? Do you need to start off in 1st gear or can you start off in a higher gear like 3rd?
Congrats on the purchase of your grader. I do believe that float position was an option. It consisted of float control valves mounted on the lift cylinders that were activated by a pair of switches in the cab. There is supposed to be a light in the controller that makes it easier to read what gear that it is in, but is nasty to change. It's quite acceptable to start off in 3rd or 4th gears provided that you don't have too heavy of a load on the machine. Also, be careful to use the proper oil in the clutch and brake master cylinders. They use a very low viscosity mineral oil. Regular brake fluid will not mix with oil, and would make sludge that would require tearing apart the entire brake system to clean up. These were pretty tough old machines, and if treated right will give many dependable hours of service.
I did read in 1 of the manuals to use 10wt engine oil meeting TO-2 spec. Apparently it works better than the original oil which I think was Dextron II. I'm going to go by Jade Equipment and get some more info on operation and lubricants. Apparently they still have rebuilt exchange trannies. The parts guy I talked to said the Cummins is a better choice engine as some parts for 6-71's are getting harder to find. If the 8.3 is basically a larger version of the 5.9, should have a long life span. I know a farmer with a 5.9 in a Case tractor with over 20,000 hours and still going strong. Another thing I was wondering was if anyone has ever installed a smaller 2nd seat for training or being able to have a passenger? I think there's room on the left side of the cab.
My 730 had 2 rocker switches for float on the pedistal. I think they were on either side of the tac. Only thing I ever used them for was lowering the mb to the ground when I parked. I know some guys use float, but I prefer to be in control of the blade position at all times. If one side digs in, the other side will pop up really hard.
From what I could find the series III had the switches above the tach. and I think series II had switches on the right door post. This machine just has a plastic cover on the right door post. The biggest reason I was wondering about float is for clearing snow on unlevel ground like sod or dirt. Might better to just lift the blade up an inch or so though so I don't cause damage to the ground material. I may need to clear a sod parking area in the winter and I want to clear snow off an MX track in the spring so it dries faster. It would be good for setting the blade down even too. I'll have to do a bunch of experimenting to get used to it. The right lift lever sticks when pushed forward almost like it has a detent position for float like a loader. Maybe just need to lube the linkage. How did you like running the 730?I know some operators preferred Champion.
If you're trying to keep from gouging when pushing snow in the grass, I would think you'd be best off just rolling the blade clear back, so it wouldn't bite in, but stay riding on top.
Thanks Crane op, I wasn't thinking of that. Somehow I was thinking of dozer blades where you tilt the blade forward to dig in better. A grader blade tilts a lot more forward where it will kind of drag across the surface.
Mine was an 88 or 89. It had the cummins, and the unable to see transmission display. It had a 14 foot MB, which was a little too big for the machine. It was my daily driver from 1998, to 2012. I think it had like 28000 hours on it. It used to put oil out the vent for the transmission when driving at full speed. They put a tank on the back of the cab, ran the vent line to the bottom of it, and put the vent cap on top. It would catch the oil, and allow it to drain back when you slowed down or stopped. It never let me down. I like my 2011 Volvo. Same MB system, a bit more plastic for wear parts, but it is the king of codes. I farted today, and it gave me a transmission code. If you look under the front of the circle gear, there are 2 gears that turn the circle with the cranks and pistons. In between the 2 is a thin gear for timing. If you never grease anything else on the machine, keep that greased up. If it gets worn. The bearing, not the gear. It will f up your timing, and the circle will start jamming
I read somewhere else the display for what gear you are in gets really hard to read. That's a relief that it's common. If I look real close I can at least read it. This is good if it ever shows a code. The grader has a 16ft mold board because a 2 ft. extention was welded on. The circle turns OK but kind of "bumps" at a couple spots. I think it's when 1 cylinder switches direction and the opposite 1 takes over. I looked in the tool box at the front of the machine and under an empty plastic container was a pistol grip grease gun. Bonus for me. It will take a while to remember what control lever does what. It's a little intimidating but I think once I start trying some things I'll get more used to it. I think putting new cutting edges on so it is straight will be one of the 1st things I'll do. It came with some almost new serrated blades and I'm wondering how they would work for general dirt work? Will they leave a bunch of little ridges? I'm hoping it doesn't have any major problems. I won't put a lot of hours on it.
Did you notice a lot of difference in the machine from 1998 to when it was retired? Just wondering if the blade stayed fairly tight or was real sloppy after 20,000+ hours. The hour meter in my machine doesn't work but shows 13514 hours.
It had a lot of hours on it when I took the seat. The circle was never taken care of properly. It was worn out of round. If you tried to re shim, it would jam. It did the job. I was told by a service man to never grease the slide shaft for side shift, or the flat part of the circle. It collects material, and causes faster wear. I tried dry graphite, but it was too far gone by the time I took over. Grease should be fine since you're not spreading any tonnage, or doing KMs of roads. The grader never retired. As far as I know, it went to auction when we got the Volvo. 16 foot mb is a lot to push. I thought the 14 was bad.
I'm not sure how well the 16' blade will work for my needs but I don't want to work the machine to its limits. I could cut the welded on extension off if need be. I was reading the serrated cutting edges are good for hard ground and wondering how they work for general blading? The current standard edges are worn in the middle and since the serrated blades came with the machine and are like new, I thought it would probably be best to put them on so I can grade flat. Do the notches in the blades make much difference?
Have only seen notched serrated cutting edges for ice/snow removal not a operator have no idea how would work in dirt
The serrated edges work but may be more difficult for beginning If your old edges have even 1/2 inch past the frog snap a chalk line and cut them off strait I'm guessing your track is a clay type deal and blades will last a long time compared to a gravel road
I read the serrated edges are good for harder ground in addition to ice and snow but wanted to hear from experienced operators. I think at the shortest the blades are about 1/2" past the frog so I could cut them straight. I priced out new blades and they are $173 for an 8"x3/4"x 8' long straight edge which I think is reasonable but since I had the serrated blades I should just put them on. Won't be trying the new grader out for awhile as it's raining pretty good today and no sense making a mess in the mud.
The ice blades should be fine. They will wear faster, but it should suit your needs. You might find rocks get stuck between the tines, but it should do a great job on clay. Try the 16, and if it seems too hard to push, you can always remove the extension.
I'd be curious to know why the extension was welded on. It doesn't look like there were any issues but maybe the bolts wouldn't stay tight or something??? If I did remove the extension would I need to replace both cutting blades or could a 6ft. blade be used with an existing 8ft. blade? Also wondering if you can push as hard with the extension as you can with the normal end of the moldboard?
MBs come in 12 13 14 16 and in the extreme 10 or 24. A 13 uses a 6 and 7. I've never used an extension. I've seen them on graders with snow wings, for better coverage at the wing. My 730 could handle the 14, but could be harder to use when taking a cut in hard packed material. Oh and don't worry about using the torch for cutting a square edge, I have never broken one that has been cut. I have found that a torched blade sometimes wears out faster, but on fine grade jobs you need a good straight blade.
Just a side note on fluids, as far as the brake fluid goes I went down that rabbit hole a year ago and discovered that its basically aviation brake fluid, not bad to get online but a royal pain to get locally. Also Cat makes a TDTO transmission fluid, that's the route I went on mine this spring and it seems to be working well.
We used to use Univus J13 in brakes. Not sure if it’s still made but we bought it at Edson. The wet clutch was fairly tough on the ones I ran. But if I had a mouldboard full I started in 1st or 2nd and shifted up to 4th.
We had hardly any trouble with the 8.3’s, other then belt tensioner and water pump. I did like operating the larger ones with L10’s and M11’s, but we did a lot of injectors on those. Only other issue was a couple popped exhaust manifold bolts.
I seem to have stopped the exhaust manifold leak and the engine starts and runs great. I need to cut the blades straight and see how it handles the 16' moldboard. It will be a bit of a learning curve but I think will level things pretty nice. I need to learn how to do a compound slope on an oval track. Basically the straights can have a slight angle to drain water but need a higher banking on the corners. Any tips on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.
Oval track in the neighborhood of Edmonton?
Yes, but only a 1/4 mile. Was originally going to be for bikes but the smaller car guys showed a lot more interest.
I had always hoped there would be something comparable to the legends cars or baby grand nationals for dirt. I guess they have mini sprints in Rimbey.
I had a couple of micro sprints (600cc sport bike engines) on the track a couple years ago. They were fast. There are only about 7 of them though. They came out a couple years ago to try the track but it was too wet because it rained about 20mm at 2:30am. Since then they are are not interested in the track, apparently because they want a track all to themselves. The guy that runs them wouldn't even answer when I called or texted him. Apparently they claim the mini stock cars ruin the track. I think if the track is done right it will hold up for all types of cars. Had a legend car on the track too. There are 30+ Legends cars. Unless the micro sprint guys want to pay a whole lot more to have their own exclusive track, I need to cater to who shows the most interest and who has the numbers as far as cars. Mini stocks and Legends have the numbers and the track can work for them. One of the guys thinks if an event was put on the micro sprints would show up. There's basically only 2 tracks they are using, Rimbey and Castrol. My track, if they want to utilize it has the added advantage that they could use it for practice and test and tune pretty much anytime they wanted. I don't know about Rimbey but Castrol only has a couple test and tune sessions during the year unless you want to rent the track for $1500 or so. As long as they had a few cars show up, my track would be available to them for so much a car. About the same amount I would make per car at a race ($30-$40). They could have affordable schools and try outs for people thinking about getting into racing. I think that would be a great way to grow the sport that most other tracks either don't offer or want too much to rent the track. A club could likely get better insurance rates for practice sessions too. It really sucks that there's so much politics involved with any type of racing, whether it's bikes or cars. It seems the faster they are the more BS you have to deal with. Having little kids in mini cars could become popular too because it's more affordable.
I guess the lack of “test and tunes” would explain why the 360 sprints used to show up at Sangudo the weekend before Castrol opened up. Car counts are so important. It wasn’t unusual to see 20 legends, baby grands or IMCA cars at the old Sunset Speedway. Whereas there’d be 5 or 6 late models.
The guys that ran Sangudo are interested in my track. They're still hoping to get Sangudo back but it sounds like Sangudo is going to become a horse track.
Really?! I always enjoyed watching races at Sangudo. Was it still 43 Motorsports that ran it? On a road, when I have to deal with super elevation (banking), I have to be extra careful where I put the windrow and it’s size. And it may help to articulate a bit. As opposed to thinking of the windrow going into the center of the board, you will be trying to get it closer to the edge. After practice, you’ll get so you can do it with little gouge or ridge. So you might feed the board in the center on the straights then get it towards the left edge on corners 1-2 and 3-4. You’ll likely have more angle on the board in the corners as well, especially when working uphill.
I'm not sure the name of who was running Sangudo. The one guy said he could bring the bleachers to my track if I let him put his business name on them. The one thing I don't want is them just taking over the whole track where I have no say. My name is on the property so I'm the 1st one in line if there's any problems (legal or neighbors) with anything. I'll probably just take small bites and try to push the windrow up from the middle to the top. I thinks it's best to do in layers with some packing in between. I'll dump the clay with the skid steer and track loader but don't know if I should try to roughly spread the clay with the skid steer to make a rough slope or just side shift the blade to take bites out of the piles without driving on them and move the piles to the top as I go? I guess I'd be packing the clay somewhat by taken bites out of the piles and then driving over what was spread. Still debating if I should cut the current blades straight or just put the serrated blades on. The serrated blades might help remove little rocks and hard lumps. Everything would be watered and packed so I don't think tiny windrows would be a problem if they developed. Serrated blades may work to scarify the track a little too. New to graders so not sure what works the best or is the easiest for a beginner.
It would be real nice if I could get the instructor from the union training center to come and give me some tips. He's worked on tracks with compound slopes before and has a lot of experience. Don't think he's able to bring a new grader down again but just coming to help me shouldn't ruffle any feathers I don't think.
The description above was more for the finish you’d do before pulling the spike over it when preparing for a race. As far as roughing it in, you’ll kind of get a feel for that and feel it tightening up as you run it. Any time I’ve done a bit of a “build” (usually more of a repair with a couple feet involved), I’ve done it in thin lifts. Sometimes a well timed rainstorm helps with compaction. Some stuff I just wheelpack but obviously that’s small areas. Sometimes enough moisture to compact also was enough to stick to the packer. It’s nice if you don’t have to deal with piles, but if you do, you do. Generally the first time the frost comes out of it is an adventure.
The clay could be spread out some when dumped on the track. The guy from Sangudo thinks the current surface should be dug up before adding more clay to it so everything blends together. I could cultivate it and water it if need be. Rain in the right quantities can be be very beneficial. Working with dry material can be a pain unless it's spreading topsoil with a skid steer. It's nice to be able to drive over what you've spread without packing it and leaving small ruts you have to repair. A little moisture to keep dust down is nice.