Hi there, any of you guys out there do any sealed road shoulder grading, and just wondering how many miles\kms of road do you do in, 10 hours? Also, does any one run a windrow eliminater behind a grader doing shoulders, I do, some times I like it, some times its a pain, any thoughts on them.
Here in Dane County shoulder grading is quite an ordeal. Tractor with a disk attachment lossens it up, grader no. 1 throws it in, grader no. 2 throws it back out, wobble wheel roller packs it back down, tractor with broom sweeps up and escort truck after that keeps everyone alert as to the four units ahead of it. Our tax dollars at work!!
G'day Greg, thats quite a procession of plant moving along the road, good decision having an escort vehicle traveling behind. WE tried the two graders working together, both running free rollers on the back of each machine and found it very productive, unfortunately we only have two graders in our shire so it wasn't to be. We always have to have one doing gravel roads. Thank you for that info. Mick.
We do this with the 2 graders as well. One hauling out and the other pushing back, with the power broom and roller following behind. We work 2 km stretches so we are not moving our signs so much. Still, when you have all that machinery on the road it can be hectic at times with the traffic. I've also done it by myself but its so much better with the 2 graders. Only downfall is if the operator on the second grader is inexperienced the quality of the job isn't as good, and it reflects back on you. Experienced that before but I went back over the whole road myself and doctored it up.
We used to grade shoulders with one grader only,(exposed windrow and 2 km road signs), but for saftey reasons we had to alter our practices. Now I run with a windrow eliminator attached to the rippers. The windrow stays on the inside of the rear grader tyres and the eliminator grades it back out at a specified fall, a small gear driven broom sweeps behind the blade. The whole unit is classified as a mobile work site so with flashing lights, we don't need signs, however if we have winding or hilly sections of road we still use warning signs. Unfortunately we don't always have the pleasure of a roller for compaction much to my disgust. Suprisingly the shoulder material does conslidate givin time.
We have the same rules as you concerning moving operations, but with this particular operation (all the equipment) there is nothing defined. If we had just one or two machines going continuously with the flashing lights, slow moving emblems etc. then we wouldn't require signage. I brought this up with the traffic & maintenance department and they were supposed to include the proper signage diagram (or not having to use signs) in our manual. Hasn't happened yet, so to err on the side of CYA we set up the signs and work the 2 km rule. The windrow eliminator would definitely be the answer as the less machinery on the road the better. Wish I could talk them into that. Michael, do you have any pictures of your windrow eliminator?
Hi Graderforme, At the moment I don't have any pictures of it but I will get some and put them up. The unit is very basic(primitive), it was designed that way so that it could be quick detachable. To take existing roller off and to put the unit on only takes about ten minutes. There are no hydraulic lines to fit, the broom is gear driven. the turn table and other settings are done manually, also to alter height of heel end can be done using ripper lever. there are some wheels near the heel end behind the blade running on the newly formed shoulder material to help stabilize everything, and the toe end just sits on sealed edge collecting windrow. Its a bit hard to explain everything but it all seems to work. Will be putting it on in a couple of weeks to start shoulder program so I will get some pics then. A neighboring shire has an eliminator as well, mounting it means taking off the ripper assembly and it has many hydraulic functions, taking most of one day to set up. It is very good but to get one built will cost just over $100,000 dollars, a bit to much for our council to put the money up. Have a good day, Mick.
I'll look forward to the pictures, and if you can would you mind taking some pictures of it at work and the finished product? Not asking for much am I? lol.. If I had some pictures it might help me talk my department into purchasing one, as we do this type of work quite a bit. Thanks!
G4me, You have seen ours some times... This type of work is exactly what we use it for.(one of the areas) When snow disapears, i'll try to get some more videos of it in this type of aplication. The fine with winterblades on it is that the gravel goes through, and the roots and beer cans go into the ditch...lol..
Hi MKTEF..how are ya? Yes I seen the pictures of yours and if you can post a video then that would be great. I'm interested in seeing the "Primitive one" as Michael described. As ya know I'm a primitive guy myself...lol Good to see you posting again...
You know, it goes up and down Right now the snow and ice is melting. I'd say grading season is low right now. Had som grader operators(20 y in seat) on a visit last week. They said we had great machines and that i should have been a salesman. They had not met anybody that had so much tech knowledge about their grader... I'm claiming a % if they buy a new grader from the salesman... And i've been on a trip to Afghanistan. They need som upgrading of a base out in the woods. That has made me work day and night planning for the upgrade of their base. Even had a look at our last Champion, it needs som TLC and new batteries. Yes i tried to fire her up...no luck.. I'll have to put my rumpsteak more often into our graders...Office work sucks.
G4me, I can do that, no worries, and I should be able to get pictures of our neighboring shires more elaborate set up as well. Mick.
pic' of eliminator Grader4me. here are the pic's l said l would get about the windrow eliminator, l got delayed with lots of flood work and l've only just started the shoulder grading program. Before and during the road shoulder work;
no pictures, l'll try again.
a few more
a few more
more pics
some pictures of the result
more pics
how the eliminator is attached and working parts.
l wonder why we are limited to 3 uploads per post.
last two.
Wow!! I wasn't expecting great pictures like that! Excellent shots Michael. I really like the set up that you have there. One machine operation where it would usually take three. The little power broom really sets it off. Thanks for sharing..it was worth the wait..:notworthy
That's a smartly engineered piece of equipment. Someone had some saddle time in a blade to come up with it. The only thing I see that alarms me is that you're in the wrong lane!
no worries, if you have any other questions, just ask.
This setup would be ideal for us. I might be contacting you for more information a bit later if thats okay..
yes, sure, will be glad to assist.
wow thats a pretty slick setup. I've just recently started running motorgraders and been on a 14M. The highways I have been shouldering up are un opened highways so are alot less hectic. Doing all the median grading as well. Only thing I am wondering about is not compacting along the shoulder? seems like the state inspectors seem to raise heck about this. Or with an established shoulder all ready do you have alot less problems with erosion?
i agree... i know some people who might be very interested in something like this
Hi, lucky you, getting a job operating a grader, and a 14M at that, what a bonus, if you are anything like me you will never want to hop out of them. Not having a roller is a bit of an issue with me, but the hierachy don't seem too concerned about it. In our shire area our geography is fairly flat, not mountainous, and with semi drought conditions for the last fifteen years, heavy rainfall hasn't been to much of a problem. cheers
no worries Danial, I can give out info on who made it, and also production levels of its operation, etc,etc.
Champion Windrow Eliminator We build a similar Windrow Eliminator. Its a 10 foot moldboard with either manual or hydraulic adjusting trailing wheels.
Hi Motor Grader, nice pics of the eliminator, its a good simple design with not alot to go wrong with it by the look of things, are they specifically designed to fit champion graders or could they be mounted to other brands? just wondering how you lift it up when traveling from job to job, is there a ram there, I could not see one, cheers.
Yea, it uses a parrell linkage lift with a single lift cylinder. Windrow Eliminator is attached with the long pull arms by sepherical bearing and supported by chain adjustment and spring to reduce shock loads. Its designed to be pretty "sloppy" so that it hugs the changing contours of the shoulder. The one shown has manual adjusting wheels which is really a thing of the past. I removed those handles and mounted a couple hydraulic motors by "love-joy" connection and put a couple rocker switches in the cab. Limit switches prevent un-screwing the wheel from the housing. We have several of these running all over Ontario and are starting to put some in Australia. The windrow eliminator itself would work behind any grader I guess. The difference would be the lift group mounting. I have some better pics buried on this hard drive somewhere. Will try to find them later.
Yeah it has really been awesome! It's defiantly a learning experience too. Main reason of me joining this forum was to get some advice but it seems like alot of people hate the M blades. If you rver have a chance to run a joystick machine the first few weeks you wil hate i but it will drow on you. its very tricky negotaing next to curbs and such but I have concquered it and I am no where near as good a blade hand as some. As for Motorgraders the M blade is truly impressive.
here's how we do it here in chicago.:tong
Looking forward to those pics, no doubt in the distant future we will have to purchase another eliminator.
My grader is up for renewal in a years time and already our plant manager has had me go to demo's and l have had a go on the latest 770 G Deere, the new hexangular cab komatsu GD555-5 Komatsu, and our neighboring shire has a 12M cat which l have spent about 3 hours on, all very nice machines to operate. With the 12M all the controls on the joysticks fell into place easy, although the steering took awhile to get used of, still couldn't hold the machine in a straight line after the 3 hours, but had improved compared to the first 5 minutes. Wouldn't mind trying out the 900 series volvo either. Probably will try them all when the supply tender goes out, can't wait.
How's you like the new Deere graders? They seem kinda sketchy and touchy and out of place. They have the lever operated steering and steering but steering wheel isn't close to your controls at all. Like I said I'm sold on a M Blade.
I don't mind the look of the new Deere graders, l know what you mean about the steering wheel with the arm rest controls, just a matter of getting used to the setup l suppose. I would be just as happy with the standard steering and levers though. I did like the tourque'y motor and the ultra smooth gear shifting, and with plenty of weight, l think these graders could move alot material.
Hey Mick, noticed you are from Aussie. If I can ask a question...what sort of Traffic management do you use when you are grading a shoulder on the 100/110kmh rural roads? We have had TCDs that just have the use of tail vehicle with vehicle mounted warning devices etc, there is actually a section about it in the Australian standards. We sometimes do 10km stretches doing this method (ie. without signs)
Hi MACJAY 18, welcome to HEF's for starters, a great site for info and different opinions. As far as l know, if you are a mobile work site, eg, patrol truck moving slowly along roadway, or in this case, a grader with windrow eliminator on the back, with no windrow material exposed to traffic, I think as long as you have flashing lights, and maybe an arrow board mounted at the back, that would be all you need, please correct me if l am wrong. Commonsense does prevail though, if you are in hilly areas, or on roads with lots of bends, warning signs would be advisable. On high volume traffic roads we display signage and don't go over 2 kms in length. On minor roads that are relatively straight l go to about 7 kms in length. I would be interested to know where your work area is, I am in NE Victoria.
You have posted some really nice photos, Michael. I was wondering if you would mind if I used a few of them on my website. I am more than happy to credit you however suits you. I have added one temporarily already to show you what I'd like to do. http://lgam.wikidot.com/shoulder-grading
Hello Wayne, go ahead, that will be fine, use as many as you like, glad to be of help. Use other photos in my other posts if you like.
That looks like it's pretty much the same design that they were building in Goderich for a long time.... Got two of them in the yard we use on 740's. Had an older one we put on the back of a '92 720 too. They work good as long as you don't have too much sod to deal with and the shoulder is wide enough. Don't try tp go too fast or take too much material, they'll ride up over the windrow. Good tool though.
Hi Michael, Just wondering if I might be able to get the details of the manufacturer of your windrow eliminator?? We have been looking everywhere for someone who can supply us with one but have had no luck. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers
No worries Bghire, l will get back to you,
Hi bg hire, regards to the grader mounted windrow eliminator. I am the designer & manufacturer. Just briefly the eliminator Mick is using has been in service for a few years now in that time I have only one failure that is reversing into a stock pile of rubble. We are located in northern Victoria, I will try to assist any way I can. Thanks shaun