Wot's The BIGG ATTRACTION??????????????????
Hi, Wolf.
I could say it's a grader operator thing and I'd be right but I'll try to explain it in terms that a non-grader operator might be able to understand.
Graders are very versatile and complex machines and are often called on to do work ranging from extremely accurate to very rough, all in the same day. Probably more so than any other machine, with a grader, if you ever stop learning, you're dead from the neck up. And your learning doesn't only cover machine handling and techniques. It also covers working with a very wide range of materials, many of which require fairly precise watering and compacting to achieve the desired results.
Almost every grader job is, or can be, a challenge. Even if you've done the same job 100 times before, there is always the challenge to do it quicker and better and you have the tool to do it, IF you understand that tool. Graders, more than any other type of earthmoving machine, require that you be able to 'THINK' the machine without having to stop to do it. If you don't have a grader mind-set, it is unlikely that you will ever be a REALLY good grader operator. A VERY large part of grader operation is being able to visualise the finished product and work towards it, knowing your pegs - or these days, your GPS, etc. - being able to plan your work, get the steps in the right order, organising the support machines working with you, i.e., water cart(s), roller(s), scrapers, trucks, etc., and controlling the whole process, FROM the grader seat. Hooray for CB radios.
Graders are not for everybody. They are basically finishing machines, probably more of an instrument than a machine in that they have far more ways that they can be set to do a particular job than any other earthmoving machine that I can think of at the moment. This is one of the BIG attractions for me, the infinite variations and choosing the BEST one for a particular job, from lifting out a 4" wide strip of asphalt that has been sawn for a trench to cutting a flat-bottomed V drain between a road shoulder and the toe of a cut batter to spreading and trimming rubberised asphalt in a car park to cutting a 12" wide flat bench 5 feet up a 1.5-in-1 cut batter which forms one side of a V-drain to laying back a 12 foot high batter that you can't get on top of and have only about 12 feet of space along the toe of the batter in which to play.
It takes a LOT of patience and a LOT of understanding of your machine to be a really good grader operator, along with a good eye for levels and grades. IF you have all of those things and you like to be able look at a finished job and say, "I did that," there is a faint chance that you might make a good grader operator.
Personally, I'm NOT one of the REALLY good ones because I haven't spent enough time on them. How-wevver, I have shown myself to be better than quite a few who DID claim to be really good. I'm certainly not in Randy Kreig's class and I doubt I'm in Northart's class but I get by - and I really do enjoy my time on a grader.
Hope this helps.
Northart and RnR, I'm disappointed in you. You missed a few: (LOL.)
15. fire fighting.
16. pipe laying - actually placing pipes in the trench.
17. placing lintels for storm-water pits.
18. foreman's runabout-limousine.
19. clearing heli-pads in long grass or light scrub.
20. pushloading scrapers - I've loaded Cat 619's with a 21F Cat 12 and Cat 660's with an O&K G350, 42 tons and 400 hp.
21. confuse the beejayzuz out of people who don't understand them.
22. ride herd on scraper operators and truck steering wheel attendants - haul road maintenance and fill-cut control.
23. break out material for elevating scrapers.
24 fix other people's/machine's mistakes.
Any others? Let's hear 'em.
