Spring/summer works

[JaredV]

I cleaned up some roads for a logging job. The finished product may not look like I did a whole lot but they're hauling logs off it now.



I got a shop day so I put on some lights I've had squirreled away for a few months. Replaced the stock lights with the brightest LEDs I could find that weren't unreasonably priced. It probably will be a while before I get to try them out but initial impressions are good. The old ones were ok in pitch dark but a little twilight and they were useless.

 

[JaredV]

This is the same road now.

 

[20/80]

Nice job, don't take much if its good and dry to open a road, led lights make a big difference over factory floods, I put a light bar on mine for plowing at night, thanks for sharing

 

[cuttin edge]

I'm not against logging, but. When it was guys with power saws, they left some trees. Now they take everything. The province I live in is being mowed down. It shocks me driving along the road sometimes. Places that were wooded areas are gone. I mean it makes work. Logging, trucking saw mills paper mills. But they sell all the number one stuff to the US, and sell the garbage to us. It's even getting harder to buy fire wood.

 

[JaredV]

There's a lot of trees left behind. They have to leave buffer zones along the creeks no matter who it is and the state likes to leave small patches scattered around on DNR land. They have a tendency to blow over, though. Trees grow fast around here. In ten years you won't be able to walk through the replant. We get stuck with a lot of garbage, too. I built a house a year ago and paid top dollar for lumber that's only good for firewood.

 

[cuttin edge]

Bad day at the office. Government survey crew has been working the road job I'm on. Every year they have some summer students. This year they had a young man and a woman from Kenya. The man was in his 20s, and the woman just turned 30. They were here for another month then they were heading back home. I spoke to them a few times, see them every day for the past 3 weeks. They left the job at noon today and headed to another job about 45 min away. They got hit head on by a semi. The man died instantly, and she died at the hospital. I didn't really know them, don't even know their names, but my heart goes out to whoever is going to get the call back home. They said the girl had 3 young kids. Keep your loved ones close, cause you never know.

 

[Welder Dave]

Like isn't the right response but how tragic. I bet they were impressed with Canadian hospitality and you talking with them. Very very sad to hear. Condolences to their family and friends.

 

[20/80]

We Had one heck of a rain storm here this past weekend, alot of roads washed out in the western area with lots of flooding around the city, we Had some bad washouts in my area, been busy fixing up the back roads, crazy weather

 

[Blue-Fox]

Appreciate the comments about the different cutting edges, I been looking for options because we have a lot of Calcium treated road and it’s hard on regular summer edges. We started running regular scarifier (ice blades) to cut that hard cap and it’s working pretty good but it takes away a lot of your ability to carry material down the road. Looking at the bullet stingers now. There’s some interesting concept with short 2’ Changeable blade sections and you can also swap out pointed bits with fat teeth that make a solid edge if you want.

On the fun side -

Dad gum beavers!! Homeowners were getting flooded basements so they got a mini ex and busted out their handy work. Of course middle of the night here isn’t dark.
You guys get much of this action?

 

[20/80]

Appreciate the comments about the different cutting edges, I been looking for options because we have a lot of Calcium treated road and it’s hard on regular summer edges. We started running regular scarifier (ice blades) to cut that hard cap and it’s working pretty good but it takes away a lot of your ability to carry material down the road. Looking at the bullet stingers now. There’s some interesting concept with short 2’ Changeable blade sections and you can also swap out pointed bits with fat teeth that make a solid edge if you want.

On the fun side -

Dad gum beavers!! Homeowners were getting flooded basements so they got a mini ex and busted out their handy work. Of course middle of the night here isn’t dark.
You guys get much of this action?


View attachment 291906

I use the stingers year round, they do a good job on hard pack and you can carry material easy, Beavers, we have our share of troubles with them, they like to dam culverts and bridges and end up flooding the road way, we put extended cages on our culverts now and that seems to work, as far as bridges we usually bring in a trapper to get them, We find the fall is when they're most active, these Beavers are non union, they work day and night with little pay, lol

 

[terex herder]

I've read beavers can sense very small currents and plug them as leaks. One of the solutions is to bust the dam and put a section of pipe in the break. On the upstream side of the dam use perforated well casing. The flow through the perforations is to slow for them to detect. The beavers will quickly bury the tube through the dam.

 

[20/80]

Kinda quiet lately, Mother Cat is coming today to have a look at my machine, my machine is throwing a Articulation fault code, when this happens I loose all my Hyds in my mouldboard and Articulation, have to shut down the machine and turn master switch off to reset, also the return to center for the Articulation is acting up some times, won't center, not sure if anyone has had this problem happen before, our New Cat backhoe is having issues also, Cat will have a bust day, other then that my roads are staying good, just touching them up here and there, has been really wet this summer hard to get any ditching done, ditches are staying soft

 

[cuttin edge]

Our stretch of road is paved. Base and seal. My volvo has been parked for a week on the next fine grade job as I use my Mauldin to prepare paved driveway tie ins, and shoulder. It's in a village. There are over 300 driveways/ parking lots to be tied into the new road. 87 are paved. They did wide paved shoulders, and put manholes along the edge of the road, so that is a nightmare to try and grade past when shouldering They raised the road up so high when they widened it, some people are getting their whole driveway paved. One old fella got 60 tons of asphalt. Never cost him a cent. Meanwhile the next job has been pulverized, and graveled for about 3 weeks, so I can just imagine how hard it is packed for fine grading. On the plus side, it seems the sub company did a better job on this one. Didn't see any 8 inch cuts in the gravel this time.

 

[20/80]

Well Mother Cat came and looked at my machine, he looked into the Articulation fault code and looked it up on Cats list of fixes, there is no known fix at this time for this code, if the machine articulates more then 30% without a command this code is thrown, so I will have to live with it till they find a fix, they also replaced my articulating angle sensor where that was having a issue also, machine was returning back over center when you pressed the return to center button, starting to get some glitches with my new 150 Awd, oh yes my rear camera was having a issue with loosing the rear video to a blue screen, they replaced the cable, hopefully these are the only issues I have.

 

[Welder Dave]

Is it normal for the articulation to wander a little bit? Not registering a code till 30% seems like a lot. Does Cat use pins or have a way to lock the articulation straight so it can't move at all (like if the articulation was acting up)?

 

[20/80]

Is it normal for the articulation to wander a little bit? Not registering a code till 30% seems like a lot. Does Cat use pins or have a way to lock the articulation straight so it can't move at all (like if the articulation was acting up)?

Some machines will wander a bit but has more to do with your bushings being wore on the articulation rams, yes they have a locking pin to keep them pinned straight, mine does not wander but the ecm thinks it is that's why I get the code every now and than, that's the glitch i'm having, there is another new 150 grader in the province that is having the same problem according to the Cat mech, not sure what Cat will come up with for a fix, seems I have to wait it out, hope it doesn't become worst

 

[cuttin edge]

Some machines will wander a bit but has more to do with your bushings being wore on the articulation rams, yes they have a locking pin to keep them pinned straight, mine does not wander but the ecm thinks it is that's why I get the code every now and than, that's the glitch i'm having, there is another new 150 grader in the province that is having the same problem according to the Cat mech, not sure what Cat will come up with for a fix, seems I have to wait it out, hope it doesn't become worst

It's actually law here in NB that an articulating machine have the safety pin or bar in when floating them (no one does it). Our float man asked me once how I always get the grader on the float so straight every time. I always have my lower mirrors set to see the bottom of my front drives, handy when working around grade stakes so you don't run them over. I run the front wheels up, and when I see my back tires at the edge of the ramp, I use the articulation to square her up. I have a bad habit of never centering the rear wheels. Probably why he can never get it to line up himself.

 

[20/80]

Cat is suppose to be back today to finish replacing the final piece of the wiring harness for my rear camera, he may have some more info on how to deal with this code, we are going to have another rain flooding/washout event in the next day or so for here, 4-6 inchs of rain to fall in a short period won't be good, more road repairs.

 

[20/80]

Well Mother Cat came and looked at my machine, he looked into the Articulation fault code and looked it up on Cats list of fixes, there is no known fix at this time for this code, if the machine articulates more then 30% without a command this code is thrown, so I will have to live with it till they find a fix, they also replaced my articulating angle sensor where that was having a issue also, machine was returning back over center when you pressed the return to center button, starting to get some glitches with my new 150 Awd, oh yes my rear camera was having a issue with loosing the rear video to a blue screen, they replaced the cable, hopefully these are the only issues I have.

My mistake, its 3% movement not 30% without a command from the joy stick to throw the articulation fault code, so that's not very much, machine has not done it sense we changed the articulation return to center sensor.

 

[cuttin edge]

Moved on to second fine grading job. Last one is all done, just waiting for them to come paint the lines, then the signs can be pulled. This one is a bit longer, but no paved shoulders. Subbed out to the same company as the last one for pulverizing, and placing the gravel. They did a better job this time around, and so far, not a whole lot of cuts. This road was opened up on the 24th of July, so with all the rain, and traffic, it is pothole city. As per every other job, I scarify out the potholes every section before we string line. Can't go too deep as most areas have only 2 to 3 inches of gravel over the pulverized material. I have the useless mid mount scarifier, like 5 feet wide, can't even get to the stakes. Of course all this does is replace the potholes with teeth marks. Never an issue before, and then she came along. A little over 2KM ready for asphalt, they started paving base today. She does not like the teeth marks, and will not let them pave any further until they are gone. Last night I scarrified 200 meters, graded it off and re laid it. Brought up all kinds of crap. Asphalt inspector said, don't worry about her, pave it. So she comes today. Spent the last 3 hours of the day trying to cut the material out without using the scarrifier. Only got 250 meters from where they stopped paving today. My new stinger blades are supposed to be here tomorrow afternoon.