What does everybody prefer? I've always been fond of the rear ripper myself. The only thing i've found that the front scafire might help is to add some weight to the front end.
Never tried a front scarifier, they look kinda goofy to me! My uneducated vote went to the rear.
While the front scarifier looks funny to me, and it only rips part of the machine width, won't get into corners, will not rip to the curb line, and will not get to the back of the pad, if that is what you are doing, and you end up driving on what you ripped. Its upside is that you can put a lot more grunt to the ground. The front mount scarifier does not unload the rear tires, but instead adds to your available traction, so you can rip harder material. This is why you see them on roadway maintenance with the counties, so they can get out the hard packed material, even rip up old asphalt. The rear ripper will rip full road width, back into corners, and generally cover more ground, without driving your tires over what it just ripped up. Downside to the rear ripper is the length, not letting you get your machine in as tight of locations, and when using the rear ripper, you take weight off of the drive tires, meaning less traction to get through the tough areas. Like most things in life, there is no one ideal solution. Here in CA, you will get laughed at at best, or run off of the job if it is rental work if you show up without a rear ripper/scarifier.
Good info! I know what you mean about the state and maintenance department always having front scafires. On every single grader i've seen for them its always that. Then again the state is so screwed up so it doesn't surprise me. What really made this question pop into my head is every equipment book you look in that has equipment for sale. You'll see a grader equipped with a front scafire for sale almost 10 times before you see one with a rear ripper, if not more!
We have approx. 100 graders throughout the Province with front scarifiers and I don't think its a screw up at all. Our scarifiers are mounted behind the front wheels and they work excellent for what we do. From cutting out potholes, ice holes, ripping up old asphalt, etc. You can see what you are doing. I really don't like the front mounted rippers(ahead of the front wheels) as your front wheels ride up on the material and you are continually making adjustments while ripping. I've tried the rear rippers and they were okay but the jar inside the grader was worse and I found myself continually looking back while adjusting the cut. Now as said I just tried the rear rippers for a very brief period, so its hard to make a good comparison as to the differences. As well we really don't need the extra length in the winter time. All of our graders have one way plows, and some of the places that we plow are quite tight.
It all depends on your application. As Grader4me has said, a mid mounted scarifier is great for those who do road maintenance. I would not want one is I was cutting flat bottom ditches where you need to have the blade inline and underneath the machine. Then you have Randy Krieg who loves rear mounted rippers because with the ripper and blade, he can raise the tires off the ground at night so he has no flat spots in the tires when he starts in the morning.
Actually I just like turning my head around!!! There’s the interference issue with me also. I do a fair amount of reverse backsloping for different reasons; plowing ice jams out of a ditch, pushing oversize rock up a backslope etc, etc. With a midmounted some of these moldboard positions are difficult or next to impossible without getting the toe of the moldboard tangled up in the teeth. The first two graders I operated back in the 70s had midmounted scarifiers so I’ve spent some time using them. They have their place for the way some operators use the machine, different applications, but for the way I use the machine and the applications that I perform; I prefer the Rear Ripper. They don’t hold up to the large rocks well either and we have plenty of those up here. Randy
It won't fit. I've pulled all the teeth on some 140Hs with midmounted and done this same procedure and it's difficult to say the least.
I prefer the rear ripper. The new rippers are very nicely tucked into machine when fully raised. Also if you are in rock the rear ripper sinks in much nicer. And having a scarifier behind the front wheels limits blade mobility.
Rear rippers rock!!!
i prefer the rear, mainly b/c you can rip and grade at the same time. I would rather pull than push
I'd have to go with rear ripper for being able to do all kinds of work heavy and lite. I saw one comment that the rear takes weight off your drive wheels and i would have to disagree. Once that thing is set and you are moving it is actually pulling the tires down and you can get optimum traction and use all of your horsepower. The front mounted are typically just call scarfiers and just won't do what the rear will do. The rear mounted doesn't take up as much room as you think b/c most designs pull them in pretty tight when in the up position.
Rear rippers are great for working subgrades and even with processing material in tight spots..But rear rippers are a hindrance in tight areas with adjacent buildings where a little 12 can get in tighter and work base or subgrade. They both have their ups and downs.