Along with our production grader, we have 3 Maintainer graders. A lot of our work is private driveways. With a lot of larger contractors in the province, road work is hard to come by. Our 940 Volvo is a 2011, and still only has about 1200 hours on it. The Maintainer graders are the bread winners, going steady all summer. The 510 Puckett is an 88, and the hour meter quit at about 22000 hours, it is on it's 3rd engine. The 690 Alitec is a 99, again, hours are unknown. In 2012 they bought a Mauldin. It has a nice cab, A/C, lots of power...bla bla bla. I would rather roast all summer in the old puckett than spend 10 seconds in the Mauldin. Who puts tinted windows on a grader...... To anyone familliar with Maintainer graders, the valve banks are on each side of the seat. Blade controls on the left, and boom, bucket, ripper, and Auxillary on the right. Short leavers, hooked right on the valve, and close together. Mauldin offers the controls at the steering wheel, in order to give the big grader feel. The configuration is same as one of the JD patterns. The leavers are long, and flex quite a bit before moving the valve, so I find it hard to get a feel for them. Because of the length, it is almost impossible to use your fingers to move the controls in opposing directions. Sometimes I feel like Fred Flinstone pulling the leavers on the dino crane. In order to accomodate the cab design, they have narrowed the blade lift pistons in about 16 inches on either side to about 2 feet apart which makes the 10 foot Moldboard almost impossible to lift on one side without gouging on the other. Has anyone else tried the Mauldin, and had similar findings.
I haven't ran any of those smaller ones. When you mention the long levers, would they be longer then the 1990 730 (?) that you ran? After those series 3's with the cables, when I jumped into a series 4, I thought I was really moving up in the world. I do kind of know what you're talking about with the lift cylinders though. Do you use the other attachments enough, or would it be time to go to a Champion built LeeBoy or something like that?
I have read here that the older Pucket ones were better than the Mauldin now.The new design looks nice and modern, but what i have read, that they should make something better next time with the technique. Here a video from a Mauldin M413XT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcW2ou-KLU4
Here another Maintainer Grader, Basic 601, it is possible with loader on the front too: http://www.basicequipment.net/model_601.htm
Leavers are more flexable than the Champion.
What's it like to run with the controls oriented the way they are (compared to the fullsize graders). I have ran some cats and stuff with the blade controls on the right. This sounds opposite, although most of the conventional controls are on the left side of the steering wheel- circle turn, blade slide, sideshift I guess. Do the tinted windows give you grief at night? Reflection?
Control position is like everything else, you get used to it. Keep in mind that these little babies do mostly private driveways. And there are times when you work in the shadow of a garage or big trees, or even on overcast days, and you just can't see that inch or so bump that will give the paving crew grief, and give the customer an area with half an inch of pave instead of 2 and a half. I'm talking near limo tint.
I have find a video from a Pucket Bros: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUDNL75T2tY
Heard the bad news this week that they are going to scrap the old Pucket
I have prepared many miles of road base with an old Huber Maintainer with many of the functions disabled such as the moldboard shift because nobody cared as long as the job got done and the truth was that noone else could carry a grade anyway but the old girl could do a nice job.The grader use to belong to a big paving company so it intuitivley knew what to do ) It had one of those south american Ford diesels in it that seemed to start like a gas job in cold weather.Those were the days.Ron G
Graders and miles ? I lost count before I was 25 years old. Amazing how many miles you do when your concentrating.
Oh that is sad news Has it technical problems? It is sad that only one manufacturer offer those type (Mauldin). Those maintainer can do two things, grading and loading. For small places a good idea!
Here a video from a Pucket Bros Maintainer with Vibrating plate compactor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv1obl97sww
Here is a video from a Pucket Bros Maintainer: https://youtu.be/TsH8eIePi3c