Hi Has anyone seen or got any photographs of Komatsu's new -5 motor graders? The Komatsu au website shows specs for the GD555-5 and GD655-5 with a new hexangular cab which i imagine is similar to a Caterpillar M series. Just courious to see what they are like. We dont have Komatsu graders in the UK for whatever reasons? It may be low volume sales dont warrant importing and supporting them.
Here a picture of Komatsu and one of the inside, photos come from photostp.free.fr.
looks interesting, kinda get a little of both worlds, visability of the cat and still get the levers. i would like to see more.
Very interesting.
Years ago there was one in a fleet I maintained for a coal mine. The thing would have been OK for grading the sides of roads but for any real work it fell apart all the time. I've never recommended anybody purchase one since. Just an opinion.
Nice lookin grader, real nice view, interestin to see how long they hold up. Worked with a graderman who said the hyds. are faster than cat or deere,(not a 5) don't know first hand, only ever ran cat (98%) deere (2%) Be interestin to try one out.:drinkup Bob aka ZZ
Vision + Reminds me of when John Deere tractors changed to new models from the old 4800 series to 8400. You couldn't complain about blind spots anymore A real human terrarium or fish bowl cab
And I have just the opposite story - a customer of mine had 3 that they ran on a regular road maintenance contract. They traded them in at 30000hrs plus, and all they ever had to do on them was maintenance items. I'm sure that grading municipal roads and mining roads are as different as can be. I bet it also has a lot to do with the operators as well. :my2c I do want to see the new unit in person, it sure looks neat. Has anyone ever run one of these units that has the dual mode transmission in it? Good? Bad? Indifferent?
I was wondering when Komatsu would face a remodel, and the machine looks superb.
Not to sure I like this cab, all they did was narrow down the front so you will have less room, seems a little cramped for me. I don't have that much trouble with an H model myself. :IMO Also no telling how expensive it is to replace the glass every time some punk breaks it out. Greg in KC
-5 grader Nice looking unit to me anyway. Dominion:canada
komatsu GD555-5 Hi there, Interesting pictures of the komatsu gd 555-5 with its different cab design. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to demo one of these machines at whittlesea last week for a short time. The whole grader is a vast improvement on the gd 555-3 series 1. We have the series 1 at work and as a grader, its ok, but the dash 5 has many improvements. Apart from the obvious hexangular cab design with superior vision of the blade, vision out the side windows and out the back window is very good. other changes to the machine are increased hp ( almost on par with the old gd 655-3 model), vastly improved cooling system with hydraulic fan and wide spaced coolers, heavier push block (just on 1000kg), different instrument panel, ground level fueling, and a few mods to the transmission. I operated this machine for a short time at the demo and it felt good overall, the machine has stayed with steering wheel and conventional levers for the hydraulics so that felt familiar, giving me more time to get an overall impression of the machine. Unfortunatley I didn't get the chance to take pictures of the grader,(to many other operators waiting for a turn). Any way, I walked away with a good feeling about the machine. Mick.
hydraulics are very fast and reasonably strong, the demo operator lifted the dash 5 completely off the ground via the blade controls and ripper control at the same time at idle revs and the revs didn't even change.
Do they still have inboard disc brakes ? On older models the brake material goes into the oil in the tandems & your bearings etc . Hope the designers have sorted that drama after previous models
thanks for the photo's. I find it interesting that Komatsu has stayed with the conventional controls.
new komatsu gd555-5 grader If anyone is interested in veiwing the new komatsu range of graders, type vantage grader into your web browser, and click on the "vantage graders" result. The resulting page should show you press release information, two adverts, and a video. I have tried to put video into heavy equipment forums but was unsuccessful.
Anyone put some real hours on these yet?
Here a video from a Komatsu grader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ2CaOBjX4o The cabin looks very good, I think the operator has a good overview there.
I've seen better service out of Deere and Champion graders that I've ever seen from Komatsu units. Slip clutches on the blades were an option. Stock was a shear pin that becomes a real problem. The front wheel bearings ran in grease instead of oil and it seemed dirt got in there real easy all the time. I've seen plenty of bolts broken out of the drive side that held the tandems onto the base machine. The blade guides were held in with a single bolt bracket which broke within days or maybe weeks of being new. Engine and transmission were bullet proof but I believe the machines were only good for pulling shoulders on county roads. I know of only one left in my area.
I just got off a rental for three days and it was a pretty nice machine. Visibility was good. Fast controls at low rpms but not too quick in higher rpms. From an operators point of view it was nice other than only havering one vent that could be pointed in the operator. In 110 heat it wasn't enough.
Was this Komatsu grader a allwheel-version? On that one on the video can push the mass of material good.
The one I had to work on was a standard drive. I wonder about people thinking it is a good thing to boil material all the way up into the ring and pinion gears. That is only a matter of blade angle, weight and horsepower and says nothing of the real capabilities of the machine. Basically they had a couple of marketing people with no concept of what a grader does come in and think this would impress people. It's a cheap thrill that experienced operators and owners look at for curiosity and then click out. Get someone to ask and answer some of the questions that came up here. Maybe a mechanic with a testimonial and a third party operator that can really demonstrate the strengths and complaints. Ah but then that would take a bit of work and they would have to find someone not biased for or against their product line and then there is the sound crew and someone who knows how to edit video and sound and blah, blah blah.
I don't know if Komatsu has a all-wheel drive grader, i find nothing on the specs, i think they offer only tandem drive models.... In Germany the most graders have allwheel drive (O&K, New Holland etc...)
I'm kind of surprised. I'll have ask an old friend that's pulling wrenches on them and see what's up. We wondered if they were an option. We're required to swap out machines once they are over 5 years old. And we aren't getting great service out of either the Deere's or Volvo's- and the Volvo's are kind of no more. Some of the Komatsu crawlers were exceptional, but I only know of a couple using older ones here. I think one is a 705 (amazing that poor thing hasen't been pulled in half- it gets pulled by crawler all the time), and a 750 working for a pipeline company. We may be forced to an M, but the service on those hasn't been as good as the H's according to some either.
I have find out that the older models which are from Galion Dresser (GD530A , GD650A , GD670A...) has Allwheel-drive. But the newer one, I don't know.