First Day on 140M

[Oxbow]

Well, I finally had to run an M as the dealerships had no H's available. This first half hour was ugly, by noon not so bad, by the end of the day I can see why guys really like them. Although for an old man like me I would need about 500 hours to really get comfortable.

Biggest problem was steering sensitivity, or I was just centering it every time. I chased those front wheels all over the place, but by the end of the day I was getting a bit smoother. Seems like it was worse trying to go straight while articulated, but that was probably just me.

The visibility is great! I don't know if it is just my imagination, but it seems as if you sit up over the moldboard a touch more than the H's. Rear visibilty is not great, but I am fairly tall and sit with the seat high, so no big deal. The cab is very nice an quiet, so much so that hearing the engine pull was a bit difficult.

In the afternoon I caught myself using the right joystick as if it were a dozer, when i wanted to tilt a bit I would move the joystick sideways. Fortunately is just side shifted a bit and didn't screw the grade up. Too many years running dozer I guess.

One thing that pixxed me off, back when I was running a G I spent at least a half hour just practicing moving the saddle using lift cylinders, side shift, and lateral side shift all at the same time (push two levers on one side and pull two on the other). Now I am going to have to do that again and go through the thought process of figuring out what my hands have to do to make all that happen!

All in all it was a pleasant experience, and I am no longer afraid of them.

 

[briscoetab]

It's weird how hard it is to wrap your brain around new control schemes. I hate when we rent a track hoe that the controls are different than our and it doesn't have any kind of selector. Once you think you got it down you'll be going pretty good then you get stuck and can't get the bucket to do what you want.

I would hate changing graders, we have a 140h. I don't think we'll be getting a different one any time soon.

 

[ovrszd]

I got a buddy that's been in an M for 5 years. He loves it until it's time to move the saddle, then he struggles. He also called me last Winter and asked if I always lift one side rear tires when installing chains and I said yes. He said this new M2 won't lift the tires. I said that can't be right you must be doing something wrong. His grader shed is only 1/2 mile from my house so I drove over there. He was trying to lift the right tires and had the table shifted slightly to the left. I said crank it up and move the table slightly to the right side then try to lift and it worked great. Funny how just changing machines, even if it's from the first edition to the second edition M model can mess up an operator's thought processes.

 

[Oxbow]

Yeah it's interesting, isn't it. Even going from one machine to another that is identical, there is often a bit different feel, and they don't always sound the same either. It would take quite a few more hours for me to say that I was faster on the M than an H. I suppose in site work where one is turning around alot more and adjusting things more frequently the M's could be quicker.

Anyway, I did enjoy it, and the next time I rent a blade it won't bother quite as much if all the H's are out.:usa:canada