Been running grader periodically for about 7 years. Got a couple of my own. I have trouble figuring out how to crown a narrow drive way. The adams has a 12' blade and the gallion has a 13' blade. I would sure love some advice from some more experienced grader men because I've tried everything and it's just don't look neat.
Three passes. Pull both sides to the center, square the blade for the last pass. Give it a few days of traffic and repeat or you can then lightly cut from the center to both ditches, two passes. Regardless, on narrow roads, vehicles will drive centered over the crown. If you have enough room try packing with the grader for that "finished look".
To be honest, I'm not a big fan of the squared blade approach. As said you are working on a driveway, so with your blade squared you most likely will be the whole width of the road. Make your cuts one side at a time and dump your material in the center..if your heel is over center then dump inside your heel, feathering out (don't leave a windrow). When finished with this (both sides), position your toe at center (lightly) and take a small amount to the side, feathering out..repeat on the opposite side. This way you should have a crown and have it reasonably smooth. Once it is packed down you can make a light pass on the whole thing. This is just my take..I'm not suggesting that the above poster is giving wrong advice..I've seen a lot of operators doing it that way. Good to have different suggestions, then you can determine what works best for you.
I've got a 1.4km long driveway, varies from 12' to 22 feet wide. I've found the following works the best for me. First, you gotta keep the gravel on the road bed, so I start with rhs corner forward and down, cut enough so I am below any ruts that were pressed into the roadbed. I keep the lhs just touching the road bed so the spoils go off the end of the blade. Next, coming back home, the blade angle stays stays the same and you do exactly the same , so now you cut the other side, and bring the furrow of spoils with the fresh cut back across. Be sure to leave the furrow away from the ditch. You might have to increase angle in the narrow parts of the road. All your ruts should be filled now. If you can, run your grader in the same tracks as the vehicles would travel. You move the blade over and with the rhs corner ahead and about one inch above the road bed, bring the spoils across, keeping the left side about two inches above the road bed. Last trip home, you will find a bit of spoils furrowed, so blade one inch from surface, and just move the spoils across again, the grader will pack the material into the old ruts real good. Road will now be crowned to shed water, ruts filled and your gravel sloped from the middle of the crown down an inch to each side and not into the ditches.
Im not a big fan of running a straight blade down the middle either,,, if the old road has any crown at all left from before the blading it tends to make a flat spot on the top of your road. To verify this return to your road a few days after the grading and you will see small washboards starting in the crown.... especially if youv'e had a rain after you graded it. Errol.. I agree with your process 100 percent.... just my 2cents (which is worth very little at today's prices). If you stand ur cutting edge pretty vertical will aid in the cutting... laying the cutting edge over aids in compaction... good luck. Of course I agree with Grader4me,,,, but I'd never say it.
Listen here you old sod buster...lmao
do you need a crown? I have found on narrow, low traveled, dead ends that a one way slopes works great. I try and find which side would be better to shed water on and put my high side on oppisit side. seems to work well for me.
some times when grading a forest road with no ditch's I will slope the top also to facilitate runoff water, but remember when you do that, your running twice as much water off your road top.... you will notice little fingersized washouts after a few rains.... but like my father told me over 5 decade's ago.. the only question in grading is " where's the water gonna go" still hold's true today. Gramps.
That is easy grandpa. It is going to go down hill, or at least it was the last time I looked.
So the job of the grader operator is to direct the flow of excess water off the road in such a way as to minimize road damage from water pooling or eroding the surface. Back to the original thread, a twelve foot squared blade on the third pass gives me an eight foot wide fresh driving surface which is higher than the shoulders. I can control how much material is left in the crown area with my blade tilt. The driveway will crown with traffic compaction and moisture. It also helps compaction to tell the customer to drive across the entire surface instead of staying centered. On wider road surfaces I prefer five passes, all with the blade angled to roll and mix my material, (left and right to center, gather it up on one side and bring it back across leaving a crown in the center and undesirable material on the far side). As far as the "neat" goes, that depend on material, moisture, weeds, and so on. Frequently my last pass is on foot with a potatoe fork. Good to streach the legs and inspect your work.
Last Summer I built 200 yards of elevated driveway with no wider than 8 foot driving platform. It sucked. Really sucked. I felt like a Bull in a China Shop. It was a curved driveway weaving between large oak trees. By the end of the day I was totally stressed. Had to remove the graveled surface and windrow it out of the way, elevate the roadbed using dirt from alongside, then push the graveled surface back up on top of the new bed. Halfway thru I was wishing I'd never volunteered to do it. But today the owner brags on his new driveway that he's not added any gravel to and done no further maintenance to. That I know of, there's no easy way to do narrow surfaces with a large machine such as yours. Takes a lot of patience and rarely looks neat when done. All methods recommended above will work, just design what works for you. No two operators get the same results even when using the same methods. I run a township grader and the four townships that border me each have differently shaped roads. It's easy to find the boundaries just by the changes in the roadbeds.
Cut a big frown in your cutting edge with a torch! Leave the toe and heel brand new, and gouge a chunk out the center after putting the new edges on your machine. I worked for a guy a while back that did that, and it worked slicker than snot.
No thanks... I have to pay for my cutting edges,,, and that's where they wear anyway's in normal grading. How about some of you other grader hands, is grampa goofy?
Just like you grandpa I have to pay for the cutting edges too. Mine wear the same way yours do, and no you are not goofy.
Yes on the first and second points, no comment on the third.
Aw come on Mitch504, cut poor grandpa a break here. Some day you will be that old too if you live long enough.
I've spent a good bit of time talking to him, and I'm convinced he was goofy at 25. He's frequently right, but goofy.
Well guys, you can spend a few hundrend bucks on a set of edges that you make fit your job at hand. And use them over and over again in the same application, or can spend all day, burning up fuel and paying rent and wages on a machine. Its your choise. Just offering my stupid advise. Gotta spend some to make some...
HOW do you know it's really me your talking with???? bwah ha ha
It's not, we talk with Gramma's STUD!!!!!!!!. RnR.
new to the forum great information
Hi all new member here I can only reply to post for now till i I do three I think any way wanting to chat with mitch503 I read on a post here that he had a book on old late 50's galion motor graders. I'm a new proud owner of what i'm told is a 503A it has a international 6cly gas engine And i need to know some info on it so if anyone can help or get me in touch with mitch503 i will be a happy guy . thanks
Maybe invest in a John Deere 210LE Skip Loader/Gannon Tractor. 4wd is a must.