My daughter recently slid into a grader that was stopped on the street. Just received a bill for $9,000 for damages to the mouldboard - bent quadrant plates, damaged wear plates, circle turn, valve etc. It's been quite a few years since I've operated (my brother still does) but does this seem likely. She rear ended the stopped grader (he was removing snow) at about 30 mph (50 km/hr) road was very icy. She's OK, truck is totalled and all I could see was paint from the grader ripper on the truck hood. Ripper was high enough that the truck frame completely missed it - radiator, engine, etc. didn't - air bag didn't even go off. What do you think? City trying to get their grader repaired for free?
Sounds like they are trying to get one over on you to me, but I'm not a blade expert so lets hear from them. I just don't see that there is enough down presser on the blade itself while plowing snow to cause any damage if it was hit even really hard. Its also hard for me to think a 3K lb. pickup would do much to a 30K lb. blade.
You say she was going 30mph when she hit, her vehicle was totalled and the air bag did not even go off? There's something fishy there. It's amazing the damage that can be done, even to heavy equipment when involved in an accident with anything. Before you go any further, contact the shop doing the repairs and ask to see the damage. Take pictures of the damaged parts and then you (and we also ) will have something to go on. I can see how you would be upset getting this kind of bill but with the cost of parts today it may not be at all out of line.
Am wondering about the airbags too - thought that since the ripper missed the bumper and frame … they didn't go off.
Truck was a 1991 Dakota - not much value there.
Airbags have a stated life of 10 years. No surprise they didn't go off. Will/can they go off after 10 years? Oh yea...
The cost isn't out of line, except that it's real hard to imagine how any real damage was done given the collision you described. Even if a Dakota frame rammed the grader, I can't see how it would do any damage to anything, especially with the grader stopped. If the grader was moving then I could see how the operator might have reacted/swerved and caused some damage. Was there any damage at the scene?
Hit the ripper (rear mounted?) and damaged the moldboard.... Did the vehicle touch the moldboard? Also, is this out of pocket for you?
That would be a hard pill to swallow. So what if the operator had hit a curd earlier and failed to report it , or the machine has 15k hours and has hit dozens of things. They should prorate the damage anyway , worn % by what else. Hope the daughter is ok , pee on the grader. I'd make sure all the lights were working , back up alarm , mirrors . If your insurance is paying they might fight it.
I can't imagine a car sliding into a grader and doing 1000$ worth of damage nevermind 9000$ But the old saying is you can't fight city hall! Good Luck!
You can ram a moldboard into a buried rock or raised manhole for days one end and do no damage, but a dakota rearending the grader hurt it? Sounds like a company with little money trying to get you to repair the wear and tear that they can't afford.
I'm going to say that damages of that extent as plausible given the conditions. I took and entered the knowns into a impcat force calculator and depending on "time of contact" forces aplied to the grader could range from 30k to over 60k pounds. Ive seen backhoe loader booms bent due to manhole covers being hit while snowplowing. Another factor is the temperature at the time of the accident, we all know that hardened steel becomes brittle with cold temperatures. Do I think that the damages apear to be excessive, yes. I'd want to see damaged parts myself, but its possible. If you want to see some carnage look at what happens when cars impact farm tractors.
If its a city of Edmonton owned grader, I'd ask to see the photos and get a copy of of the accident report. If its one of their subs, I would expect that they ( the city )would still have to get a report as part of their contract. I've had loaded log trucks slide into the back of grders, damage to the rad, but never to the mould board. I'd also be asking who the hell gave the go ahead for repairs without talking to you first. The other thing is that I'd be asking to see the parts they replaced, if they threw them out, then something stinks to high heaven. With that much damage, the police should have been called as well, get a copy of that report. Talk to somebody at Service Alberta too, they can sometimes dig up some nice buried laws at times.
I'm curious--How badly was the operator injured? Because to do that sort of damage to the machine, I'd think the operator would've at least had whiplash...
How did the moldboard get damaged if she rear ended the grader? Get a copy of the accident report.
Sounds fishy to me. I have tied D-8 Cats onto graders and drug them through ground they were never meant to be in, with dirt stuffed through the circle clear to the frame and not damaged the moldboard. I find it hard to buy that a small pick up hitting the ripper did any damage at all to the blade. Who is to say the operator did not hit a curb or manhole at speed, and decided to get off the hook by blaming his damages on your accident?
Get a lawyer - this is a hustle!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The only way I can conceive it hurting the molboard (which I highly doupt) is if the cutting edge was against something immovable when the Dakota hit the blade. The blade was stopped so it is possible he was hooked on something. But if you the blade hard enough to break something it's not going to cause wear everywhere. Boogus.