There is a contractor here that builds and maintains roads for logging operations. At one point he had like 12 cat graders on the go. With the down grade of the pulp and paper industry, I think he might have 2 or 3. Anytime we do work on the Burnt Church First Nations reservation, we leave our gear in his yard at night or over the weekend. I noticed he had purchased a newer 12 or 120, didn't get close enough to see. Anyway hauling rock out of our quarry on Friday, I came up on him on the main road. He was going from one haul flat to another. Judging by the slow speed, I'm guessing joystick steering has its drawbacks.
The later models are speed compensated in that they react slower at faster travel speeds. We recently got a 160M and although I had never even sat in one I had no trouble handling it at full speed. Overcorrecting is the biggest problem so I just focus further ahead on the intended path. The sticks are pretty intuitive and after an hour in the seat I felt pretty comfortable.
If it's an older machine so long as it's had the software updates there is a lot more "feel" to the steering. The first models 10+ years or so back were a bit on the "sharp" side where steering is concerned. Today's ones are like chalk and cheese, and any older machine can be updated to the latest standard.
I agree with DB2 I ran the (or one of the) 16X developmental machines that would become the 16M, as well as 2 16M's. I have also had time in a knuckle buster 12, several 14G and H's and a half dozen 16 G and H's. I have never operated the coveted 140 machines. After an hour or two in the seat the steering and pretty much the antler rack v joysticks became a nonissue. Because of the amount area we had and the grades we operated on, we had several M's with Jakes and a 980 that had a Jake as well. We would routinely descend the 10% percents on the jake without any kind of steering issue. The can be said of the joystick loaders/wheel dozers be it a 994 or a 980. The comfort of being able to get my legs out in front of me is a huge plus as well.
Jake Brakes on graders. Hmmm.......... When the 16H engine changed from the 3406 to the 3196 suddenly brake wear became an issue. It was obvious to most people that the lack of engine braking from the much smaller rotating mass of the 3196 engine was the root cause, so the operators were riding the service brakes more. When the dealers asked for an engine brake the answer was that there was no software to support it. So we cobbled up a Jake Brake setup on a fleet of ATS-prefix 16Hs using the same iron that an on-highway 3196 engine used and controlled it using a latching relay with a micro-switch on the accelerator linkage to trip it out if the pedal was pressed while the Jake was activated, and by God it worked and the brake problems went away. Initially when the 16M came out the engine brake was only an option. Within about a year it became standard - go figure. Agreeing with MD, I wouldn't consider speccing up a wheel dozer without an engine brake setup - I think they should be standard but they are still only an option. Operators seem to horse those things from one work area to the next at what seems to be twice the speed of sound.
Well guess I can go back to bed as I learned something new today. Graders and front end loaders with Jake brakes! Our quarry location at this point probably would not see much if any benefits from that option as most of the haul roads and work areas are almost boringly level. Actually had a factory rep for a drill rig company years ago who could not get over how flat and smooth the quarry floor was in most areas of the quarry. Must have been a smooth ocean when the deposits that formed our lime stone was laid down! Just learned something new! There is actually a type of limestone named after the local natives! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onondaga_Limestone
Ken, In open-pit mines the normal designed maximum grade is probably 8-10%. We used to battle the mine design people all the time when they wanted to increase that to 12% "just this once" The comment always was "you try going down it in a loaded haul truck without leaving skidmarks in your pants"....... I could see the other side because every ton of waste they didn't have to dig out was X amount of extra profit on the product.
That is one advantage with the quarry pit here all the overburden/waste is on the top and the good stuff is underneath so haul trucks are always going down hill empty and loaded going up. The story was different at another quarry company had a short distance from here. The original quarry was basically on top of a hill and their haul road was more or less level from pit to primary crusher. Then when they ran out of good stone at that place they opened a "pit" the other side of a small valley. Now haul trucks had to run down one side of the valley loaded and back up the other side to get to primary crusher. At the bottom of this narrow valley was a town road. So they had to have a flag man on this road to stop trafic when a haul truck was coming down loaded. Worked good till the day the retarder hose failed on the M-65 haul truck as he started down the hill!. Did I mention the 90º left turn at the bottom of that hill with 8 foot deep drainage ditch? That Rear Dump Mack changed to a Front Dump in the matter of a second when front wheels hit the burm along that ditch. Bet that driver was glad the company had a strict seat belt rule that day! Flipped that truck right upside down and don't think he had as much as a broken bone, but sure he needed a new pair of shorts!