Here's a shot of the ancient grader/ knuckle-buster that my past employer owned. All I know is that it was before hydraulic cylinders which is somewhat evident from the pics, haha. Anyone have any seat time on one of these babies?
Looks like she's got a Detroit for power. Could it be a Gallion?
THAT Grader???????????? Hi, WColtharp. From that one photo, I would guess that it's a LeTourneau-Westinghouse grader, possibly a 444 or a 'Jackpot Machine' - Triple7. Like the Cats of the time, they had geared controls for everything, with the same needs for adjustment to keep them working a their 'best'(?). I don't have any seat time on any of the LeT-W machines but several blokes who had run them reckoned they were a pretty solid, reliable machine - - - TOO much so when the articulated hydraulic Cats came out and the LeT-W's wouldn't die so that they got replaced. They were NOT from before the advent of hydraulics on graders. I've been told that Galion had hydraulics on their graders back around 1925. It was just that Cat and some other manufacturers couldn't accept that you could build creep-proof hydraulics until the late 1960's.
Source= Wikipedia Why does this remind me of something Deas Plant would say???.... :waving OCR.......
Deas would not say that...he'd say " now I'm edumakated "
Absolute right Squizzy, and I even thought that myself... but I didn't think I should fool around with R. G.'s quote. OCR...
Edumackayted????????? Hi, OCR and Squizzy246B. Way back in MY dim and distant past, I came across the saying, "Education is man's going forward from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty." I'd like to think that I'm now a little less 'iggerant' than I useta bee but I yain't edumackayted yet by any means. OMG, I've spent over 60 years in the University of Hard Knocks and haven't graduated in anything yet. Now they tell me yer've gotta die ter git outa this university.
wow- I had no idea hydraulics had been in play that long! Thanks for the history lesson that I would have never guessed. I'll try and contact my past employer to find out the make and model since I am clueless.
Looks like a LeTourneau-Westinghouse 440H to me. We had two in our spread and they did a good job in their day. I've done a bit of seat time in them
mystery grader That sure look like a Adams 440(L-W).Had one here that was powered by a C-160 Cummins.Tough old unit,hard to start in the cold.It was wore so bad we used 1/4 inch grade 9 bolts for shear pins in the drive shafts for the circle and any where else that needed them.If you look real close at the picture,there is a lever hanging down on an angle.That was for the hydraulic side-shift on the moldboard on our machine.
Would the levers seem to bust your knuckles while operating? This grader sure would wake someone up that wasn't used to running it. Although it would get the job done when needed, the company used their dozers for most of the fine/ precision grading whenever we could. Nobody got too excited about being thrown up on the beast, but it was a nice change getting to move it around every now and then. It was almost kind of funny watching the different operators cuss and moan whenever running the s.o.b. All in all it was a machine that was purchased next to nothing and got the job done if called upon.
Adams 440 Don't recall ever busting a knuckle,but they would sure snap back through the controls from time to time.It did'nt take long to get out a 9/16's wrench to tighten up the bands on the clutch's on the front of the gear box.The levers were either in or out-no "feathering" or they would really kick back.Hard on the wrists more than knuckles-although one did get a case of spanner rash from wrenching on it from time to time.That old machine did a lot of work and was reliable.The Cummins engine was anemic to the cold and required many tow's to start it.I remember the engine oil filter was a canister type where you unrolled the inside and it had a metal screen with a cotton filter which was wound up and re-installed. It finally wore itself out and was replaced by a 555 Wabco.It had a 743 Cummins around 200 horsepower.I know a retired service man who worked at the plant in Paris,Ontario where they built these graders-the best in their day he claims.
I spoke with my past employer recently and he said that it is an Adams-1050's model. He recently sold it due to the economy and downsizing phases, but it sure earned its keep over the years!
777gm446 Enjoyed all the coments about the old blade I have an old Letourneau Westinghouse also but not that old. the serial number is 777GM446 can someone tell from that number what the model name or number is?? Thankyou Kyle
The earliest examples of hydraulics used water instead of oil. Basically before the advent of refined petroleum products it was the best imcompressible fluid they had available at the time. During my apprencticeship at Aveling-Barford (commonly referred to as Ambling Bastardsin the UK) the Plate Shop had a 500-ton upstroking hydraulic press that was used to put the bends into grader main frame members. It was run using water as a hydraulic fluid, I remember sitting for hours scraping in the babbit on the bearings for the pump on it ........ I was told it dated from the turn of the 20th Century. Of course A-B originally started life back in the late 19th Century as builders of steam traction engines and road rollers.
Nige after I retired from the US Navy in 1980 I worked for Martin Marietta in So Ca. and we extrusion plant we had presses from 300 ton to 15,000 ton using water hydraulics with I think 6 5000 psig pumps (4160 VAC) and 10 air over accumulators. It was challenge.
I used to own Wabco 444 similer to the one pictured. I plowed snow with it as it had a 13 ft wing and a 12 ft plow on the front. The wing and plow gear was all hydraulic. Brakes were sketchy at best but with the blades down ya didnt really need them. She would push alot of snow and i never had any problems with it. Sold it too a guy in Maine back in 04'. Detroit powered i put 700 plus hours on it while i had it.
Definetly adams or wabco (same thing, different year). I think you'll find Champion Road Machinery of Goderich Ontario Canada was the first all hydraulic machine, 1939.... First one to turn the circle with 2 cylinders too.
good machines those were
Yes I have had many years seat time on a Wabco/Adams Grader only mine had Cummins motor the earlier Adams one had Iinternaional moto75hp. this picture of Wabco would have a 12foot moldboard and GM motor the small Adams was only 75 hp but it could Skin Cat 12E 112hp?,The blade positioning was far better than Cat,THe Adams WAbco backside never slid out side ways ,when mixing gravel, where as the Cat moving same windrow would slide off was infuriating to follow behind a smaller machine that was shifting windrow nice and straight and you in tHe higher HP Cat kept sliding off, Did not matter who was driving either machine result was same, THe Wabco / Adams was the better machine to do final trimoh and to get from Job to Job the Wabco/Asams were fast in the long gear the Wabco 550 was clocked at 39 mph by traffic cop I told him impossible, but then he checked tyre sizecompared to spec. i had to shut up because we had put larger tyres on it he said this was cause of the hi speed, not sure if he was entirely correct:!!!!! ( just my $2 worth )
i wonder if Pomie Aveling Barford or Austen Western weren"t first with Hydraulics or there was an older grader Pommie that ahd some form of Hydraulics on it Had single wheels and cab went acrooss back of machine full width WAS OLD