Had 2" of snow last week with 40mph winds. Had periodic drifting. Nothing major. But required driving the grader over most of my roads. Didn't verify but am guessing 80-90 miles of travel. Used two gallons of windshield washer fluid. No rear mirror visibility. Minimal side view. Only clear glass was where the wipers ran. Really sucked..... We are in a trend of slightly above normal temps so our gravel roads have no frost in them. Calling for three days of snow starting Saturday night. No large accumulation. Hoping it's light enough that I don't have to go out again. I took the Grader to the shop where my Son works. They have a wash bay large enough for semi trucks. Got her all cleaned up again. I had just washed the Grader a couple weeks ago.....
Fenders are one of the best additions to graders that I’ve seen yet. All but eliminate those problems.
Yep. Would definitely help!!!!
Yep.. front fenders are a must in the winter time, some run rear fenders also but are a pain getting chains on.
Put my chains on yesterday. Plugged the Grader in this morning. Expecting 8-10" with 20-30mph ENE winds today and most of tonight. At least my roads are solid this time. Maybe my wash job will last longer.....
The driveway at my land was a soupy muddy mess and then it snowed. I tried raising the edge of the bucket on the skid steer a little but when you're making ruts it's impossible to not scrape up some mud. I made 2 passes and left it. Once it gets more accumulation and packs a bit I might be able to clear it without taking a bunch of gravel.
I wonder what the fender kit would cost? I see a market for custom made ones.
We ordered a front fender kit from Cat for our 140m, at the time our 140m came from the factory with the rear fenders only, the cost of the front fenders were around $11,000 CAN, just outrageous, then we ordered a set of front fenders for our 140h from a outfit in Alberta if my memory is correct, they were great, well built and turned with your wheels and gave great protection from road spray, they were around $1200 Can delivered to our shop, still using them today, looking through their site at the time they offered fenders for the 140m also at the same price, not sure what they charge now for fenders But i'm sure its a heck of alot cheaper then Cat, they offered fenders for other grader brands also.
I remember a miserable long road trip in a backhoe on dirty gravel, all buttoned up in rain gear and still spitting little rocks and mud when I got done. Front fenders would be the Bomb!
Look up MD products there in Iowa and make aftermarket fenders there very well made and there better then the factory cat and Deere fenders.
Damn!! At $11,000 I bet I could come up with some pretty fancy fenders LOL!!
I checked out the MD Products site. Very affordable. Bummer part is they only make rigid fenders for JD. I'm sure I'd need/want steerable fenders. I saved their parts diagram for future thought. Have to look at the grader wheel/hub assembly to see if there's a way to mount them steerable. I'm guessing not or the professionals would offer them.
Monday evening I went to bed at 7p.m. Got up at 1a.m. Tuesday morn. Started pushing at 2a.m. Got done at 10a.m. We only got about 3" but was windy. Had some drifting but didn't need the plow. Good thing was roads were frozen so no mud. Bad thing was temp stayed around 22F degrees. Couldn't keep my cab windows cold enough to not melt the snow dust. So had to use the wipers a lot. I prefer the glass cold and the dust blows off and windows are clear. Yeah, I'm spoiled...... It's snowing lightly this morning. Supposed to get an inch or so. Then we are going to warm up again. Lows in mid 20Fs at night. Hoping the roads stay frozen. Sure hate to wish for cold weather but would rather it didn't get above freezing in the daytime. Yeah, I'm whiny......
What I plan on doing is getting the MD fenders for the rear and then going with the factory Deere front fenders
Yep, and a Yep.. and our parts guy's being to F@#king lazy to look to the aftermarket got the approval from management and bought a set from Cat for our 140m, lol, thinking I would never get a set for my 140H when the department management got to look at the bill realizing the actual cost from Cat for those fenders, I then took it upon myself and went looking online to the aftermarket and sourced a set from a vender called Fender Co based out of Saskatchewan Canada, $1200 shipped to our door, took me all about 5 minutes to source them online, out department has been using them now for most of our graders.
There’s the added benefit of saving a little on windows with them as well. Kind of too bad the cab isn’t a hair higher on Deere’s. The factory Deere fenders for front drivers are a half fender. Also the factory Deere fenders are only a “ribbon” over the tire itself, no coverage to the inside.
Seems like the fenders would be cheaper than the first piece of glass that had to be replaced from a stray rock. I am not a grader operator but almost fell over when I got the bill from deere for the glass curved door on a tractor.
The fender's benefit is controlling splash onto the cab windows. The chances of something hitting the windows with enough force to break them is very, very minor. What's being controlled is road "splash".
I’ve had several windows break from rocks coming off the tires. The fenders help, but don’t eliminate it.
I pushed snow Saturday night still on soft shoulders. Wanted to clean the roads so they could freeze. Went back out and pushed another snow Sunday night. Much better. My roads are all frozen now and very smooth. Supposed to stay abnormally cold for the next ten days or so. No chance of thawing now..... We're supposed to have a high of -2F next Sunday. -18F Sunday night. That's abnormally cold for us.
Our roads are frozen too. It was -40 over the weekend . Should be no mud for a while.
I'm certainly not bitching about our warmer temps. But it's a bitch when you get a couple snows a week but the roads are still not frozen. I've been more than ready for this freeze. With that said, we are wussies down here. No -40F for us. If it actually gets to -17F it'll make State wide news and be talked about for decades.
What a treat that was! Just got done pushing snow in that.
It's 5F and snowing this morning. Not supposed to amount to much. But you know how accurate weather forecasts are.....
Interesting how different things are from one part of the country to the next. Here in central NY state finding a gravel road would be a challenge other than private access roads to cottages on one of the lakes. Might be some up in the Adirondacks. Other than on a major road project I can't recall the last time I even saw a road grader being used and don't think I ever saw one plowing snow! That said we did inherit a little John Deere 710D grader from another quarry to use to maintain roads in our quarry. Problem is there were all kinds of problems with it main one being the engine that had a cracked head and after replacing that found that it still had a problem with water in the oil so last I knew it was just parked in the "someday repair" lot! Even with the coolant leak problem it was a good running engine and was kind of fun to play around with on the roads.
Out here on the prairies the network of gravel roads is never ending. Every mile like clockwork they divide the sections. And they all must be maintained summer and winter.
I've got 50 miles of gravel. Most needs dozed and elevated. 6-10" of snow and no wind isn't a problem. 12-18" of snow and wind is a different story......
Then once in awhile you find a truck load of redneck boys out joy riding. I always help them out. I used to be a boy too.
Alberta had a Premier years ago that promised to pave all the gravel roads. I think the general opinion was that he didn't have the slightest clue how many thousands of miles of roads are gravel or how much it would cost. Would probably be in the billions. The same Premier did give us family day... after his eldest son was caught in a sting operation trying to sell cocaine to an undercover cop.
It's good to know Politicians are the same everywhere and not just scumbags here.