Here is a guy I work with who was getting greedy winging snow without a wing,
Thats too bad. A good grader hand would get that out before anyone came along and took a picture.
Geeze..that grader isn't really stuck is it?? Someone must have taken the picture when it was almost out..:beatsme
An H with good hydraulics, especially with a ripper, should be able to jack itself out of that situation. Not knowing exactly what is on the other side of the machine keeps me from saying anything too critical though. I have a hitch that I carry in my middle ripper pocket, and have used that planted in the shoulder, along with blade and circle sideshift, wheel lean, and articulation to get myself out of many similar situations. Spin the whole machine 90 degrees or more to the left if you need to. If you can do it without overheating your hydraulics, try for 15 minutes or so before you radio for help. If calling for help is not an option, you will get creative, and in time you will get yourself out. It is just one more step in the self education of a good operator. If you don't learn something from getting stuck, hang it up. smoothoperator.....been there
I could get that 14 out of there in a snap buy me a plane ticket !!
:iagree Well said smoothoperator Every day is a learning opportunity. Sometimes from our own actions, and sometimes from the actions or mistakes of others. The cheapest lesson is the one learned from others, but the one that sticks with you the longest is from your own hard luck. Hopuser I bet you were on the loader ahead sent to the rescue. Right? Thanks for sharing.
I showed up with loader and then crabed the thing out, showed him how to do it,(new operator) like I told him (for every mile of road there is two miles of ditch!) also their is those that have been in the ditch and those that are going in the ditch!
This is a good chance to share with the less experienced grader operators here on the forum. When stuck like this or worse, what is the best approach to get your machine out, without having to call for a tow and (shutter) have pictures taken.. Believe me I've been in alot of these situations over the last 25 years or so. Nothing really to be embarrassed about as it can happen to anyone. Smoothoperator summed it up quite well. Just want to add that the first thing I do is get my front end up onto the road. I do this by lifting up the front end with the blade and sideshift/bladeslide the front end up onto the road. A lot of times this will bring your ass end up a bit as well especially if you use the articulating steering at the same time. After doing this sometimes (depending how bad you're in) its just a matter of wiggling(articulating) your way out. Times I had to position the moldboard on the low side and use the blade circle turn with the grader in low gear and come out that way. Its really hard to do anything with your front end still in the ditch, but with it up on the road half the battle is done. If you try a few times and you are just sinking further, then its time to swallow your pride and just get a tow....and let the cameras flash... Been there too...
Have you ever broken anything doing this? (Sorry, the mechanic in me made me ask...)
No problem..I'll give you an honest answer...nope On edit...I'll have to add that I've done this many times. In my line of work getting stuck is a given, and you just learn to get it out. You don't have to abuse your machine, it boils down to know how and experience. I can tell in a very short time if I'm going to be able to get it out. I won't bury it to the point of no return. I don't mind calling for a tow if needed. I was never one to abuse my rig, but I always got the most out of it.
what the hell would you ever use to tow out a grader anyway??? A tank?? them bastards got to be heavy!! I cant see any old tandem or something pulling your ass out! but i suppose it depends on how bad your sunk
Lol...Ford Focus... I remember one time I was hauling in the shoulders and I hit a soft place..I mean soft. The edge of the shoulder completely just gave out. I was bogged in good style, and the grader was at a very awkward angle (almost tipping over). No trying any fancy stuff there. We hooked onto the front end with another grader, and as he started the pull I felt it starting to go over more. Almost to the point of having to change my underwear I called in a tandem truck (loaded) and had him pull up along side of me, and we hooked a cable to the top of the rear wing post. With all of us communicating on the two way radio, we worked together and inched my grader out of there. Probably the worst I've been in. I think....
I didn't mean to imply you abuse equipment. It's obvious from your edit you don't. I was just wondering how the machines hold up.
No worries RobVG....that was a very good question and no offense taken. You can definitely break stuff if you start working against yourself. I don't know how else to explain it... but you just have to take things easy and the big thing is to know your machine and what it is capable of.
Sounds like a blast!!! lol Ive had good luck so far, only been in the ditch once and it came out fairly easy and was no wheres near tipping over! Im sure my day is coming tho!
Just remember what old Grader4me is telling you...lol...just don't do the things that I've done..wait a minute...isn't that the name of a song?? lol
Quite a few years ago, I was sent out to finish blade a grade raise across a slough area. I wasn't there when the fill was hauled in, and the top was dressed with a D3 LGP. The material was sandy, with very little binder. I was wheel packing my way closer to the edge, one half to one tire width at a time. In reverse, at about 5 MPH, the bank let go, and down I went. I always wear a seatbelt, so I was tied down when I hit the bottom. The mud at the bottom of the fill stopped at the top of the tires, keeping me from going over. A 140G on solid ground, 50' of 2" nylon rope got me out, eventually. A farmer came out, saw the tracks in the mud and on the slope, and asked if there was anyone crazy enough to actually ride it out. I just smiled. A learning experience, and my machine had a serious mud wedgie. That was the worst part. As I get older, I spend more time thinking about the best (safest, really) way of getting a really stuck machine free. If you can get yourself out, that's always best, especially if nobody saw you. But if you need a pull, make sure you have enough of the right equipment to do the job right. Make sure that everyone involved understands the procedure, and all others are clear of the area. I've never seen anyone hurt on one of our projects, and I never want to. smoothoperator...six tires on the ground...most of the time.
Hee Hee, that sounds like "here, hold my beer and watch this!"
Grader in the ditch: Some trivia 4 Grader4me Close, Grader4me... it's not the name, but some lyrcs... :cool2 The song is "Coward of the County", by Kenny Rogers. My noteworthy contribution to the Forum... on this day... Instigated, by the subject matter posted, by Grader4me... :tong OCR...
LOL..yep, stand back and watch the old coot Had I gave it a little more thought it might have came to me Thanks tho for you're noteworthy contribution :notworthy Good story there smoothoperator. Anyone else with a "stuck" story to share?
Grader in the ditch: ... lyr i cs... :Banghead... :bash OCR... :tong
Grader in the ditch: An old coot, huh?? Too bad you haven't migrated into the old buzzard flock , like some of the more prominent members... :lmao Coots... LOL, one more ... LOL I was kinda hope'n to live long enough... to forget all of them... :cool2 OCR...
Not much of a stuck story but, I had a Blade for about 2 year's and I couldnt get any of the hands to run the old thing, It was a Hubber F1400(?) I had one guy that was o.k. but the rest of the guys were too uh....let's call them "old fashion" to run it long enough to get the hang of it. granid it wasnt a nice machine and no A/C but it was just frustrating to them, I remember one time one of the guys took it out to dig a ditch to a road we just built and later that evening when he got in he had a red spot on his forehead, I didnt think much of it and later I realized he knocked out the windshield with his head and broke the key (just below the steering wheel) off aperantly with his knee lmao. needless to say he finished the ditches with the D6H Moral of the story,.....A good grader hand is always underpaid, and a bad one breaks alot of windshields lol Pj
Lol...you are with out a doubt a nut my friend! Please don't analyse "nut"... please...:Banghead Hey! good yarn there powerjoke! Come on guys..time to fess up..lets hear your "stuck" stories and how you got out...
My first week on a construction job as an operator trainee, I seen the grader hand get the 14G slid off of a fill next to a retaining wall. I started to go get a dozer to pull him out, and he yelled at me to just wait a bit and watch and learn. He shifted the blade around, put the rippers down, and started wiggling the articulation while shifting the blade, and in a minute he was back up on level ground. At the time, I had no idea a grader could do that, but after seeing him get back up the slope, I was hooked. I hung with him, and checked grade with him all summer. By the end of the summer, he had me on the blade, cutting parking lot grade and getting ready for the curb to go in. It is a good feeling to be able to learn from some of the older grader men.
LoL...you seem to have forgotten that OCR is in perpetual motion, he can't stop.
Ah well, Grader4me, you talked me into it, not stuck, but certainly anchored. Two years ago, I was grading fencelines on a cattle station out the back of beyond, using the station's grader. The line had been cleared with a scrub rake on a dozer and I had to smooth it off a bit for the fencing contractor. This particular line went through a small creek that had washed out to about 4 or five feet deep and I had to bring dirt in from both sides to fill it up, so that they could put the new fence through. When I started, I could see that with the grader, this was going to take a while, because I was going to have to shift a large amount of dirt to fill in this washout. Now, when I am operating machines and especially my own, I like to make every pass count and push the maximum amount of dirt to where it is needed and in this instance, that was in the washout. I was gradually getting a large mound of loose, dry dirt built up on the edge of the washout and was trying to push it further over with the blade. The next thing I knew, I had gone too far, the blade was right up and anchored firmly in the dirt and the front wheels were dangling merrily in mid air. Now I read here that you can jack the grader up with the blade and rippers and wriggle it out with the side shift and articulation, but I had one problem, this was an old straight frame Cat 12E 'knuckle duster' with no rippers and very limited side shift. Now, I was 30 km from the homestead, in the middle of the scrub with no communication and I thought, a bloke could be in a bit of strife here. The only consolation was that if I was not back at the homestead by 7 pm, they would come looking for me, but I could see myself booking in to the rather uninviting worn out bench seat of the 12E Open Cab Motel for a while, as by now it was the middle of the afternoon. I couldn't try pulling myself back too hard, because the back end was starting to bury itself to the point of sitting on the diff and if that happened, I was a goner. To cut a long story short, I pushed the blade down, lifting the front wheels higher and placed trees, stumps, dirt and anything else I could find to support the front wheels, until I finally got the blade up enough to be able to pull back out. I can assure you I used the side shift to push the dirt over the edge, after that. Rn'R.
Great story Rn'R ! See.. now that didn't hurt so bad did it? I've been in similar situations before. I've been bogged with straight framed graders many times to. It seems when you're out there miles from home and by yourself the worst seems to happen. I shared one story on here quite awhile ago of one of the experiences that I had out in the middle of no where. Well at least you never panicked and made things worst. I guess you had lots of time to come up with a plan..and it worked. Betcha you was a happy little camper when the old girl came out Thanks for sharing you're story....you know, these stories are great information to any grader operator, because believe me no matter how good you are or how good you think you are, one thing you can count on...you're eventually going to get r bogged...:drinkup
leave the operating to the pros.it appears there is only one lever in this machine for this guy and thats to lever alone.
Welcome to the HEF gg67. Cute little saying you have there. I have a question for you...How do you become a pro?
I sure was, Grader4me, literally, because I was camping at the time and my camp was much more comfortable than the alternative I was faced with, there for a while. That old grader and I became very good friends over the next four weeks. Rn'R.
Hate to barge in on this one G4M but I know I've said it before and it comes from one of the finest grader hands that I have personaly been around. It didn't matter what piece of equipment I was on or what I was doing if I was hesitant about somthing, etc. Don's famous quote was always, "Only way you are going to learn is to sit you ass in that seat there." You hear all the time about "old operators" that will NOT show the younger gen how to do things or the little tricks. I was fortunate enough to have a great number of guys that were always willing to show me their craft. Even on here if somthing pertains to me and the equipment I run I read everything you seasoned operators say(obviously alot of my grader info comes from you) so sometime when I do get into those spots I feel as if i might have a fighthing chance of getting out or getting the task done in a timely manner. Trbo
Well said Trbo! To me this is what this forum is all about. Its about sharing your experiences so it might help others when in the same situation. I've done this for a very long time, and although I'm not up to this high tech stuff with the fancy terms and so on, I still get the job done. I get great joy out of training new operators on a grader....to see them actually learning and really enjoying the opportunity to learn. If every one had the mind set to "just let the pros do it" then what chance would there be to learn? I tell little horror stories of my bad experiences (swallow my pride of course) so that it might help anyone here that have never experiened what it is like. I don't mind admitting my mistakes..if it will help someone else. Also..thanks for the kind words..
G4M, your welcome and I mean that. Making a mistake is not a bad thing as long as no one gets hurt and you can learn from it. I love watching expert hands run equipment and try to study how they go about things so that when I get there I have an idea of what needs doing. Too many "operators" today just think they can do everything and that the "old" guys don't know anything. The sooner they get both ideas out of their heads the better they will be. Keep adding well taken advice, both good and bad experiences. Trbo
Thanks Trbo! anyone else with any little horror stories of situations you have been into with a grader? I hate to see this thread die to quickly! If you have no "stuck" stories, how about close calls or maybe the dumbest thing you ever did with a grader (that one will be hard to sell ) I could probably write a book on that subject..lol
NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED I was rebuilding a section line road, about a half mile from the middle of nowhere, when a farmer drove up in his pickup. He had been cultivating corn, and had dropped his tractor and rear mounted cultivator into the mud, only about 200' out into the field, not too far from where I was working. I had been pulling a 9' Rome offset disk, chopping up sod, but I thought it would be no big deal to unhook, go pull this guy out, and get back to my project. I followed him out to the field, turned around and started backing toward his tractor, being careful not to flatten too much corn. When I was about 50' away, I felt the machine start to sink. I locked the diff, grabbed third gear forward, and started trying to wiggle my way out. I realized very soon that no amount of jacking, lifting, twisting, or spinning was going to get me out. My 140G was now belly deep in muck. I called another blade operator who was working within about 10 miles, and he said he would come and give me a pull. He was already working about 20 miles from his base, and this would take him out another 10. He arrived, started backing in on higher ground, and soon was stuck just as bad as me. Now I had the pleasure of calling my boss, to ask him if he could come out, pick us up, drive the other operator home for the night, and take me back to the main shop. The next morning, we pulled a dozer off of another project half way across the county, hauled it over and pulled out two blades and a farm tractor. That happend over 16 years ago, and we all still get a good laugh whenever someone talks about getting "a little stuck". smoothoperator...still playing in the mud.
I'm not sure if I told this one before or not...A few years back we were having a grader course. There was 6 graders and 12 students. We were building a section of road, ditching, shaping, and leveling gravel. There was 4 of us that was providing the training. I would be the one that would do most of the demonstations as I had the most experience. On one section of the road the ditch was very wet and soft due to water laying there. Now the only way I could ditch this section is keep the machine up on the road and extend the blade/sideshift out to max and take small cuts in the ditch line. Now anyone that has done this before knows that if you get greedy, and take to much of a cut it will haul your machine into the ditch, very quickly I might add. So...quess what? I got greedy. I wasn't happy with everything going well, taking small cuts, I applied a little more pressure on the toe and away I went. So..here I am with 12 trainees plus the other instructors standing up on the road watching me, and I'm bogged to the hilt :Banghead:Banghead Just a tad embarassing to say the least. Okay...time to swallow my pride and get this puppy out of there. Sooo..I got my blade working with me, plus the articulation and a few silent prayers and out she came. As I was coming out of the hole, I was thinking of the best way to explain this to the group so that I could save a little face here ointhead I jumped off the machine, gathered them all around and pointed out that regardless of how experienced you are, things like what you just seen can happen. Talked to them for about ten minutes explaining all the moves that I made to bring it out etc. I think I had them believing I did it on purpose as part of the training program The other instructors just walked away shaking their heads.. ... lol
That's a good one smoothoperator. But...couldn't you guys have got just one more machine hung up in the line and made it a damn funny story? Pretty slick G4m. Maybe I should say this in the "sayings that have stuck with you" thread, but it may apply here; "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance...baffle them with BS". A pro can pull it off everytime. Sounds like your a pro grader and a pro at CYA. :thumbsup
You have me pegged pretty good ATCOEQUIP! LOL...
Can't say that yet...we have to get OCR to analyse "pegged" to get confirmation. :cool2
I have very little grader time, but I'll add a couple things from my time on the backhoe. One, you're not "stuck" until you need another piece of equipement to pull you out. Second, is to paraphrase old Chuck Yeager, he of breaking the sound barrier in jets. Chuck says, "There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold, pilots." I say; There are bold operators, and there are operators who've never been stuck, but there are no bold operators who've never been stuck...
Ha Ha..good one digger! Now tell me...have you ever been stuck?? lol
A word to the wise. Be very careful if you are lifting yourself out and get your lift rams pushed out close to the end while side shifting. I once bent a lift ram on my Aveling Barford Super MG doing just this.
An oops moment ( we've all been there!) Summer 1980, new irrigation development- fresh dirt + inexperienced operator Graders- New Clarke Super 301 with batter blade & old Austin Western with batter blade, both powered by V8 Cummins
cool pics of the austin western i have a 1953 austin western super 99 that i need parts for anybody have any leads on parts for such a dinosaur any help would be great i just joined this forum and love it
No personal stucks, yet... Not much seat time though. Did see an operator, who bs'd his way into a job almost roll a machine though. They were stock piling dirt. Bellys dump blade smooth's it out. Well a belly had dumped near the edge and as he was smoothing out, he hooked a rock and spun the blade down the side of the stock pile. Which by this time was nearly 40ft tall... He slams on the brakes and sets the blade down. Then walks away. Upon seeing this i was wondering why he stopped? If i had happened upon this situation, my first instict would have been turn articualte down the hill as not to roll, then drive on out. Yes there is the possibility that the rippers could hang up on the bottom and your stuck anyway, but atleast you dont have the possibility of rolling the machine. I showed the blade to the job super, which i often bs'd with... He promptly asked me what i though the "operator" should have done. I explained my opinion, he looked at me shocked and said that is exactly as he would have done it too. You dont have to worry about being stuck at the bottom either, the weight of the grader will get the wheels to the ground, unless you are on a huge stock pile which is heavily compacted... he said the same thing applies when you are on a scraper and you slide of the edge, point for the bottom and go... I also have seen this same "operator" using is mold board to push a very stuck belly dump out. He was doing a very poor job keeping the stock pile's knocked down when a belly got stuck full of asphalt millings. Burried the truck up pretty good too. Looked to me like blatant abuse to me, but what do i know, im a rookie... So pushing a stuck truck with the mold board? Yes or no? He was pushing hard enough to physically turn the mold board, you could hear the circle drive motor whining from the strains...
Hummm...lets see...ah...NO..lol
sounds to me like the operator that's pushing the truck with the moldboard needs some more training and advice or needs a different job. May be driving the grader but for sure no operator.:Banghead :badidea
As i was expecting... He's a grader "driver" Surely not an operator... He call's him self a "universal operator" Moving low profile concrete traffic barriers with an excavator one time, he knocked me off the haul truck with the cables attached to the bucket. He was promptly told to get the hell out of the excavator, i then called site super and told him to get me another operator, i was not goin to risk persoal injury due to operator negligance. This "operator" ignored me when i told him to get out and set the bucket on the barrier, and looked at me weird when i sat down on the haul truck. It all made since when the site super showed up with a real operator and put him to using a wheel to measure out a concrete slab by foot. Nearly 1000' long.. that was the last time i ever worked around him and i made it very clear i would not risk personal injury to myself or any guys i work with due to an negligent operator. Either find another operator or find another crew of guys to move your lo-pros... He got a new operator since his dirt crew was slower than molases moving the barriers...
Guy is also a joke on a loader, had to go behind him and finish picking up a windrow from a finish blade man... I made it very clear which parts i did and which parts he did...
I'm not sure if this vid has been posted before. Look at the way they tried to push the stuck grader out. I actually groaned for the poor grader. Not a wise thing to do.. YouTube - Motoniveladora en un MallÃ*n
How did he get it out??
Ouch!!!!!! thats hard on the circle.A grader can pull allmost anything with a good cable.I pulled a set of p/h 2100 shovel sticks with a 16g one day.I did a wheelie but it dragged them.
H has a slip clutch that should give before theres any damage to the circle or worm gear as long as it wasnt adjusted too tight. I did see a guy try and push a G model out with the end of the blade and it bent the articulation cylinders