I've worked around heavy equipment for most of my life but have only been around a few graders. I was just wondering what the difference is between say a Cat 12 and a 120 0r a 14 and 140? also what is the reason for a "low profile" cab?
Generally speakin, the three digit machines have a lighter frame and smaller components. They are cheaper than the bigger models. Cat started doing this to compete with Deere and others that were grabbing all the municipal business way back when. In the last few years, many a contractor has found that even these smaller machines do quite well with dirt and thus they have become almost standard fare. A 12 or a 120 was almost always equipped with a 12' blade, the 14 or 140 with a 14' and so on. The blade length is one thing that has remained fairly constant. In another thread here it's asked how many of us were taught to operate a blade standing up. In those cases, most blades didn't even have a cab or a ROPS structure, so standing up was a good way to see what you were doing a little better, not to mention being able to throw your full weight on a mighty stiff clutch and practically useless brake pedal. Now, modern blades have better visibility, hydraulic clutches and power or air brakes. Sweet machines to operate compared to older models. A guy can sit comfortably all day and barely have to exert himself. In fact, probably the hardest function he has to do is simply climb in and out of the cab. Lots different I can tell you. There is no need really for the taller cabs anymore and they are extra cost, so……………..
Thanks for clearing that up for me, makes sense. I know what you mean by standing to operate and the stiff controls, useless brake pedal, years ago we had an old ?? Huber maybe, it was a real chore to run, and I saw a few guys take quite a ride when the machine jumped outta gear while descending a hill with out a hint of brakes . Thanks again for your reply.
hi surfer joe, i thought the hardest thing he has to do all day is heard the bellys all over the place,ha ,ha, just wondering i always thought those sqauty cabs were to help out with the height issues when transporting,and getting under those tight overheads say possibly grading around buildings and such,but that's just a guess on my part.
Ah.........Lovely West Jordan. Beautiful place....in summer! Yeah, shorter cabs can help with transport and getting in under stuff, but the taller cabs never presented me with a transport problem. Just had to get the right transport you know. There is no good way to herd belly dumpers short of several good sheep dogs. When you want them to dump over here, they dump over there and so on. But we all know that. Shorter, smaller cabs are easier to heat and cool too. Now, with all electronic controls and gauges and all, I'd think we will see more changes to grader cabs in the future.
this boggles my mind..... they are exactly like sheep... they would follow each off a cliff if no one told them the difference! we have been using tandom dumps to grade for a floor slab for the past week and today i watched 3 belly dumps (that were suposed to be going to another job on the outside of the building) follow eachother into the building and get all jammed up on the inside. the only way for them to get out was to back out and of course the last guy in line could not back up to save his life. by the time he got out of teh building our sting of tandoms had got back and were already on the way up the driveway causing a bigger jam. everyone end ended up having to back out on the main road to let the belly dumps out. it was good for a laugh none the less! lol
I think the seat belt laws will doom the high cabs. As I understand it an operator of any vehicle on a highway in most states is required to wear one. Last I checked that was pretty hard to do standing up.
Tall or short cabs Hi, Folks. As I have mentioned elsewhere before, I am a really lazy type so I have always operated a grader sitting down, even when delivering my windrow UNDER the machine. The first - and so far the last - bloke to give me any sort of 'edumackayshun', formal or informal, on a grader, told me first up, "The seat is there to sit on. Use it." Me being so lazy and all, that made perfect sense to me. And I don't care what anybody says, on EVERY self-propelled grader that I have ever operated, you have better control of the machine if you are sitting down. (And, despite what some folks may claim, I have NEVER operated a Russell grader and was NOT around when they were the 'bee's knees' of grading.) So short cabs don't bother me. Also, I have yet to find a grader cab that didn't have room for 2 x size 10 boots on the floor - I figure that's enough floor space for me. What's more, I kin git my favourite rump steak into every grader seat that I have ever seen. How much more room do you want. Enough to work the controls? I have always managed to do that too. Maybe some of you whingers ought to do a couple of years in a Galion 503 or an A-C DD or a Fiat-Allis 65B, ALL of which I operated sitting down. Yer almost hafta go outside to draw a good breath. Or maybe run a SMALL excavator with an enclosed cab for a while. LOL.
So where did you put your lunch box to feed your "favourite rump steak"? Rn'R.
MY Lunch Box Hi, R-n-R. For the most part, MY lunch box stayed in my vee-hickle. I am not one who is so wedded to his grader that he wants to be with it even while having smoko or lunch. Furthermore, I am not so paranoid about my employment as to be worried that some miscreant might attempt to abscond with the machine while I am making sure that my favourite rump steak doesn't wither and die and thus become unable to send me any further messages about what the machine under it is doing. Now the O&K G350 grader that I operated(?) for a while in Hervey Bay was a whole different ball game. There WAS enough room in that cab for my lunch box and a couple of others. Trouble was, I could barely reach high enough to get it up on the floor before I climbed up and there was NO way I could reach down from the cab to grab hold of my lunch box AFTER I got up into the cab.
Here's a chart from the cat site. The 16H/M has 16' blade, the 160MH/M has 14' blades, 2' smaller. Same for the 14H/M=14' blade, the 140H/M has 12' blades, again 2' smaller. But the 12H/M and the 120H/M all have 12' blades. Why do they change the system for the 12, or maybe there is no system???:beatsme
The problem is, Deas, on most of our work, by lunchtime the vehicle could be anything from 1 - 20 kilometres away. I would just like manufacturers to provide enough room in machines for a reasonable size esky to carry your lunch, drink and whatever else you may need for the day and very few of our machines have that. Also a lot of times we travel to the job on the machine, for the day and then will be picked up at night, so once again it would be handy to have a bit extra space. Rn'R.
Lunch Sack ? Geez , I never had a problem with my lunch Sack or Box, in carrying it with me, on any equipment. IN Alaska most of us, carry a bag with our lunch, and extra clothes, usually a jacket, or rain gear, or coveralls, that we think we might need during the day. On the left side of the operator, is always a place to store or tie, it. Some times an extra heater is placed there. Then I tie my bag on the grader engine hood, to the grab bars. Never fail my lunch always goes with me . LOL Even when operators change equipment during the day, never know how long the job will be, or where you will be at lunch time.:usa Now , there are some jobs, where everything is parked at lunch time, so the oilers, fuelers,mechanics can look at the equipment. Then I leave my lunch in my vehicle, or a dry shack where everyone eats.
Well, you must have bigger cabs in Alaska, Northart. I take an esky with me which has my lunch, drink/water, ice bricks to keep it all cool (which would have to sound pretty stupid in Alaska) a wind cheater and any other bits and pieces I may need, and we have not got a machine here where that will fit in easily. Perhaps I am not supposed to use an esky, but I like it because it is convenient and keeps everything together, it just doesn't fit anywhere. Maybe I will have to mount it outside the cab somewhere. Rn'R.
Wunnsa ponna time. Hi, Folks. Wunnsa ponna time, there yuesta bee a Cat grader model called the Cat 14D, whitch wuz follered by the Cat 14E an' botha theez beesties had 13' blades, repeat THIRTEEN foot blades, taking 1 x 7' and 1 x 6' cutting edge. U cood git a 14' blade fer 'em but *** wuz an oppshunn, at least here in DownUnder. R-n-R, I suppose a lot depends on just how big an esky you take to work with you. If you will persist in taking a dozen 'tallies' along with yer lunch, yer might need a trailer behind ther grader fer yer esky. LOL. Me, I only take a Stanley Lunch Lugger anyway' cuz I don't consoom alko-hole-ic beverages. LOL.
Cab Size ? Hi Rocksn'Roses, Nope, they (Cabs) are all the same size. I just stuff my soft canvas bag with clothes and lunch on the left side as always.
Maybe you need to stick with an older grader. Mine has enough room for 3 people to set side by side and room behind the seat for there 3 lunches. I just havn't found a good place to put the battery so it is setting on the floor. Plus it has seat belts for 3 people. There is room for a 6' person to stand but I set because the first grader operator I ever met, back in 1986, said a good operator graded siting down. He was 60 years old back then. Personally I would like a much smaller cab. You can always keep your lunch warm by storing in on the motor.
Moldboard length ? Hi Deas Plant, I run across a 14? with a 13' moldboard . Was a weirdo up here, as everything else was a 14' board. As a matter of fact almost every grader up here is 2'more than factory spec. The 12's carry 14' The 14's carry 16' The 16's carry 18' Just the nature of our material , Type 11, or -2" rock,gravels.
You can put any blade on the things that you got money to pay for. They also make two foot extensions that can be right handed or left handed. I've had customers that like the ability to switch the 14 grader to having a 16' blade for snow in the winter and drop the extension in the summer. A whatever happened to the old tin lunch pails. It wasn't much more than a folding mail box but it fit almost anywhere. Granted it isn't the small refridgerator most operators carry now but then most of today's operators could stand to miss a meal or two. Just a random thought.
Crikey, now I am an overweight, modern grader driving alcoholic! Certainly the older machines did have large cabs and you could store half the workshop in there. I am also talking wheel loaders as well as graders and their cabs a smaller again. I am certainly not fading away, but I do like my lunch and keeping it cool is more the go here than keeping it warm, although I have been known to throw the odd tin of "canned dog" on to the manifold half an hour before lunch. No alcohol Deas, (I knew I left myself wide open there!) just a flask of tea, two or three litre bottles of water ( depending on how hot it is) and a can of coke. Rn'R.
I had an 2 foot extension for the 140G Cat that I run. At first I would put it on for winter plowing then take it off in the summer. Eventually though I left it on all year long. Anyone ever had their lunch bucket fall out of the cab and run over it?
Lunch gone walkabout. Hi, Grader4me. I haven't run over my lunch yet but I have had it fall off or out of two different machines. I had that lunch box for 27 years, in fact still have it, but retired it in favour of a newer model in July this year.
Now all you need is a nice red frock :falldownlaugh:deadhorse and the next guy who gets in a 966 and flattens my thermos is gunna get it
Disgusting waste. Hi, Lowboy. Disgusting waste of good food and coffee. The starving Ethiopians would be utterly shocked at such careless wastage. I trust you WILL be more careful in future. Squizzy246B, I once worked with a bloke over in 'the West' who had busted 5 normal Thermos's in 6 days. He fronted up on the Monday with a brand spanking new stainless steel Thermos and said, "I've got this game beat now." He had smoko sitting on the left track of his D8 and just as he was finishing, the foreman drove up, told him to get in and took him down to the far end of the job to show him something that needed to be done. After showing him, the foreman left him to walk back to his dozer. Arriving back at the dozer, he climbed up on the right side, threw his backside in the seat, opened the throttle, hit the starter, fired the engine, reefed the throttle wide open and started backing up. He had gone about thirty feet when he remembered his lunch bag and shiny new Thermos - - - which now had a somewhat flattened appearance on the ground between where he now sat and where he had had smoko. He was a rather unhappy little vegemite.
It's never going to leave you is it. Always there...waiting...just waiting for the right time...and I thought you was cured...:Banghead I've also run over a brand new water jug one time..
It's never going to leave you. Hi, Grader4me. You know he only does it to get a bite. You bit. Maybe you should just leave it hanging there - the comment, not the red dress - and maybe it WILL go away. I have run over a set of sockets in their box with a Cat 12 grader but so far never my lunch or other sustenance. BTW, I still have that set of sockets AND the box, both still very much serviceable - didn't do the sockets any harm and the box only suffered minimal damage, repaired with a little panel-beating.
And now he's going to have me wearing one too! Rn'R.
Oh yeah..I bite all the time..Squizzy is a good fisherman.. I used to have a lot of fun with the flag people. When leveling a string of gravel we would have a flag person at each end of the string. Of course they would have their lunch pails and water jugs with them, and of course they would set them down along side of the road in front of them...I would "mistakenly" flick them into the ditch once in awhile. Of course as well I would plead the fifth....geezz.... never even seen em..
:yup..welcome aboard brother...:notworthy
I am infamous for running over my cell phones back in the day. not with grader but with dozer usually bigger the better and the day my mail would get sent down to the site with my cell phone bull. Now I am calmer and just throw them over the bridge. lol.
Thanks! 2:1 now!:beerchug Rn'R.
now there is and Idea a refridgerator in a peice of equipment. I always use to carry a 12 volt cooler with me in the truck full of water and pop ( Beer on friday), in the winter you cold switch the polarity so it would warm things. The price of a piece of equipent what would be 100 dollers extra and leave the top free for putting cloths on it just put a couple of straps on it for strapping things down.