Has anyone ever tried those winter edges for the ice in the summer? Not the fancy systems with the changeable teeth, just the ordinary cutting edge with the gaps for ice. I have never seen anyone use the in summer, so I can guess they don't do well. I did one of my yearly visits to the peatmoss bog. 2 days of trying to cut sandstone that is beat to death all summer by 8 wheeled tractors and their 8 wheeled wagons. You know the material, makes that hissing sound, and the constant dust, only to produce a fine powder to work with. Using my midmount useless scarifier is no good. 5 foot wide vs 40 foot wide road... no thanks. Turns up too many big rocks. They won't pay for a roller to work along with me, so it's too messy. My higher ups won't fork over the cash for a stinger. They won't let me use water, the tractors haul 7 days a week as long as the road is dry, and they don't want mud on the road. I am the only one dis satisfied with the end result. They think it's great, send the money as soon as they get the bill. Been going there since I had my old Champion. Just wish I could do it without 2 days of chattering blade trying to make that bit of baking powder to work with. One of my co workers asked my why I don't just put it on float. That would be great, can hear it beating over the ground now, and can almost see the rear corner snapping up when the front corner digs in. Oh, and their 10 to 12 percent crown that they always want feels so good on the hips.
We tried one it burned up FAST Sure sounds like a good spot for carbide teeth they are expensive though
What I’ve seen done is to mount a serrated blade on top of a normal one. When the board is tilted forward you get the tooth action and back you get a flat surface to work with. Obviously requires longer hardware.
One of our operators in our sister shop liked to used them in the spring for bringing everything in, they worked fine, don't last as long though but do a good job, seen that type of blade with carbide chunks molded to the teeth part for longer wear, might be worth a try.
It's hard to get them to buy much for the Volvo. We, or they bought it new in 2011, and it still only has 4500ish hours on it. There is a pulverizing, gravel and pave job coming up in a few weeks, no specialized tools there. Guess Ill stick with the old rolling the mb ahead and back to keep it on the sharp edge. The municipality bought the last year Volvo. It has a full size rear mount ripper, scarifier combo. Not that it would help me here, but it would be nice to have. The only time theirs touches the ground, is when they park it .
If your doing county roads all the time they should get you a set of stinger blades, far cheaper then burning through straight blades all the time, what you would burn through in a month would buy you a set, I realize that straights have there place though, I get about 4 years out of a set of stinger blades that are used 12 months of the year, have to replace some bits every now and then but not to often, your upper management should do the math.
Stingers would be nice, but I would have to take them off for shouldering the new pave jobs. DTI dings us for surface damage to the new asphalt. Hard enough to avoid that with a straight blade. I'm only doing an average of 450hrs a year, and 90 percent of that is in softer material like gravel. I might get 4 days a year on hard pack, and like I said, I am the one with the issue of not being satisfied with the end result. Berger peat moss thinks it's great.
Its funny you say that, I think alot of grader operators suffer from thinking the job they do is not up to snuff, but you see things in the road that nobody would ever notice that would bother you, but the general public would never know, that's the way it is for me, chances are, you are doing a great job, its a dying art for the operators that can do a road without the aid of GPS.
Besides myself, and the boss' son, soon to be the actual boss, we have no other graderman. I had been waiting for an eye appointment. Couldn't get in till December. I got a call on a cancellation. I had to take the other guys on the crew with me. Nothing for them to do with me gone. So they do need someone. They hired a new kid. Nice guy, a bit of experience in everything. Real good hoe man. They threw him into the fire on a 63,000 ton gravel job. Did great, kept the trucks going. Suddenly it was Greg who???? It wasn't a fine grade job, just spread the material, and Miller would do the rest before they chip sealed. Last fall they did a mill in place job. They mill the road 4 inches, but don't pick it up, just leave it there. Pure asphalt, no gravel mixed in. You get one shot to grade it, as it is packed back into a solid by your wheels. Cut too hard, and it wants to slide on top of the milled surface underneath. Suddenly I was number one again. Not that I care, because everybody has to start somewhere. The inspector on the job asked where the new guy was. Tells me he had no trouble spreading the material on the miller job, but miller's grader man had to do a lot to get it ready for chip seal, and after 20 some years as an inspector on grading jobs, it wouldn't have passed it there was a string pulled across it. I am going to recommend that the put him on the pulverizing and gravel job. He might as well learn what it's like to have a blue hat stringing his work before they pave.
I don't think I could finish grade a job that was about to be paved, that's a hole other ball game, I am used to recovering county roads putting in a crown, ditching and maintaining the road, get the water to run away, also spreading new gravel, and shoulder recovery on paved roads, Prep for spraying, just general maintenance, I have 60 roads to look after.