[AT] road grader

[jtchall at nc.rr.com]

Having been the guy driving the tractor as well as the guy riding, These 
things work best with open station tow vehicles. I couldn't imagine running 
one behind a truck unless you are just touching up a road. Too many hand 
signals going on as well as hollering!

I can only remember one time where we pulled it with our cab tractor (deere 
4430). We had been hired to clean the roads in a newly built subdivision 
after a bunch of sleet with some snow on top. It was so slick we couldn't 
even pull the hill to get into the subdivision. The only way to make it work 
was to put it in a high gear and hang on. When we made right turns at 
intersections the blade would quit cutting because we were turning into the 
direction we had it angled. This would cause the road grader to in effect 
"crack the whip" so to speak. There were numerous close calls with signposts 
and mailboxes that day. After 3 hours of riding in the cold I had had 
enough. We were over a mile from home and I let me dad know if he cared to 
plow any more roads, he needed to trade places with me. As you can probably 
guess we headed in for the day.

John

-----Original Message----- 
From: charlie hill
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2015 11:11 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] road grader

They are handy items.  I've always wanted one but never seem to find one
until someone
else I know just bought it.  story of my life.

Yeah,  they did pull them with trucks when I was a kid.  By that time the
really heavy
steam and oil pull tractors were gone.  You could put a few tons of sand in
the rear
of your grain truck and drag that thing like you owned it..... well you do
own it but
you get the point.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2015 7:55 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] road grader

My grandmother bought it from a grading contractor. Dad has told me that
either the county or the DOT used to pull them with big trucks, Euclid or
Corbitt I think. He also told me they used the same trucks to pull sickle
mowers to mow the roadside with.

The grader we have is pretty advanced as far as features go. You have a
steering wheel that allows you to offset it so it will track left or right
of the tow vehicle. The front wheels and the back wheels can be leaned, I
guess this helps when grading on a hill side? The rear axle is on an
enormous gear rack so it can be shifted left to right. The front end is
mounted on a huge ball joint so it can ride over bumps without affecting the
grading. You can also shift the grader blade itself left or right. I believe
the pitch of the blade can be adjusted by moving a bunch of bolts--not
something you do on the fly like the rest of these adjustments. This one has
about 2-3 feet welded to the left side moldboard, lets just say the guy that
put it on was one heck of a welder---looks factory until you notice the
weld.  You can imagine how much fun I had when I was little playing around
on the operators platform. Don't know if the farmhands ever figured out how
the blade mysteriously got let down every time they left this thing near the
house!

Nobody here ever liked running it much other than my dad and uncle. Those
two could do a wonderful job together. Thrown anyone else in the mix and a
whole lot of hollering and bad attitudes would follow! I know of one
driveway they cut through a field we used to rent. It must have been 3/8 of
a mile long. When they got done you would have thought a professional
grading contractor did the job, took about 3 hours. Over the years they put
in some nice terraces, kept the ditches cleaned out and maintained a lot of
farm road. You can do a lot more with this contraption than any 3pt blade
set-up.

John Hall

-----Original Message----- 
From: charlie hill
Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2015 5:12 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] road grader

John when that grader was built an M Farmall was a big tractor.   It was
probably designed to be pulled by something heavier than an M but with
less HP.  They used to grade the streets in the town I grew up near with
one similar to that in the early 50's and it was old then.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
Sent: Sunday, November 01, 2015 2:02 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: [AT] road grader

I think I have mentioned my familys presumably antique road grader here
before. We had a couple ditches that needed pulling between some fields and
the property line. Last Sat was nice and dry, not to mention I had the corn
out of the fields. We hadn’t used it in a couple years, lets just say it was
mighty stiff.  There are no helper springs on this machine so raising the
blade is a real chore. Heck picking the tongue up ain’t easy, it may have
had a spring to help with that originally. We offset it to track 3-4 feet to
one side so we could put it in the ditch and keep the tractor on sure
footing. In places I had to get off and walk behind since the tree branches
on the borders would have knocked me off the operators platform. Most of the
time I had so much pressure on the blade the right rear of the grader would
be off the ground. I introduced my son to the controls so he could see what
real work is like. I don’t think I have ever been in shape enough to run
that thing all day, 3 hours is enough unless you are lightly grading roads.
It does a great job clearing snow, provided you have somewhere to turn
around. FYI, my grandmother bought it for $75 way back when the biggest
thing on the farm was a Farmall M. I will say you aren’t going to do
anything other than road scraping with that small of a tractor. We had one
ditch we used to pull every couple years that required hooking both 4020
Deeres to it. The ditch was so steep you really had to hang on to ride the
grader.

John Hall





_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at

_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at


_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at

_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at