Today was a great day for a JD grader demo day!! Our JD dealer Murphy invited city, county, state and private contractor operators to come to thier facility and try the new GP (Grade Pro) graders. (about 100 operators present.) They had a 672GP, a770G, & a 872GP for all of us to demo in the dirt. On the east side of the facility they had a big old pile of dirt (which was mostly frozen at the beginning of the day) for us to demo the 770G & the 872GP on. The western part of the acreage had a layout of 150Yds of roadlike material to demo the 672GP on. I first tried the 770G which has the "Cat" lever configurement & it seemed a little slow on the hydraulic lift & circle turn of sideshift. (The oil might have been cold as I was one of the first to run it.) The operators station was the quietest I have ever encountered in 40+ years of operating heavy equipment. (I am comparing these machines to the 08 Cat 140H I operate every day) The next machine I operated was the 672GP, and was really surprised at how much power it had and the hydraulic speed was good & the circle power was really outstanding. What really impressed me was the "Grade Pro" portion of the machine. The GP designates the new armrest electric over hydaulic arrangement of the levers, with steering either on the armrest levers or a small steering wheel in the usual position. The arrangement of the armrest levers were easy to adjust to, although it would take a little time to be completely comfortable with the lever steering. But very reassuring to have the steering wheel you can grab when you lose the trend of thought. Good lever to ground feel!! Part of the GP setup is the ablility to set the % of slope you wish to maintain, & I thought well that's novel idea but probably not necessary. Well much to my surprise after rickking up a good healthy windrow on the away pass, I turned around & set the Grade Pro to a 2% slope & started the return pass with the moldboard straight across & steadily increased the speed & the load while turning the moldboard a little to spill a windrow downslope, running the blade with only one hoist control, because when you turn the GP on you control the blade movement with either lift lever. Now this was really neat when I got to the end of the demo plot & looked back to see 150 ard of perfect 2% slope road behind me. Then the LIGHT came on. How cool would that be when plowing snow & you need to raise the whole blade a little & steer at the same time. Wala!!! You don't need three hands to accomplish this feat. The next machine I demo'd was the 872GP on the big pile of dirt. Now let me tell you this machine has the b***s to really climb a hill, pull a windrow from the outside of a pretty sharp turn with frozen material & when the left front tire headed over the slope (15' of 1 to 1) all I had to do was lift up a little on the load & the front wheel assist just pulled the front end right out of the soft shoulder & back up onto the solid top. Then on the return trip over the hill I really loaded up the moldboard & sunk her into the ground. Had to flip this geeky looking little toggle I've heard everybody joking about to engage diff lock, but boy that machine will really move the material. Way more power that I ever thought in a 40,000 pound machine could deliver. I'm sorry about the length of this thread, & if you think it sound like an advertisement, it isn't. I work for the county and operate the nicest machine I've ever had the pleasure of running, (a Cat) but I thouhgt I should relay my feelings about these outstanding GP machines. Thanks to Max & his crew. Great lunch too!!! I'll be curious about your thoughts about them. C Ya, Patrol Man (Dan) goodearth13 :usa
This sounds like a really good demo day. Do you have any pictures of the event? OC
More info on JD Grader Days I appologize for not having photos of the day. I will contact Murphy & see if anyone took photos. If they have some I will try to get them & post some here. I think the JD dealers across the nation will be having these "Grader Days" as the GP (Grade Pro) graders are a new addition to thier line of equipment. Check with your local dealers for thier demo day. Really worth going to. No high pressure sales pitch either. A couple videos explaining the GP operation. Another feature I didn't mention in my original thread. Automatic BACKUP CAMERA when you put the gear selector in reverse. Great feature will no doubt save lives & damage. Most accidents happend while backing. C Ya, Patrol Man (Dan) goodearth13 :usa
camera Yeah, I know what that's about. I parked behind my grader once and I got in, started it and backed into my new 1Ton dually. I didn't see it till it started to swing out the side. Really big brain fart.::Banghead
I've not done that yet. But after a few cars/trucks have sneaked up behind you and you almost back over them you develop the habit of looking real close before backing. An electronic method might be easier and more efficient.
hey goodearth13, good review,our municipality just purchased a 870g .all you say is very true. no complaints here. nice machine to work and also plow with. len 740
Yaa. I've had some of those cars/pickups 'sneak' up behind me also. I try to watch the rearview mirror often but sometimes they appear out of nowhere. We had a county graderman 20 yrs ago that would never look behind him. I guy told me he tried to sneak up behind him with his pickup and scare him. Well it never phased the grader operator, he just kept on blading. So the pickup driver was really going to get him. He drove his pickup bumper into the rear tire. Well....... when the rear tire grabbed the bumper and lifted the pickup up about 4 ft the pickup driver was more surprised than the graderman. Told me he would NEVER do that again!!!! Any way, back to the post. Those rearview cameras should really help. Can you leave them on at all times or just when in reverse.
biggrader, I don't know about leaving it on all of the time. The screen that shows the backup scene is also the screen that indicates the gear, % of slope & other info as you operate the machine. It might be too big a distraction to have a full time backup camera screen to watch. Maybe we could adapt a satellite antenna to the roof & watch the ball games or something. Just kidding. C Ya, Patrol Man (Dan) goodearth13 :usa
ya, bring on the Twins and Vikings!
Then is it activated by selecting a reverse gear??
As far as I know that is the only way to turn it on. Check with your local JD dealer to see if they are going to have a Demo Day & if the camera has any other way to operate. C Ya, Patrol Man (Dan) goodearth13 :usa
FYI - there are 3 modes of operation for the rear camera. You can have the monitor display switch to the rear camera when a reverse gear is selected. You can select to have the rear camera displayed on the monitor all the time. You can select to have the rear camera view not displayed.
Nice, that' how I'd hope it was set up. Do you run one?? If so do you use the camera a lot??