Winter days at Beitostølen

[MKTEF]

Visited the wintear days on Tuesday.
DOT arranged this forum.
A lot of speakers talking about snowremoval, snow contracts, public service, airport snowremoval and more.
Lasts from monday to thursday.

The dealers of winter equipment where present with some of their stuff. Snowblowers, sand spreaders, salt spreaders, graders, plows and more.

Demonstrations out in the field after lunch each day.
It takes place on a hotell at the end of a skislope.(Beitostølen)
2 km with a bus up to the "mountain".

I pictured the graders present. A Veekmas(Vammas 281), 140M and our 976.
Our 976 is pictured in another post....

 

[MKTEF]

Cat 140M

Here is the 140M.

Operators are not happy with the new M modells i hear.
They complain on the power.
The graders lack power compared to the weight, operators don't get the performance expected.
Small cuts and not able to keep speed up in hills and when grading.

Nokia special grader tyres on this one.

 

[bobcat ron]

On the first set of pics, thrird pic down, what are those blue things? Ramps??

 

[MKTEF]

Moore M pics

A couple more.
Looks like its a Veekmas extension on the Cat blade.
The Veekmas hydraulic snow stopper is popular here.
Many demand it on their grader, and its a killer, moves up and down with a bang.

 

[MKTEF]

Blade holder.

Hey Ron.:drinkup

Its summer blades(slick ones), its a holder for spare blades.

 

[bobcat ron]

Ahhh, got it now, I thought those were ramps to back out onto in case you really got stuck.

 

[equipment fan]

nice graders MKTEF!Can you show to us more pictures of other machines displayed please?

 

[Grader4me]

MKTEF, I noticed that on the different types of graders (pictures that you have shown) they are all running a similar type of plow on the front. Are these plows the most popular in your country? I've probably asked you these questions before, but can you apply down pressure to them? Will they "trip" when striking something hard ex: raised manhole cover etc.?
Great pictures... by the way...is that your smiling face in the window reflection?

 

[9420pullpan]

wow that 140M looks awesome great tires on it front angle blade it doesnt get any better than that for plowing snow

very nice

 

[MKTEF]

Equipment fan: I am sorry but i didn't take any more pics.
There was a lot of winter equipment, but i didn't have time to everything.
I can do a little research and post some pics here that i''ll find on the net.

Grader4me:
Its two produsers dominating, Veekmas and Gjerstad.
Most want Gjerstad, they are the most solid.
Design on the Cat and ours is nearly the same, but we ordered all the extras.
Tilt forwards, side tilt and quick coupler on ours.

We all can add down pressure, some have float function.
Recognised by a nitrogen reservoar on the front.
We can tripp manholes, yes. And they can fly!
Thats way we ordered the tilt on the blade. U can controll the agressitivity of the blade by tilting forward or backwards.

But i also has to add that manholes is made in very special ways her in Norway, so they dont rise in the winter.
We dig them deep and use frost free gravel and also styrofoam plates to avoid holes from rising.
Nearly all holes is minimum 6 feet deep, and so big u climb down inside them.
They don't rise cause the mowe equaly as the ground around.

The face was a miss, i don't like to be recognisied in this stupid world, when i have the job i got.

 

[Grader4me]

Front Plow

Thanks for the information. I've never seen a plow like that in these parts. I'm curious if any companies in Canada or the U.S. makes anything similar.

The face was a miss, i don't like to be recognisied in this stupid world, when i have the job i got.

Nah..all I can see is basically your outline..I wouldn't recognize you from that reflection if you was two feet from me. I was just pulling your leg

 

[Squizzy246B]

Nah..all I can see is basically your outline..I wouldn't recognize you from that reflection if you was two feet from me. I was just pulling your leg

Yeah...we don't want any more resolution than that...you'll scare off the new members...

 

[sdPete]

140M in USA South Dakota

More available if interested....

 

[MKTEF]

Nice pics:drinkup

Good pics of graders, is always welcomed here at the forum!

So please, don't feel any hesitation regarding posting.

 

[Grader4me]

More available if interested....

Bring them on...Love to see pictures of graders.

 

[sdPete]

140M in SD

Vammas looked like interesting machine. Have to check if they have a website.


Put in a few days pushing out shoulders, temp stayed at 0 up to 5 F.

 

[Grader4me]

Nice machine! So what is it like for power? Traction? getting used to the no steering wheel? Good lighting system?

 

[sdPete]

Power is good, it has the VHP feature that adds 5hp per gear, I have not been in many situations where power was limiting factor so far. Fuel use seems low compared to the 140H.

Steering works fairly well, situations which need a lot of steering action are handled quickly by leaning the stick one way or the other. 10 mph or less I get along with it fine. Higher speeds are still a challenge. Cold weather is a factor as well, the system response is slower, stick is stiff and takes more movement for fine tune steering, gets better when cab is fully warmed. Cold weather package option heater has plenty of output.

This machine was requested with most of the available lighting options installed, plenty of light. Don't think cars are too happy meeting me at night. The top cab lights do produce some glare on the mirrors so sometimes I run with them off. Heated mirrors defrost themselves. Air ride seat is nice.

Traction is good, I would suppose the tires get the credit there, but it seems to haul itself along well enough I don't worry much about slippage. The territory I do is gravel roads entirely so there is usually some grit available.

 

[MKTEF]

Interresting to hear.

The "workinspectiondepartement"(arbeidstilsynet) has denied the Cat graders to go faster than 30km/h 18.6mph because of the lack of backupsystem to the stearing.(loose electrisity and it stops working)
I haven't had this confirmed by any driver yet, but working on it.

Any Norwegians here that drive one? And knows for sure?

Rumors say that the speed limitation is working on the power too.
So the lack of power can depend on this.
Haven't had the oportunity to discuss this with a operator yet.

Vammas website is down now, due to the fact that they are bought up by Veekmas.
And its no info on those models on the Veekmas site.

Please don't stop posting now, we are interrested in all info!

 

[Grader4me]

.Steering works fairly well, situations which need a lot of steering action are handled quickly by leaning the stick one way or the other. 10 mph or less I get along with it fine. Higher speeds are still a challenge. Cold weather is a factor as well, the system response is slower, stick is stiff and takes more movement for fine tune steering, gets better when cab is fully warmed. Cold weather package option heater has plenty of output.

I keep going back to the no steering wheel thing...you would think that I would just get over it but.. I know I would like all of the other controls, features, state of the art stuff that this grader has to offer.

As sdPete, we are in the business of plowing snow, so it's really good to hear feedback on how this grader performs with this task. In some areas you have to do a lot of manuvering and multi task with different applications. Anyone that's plowed snow with a grader understands what I'm talking about. To take a steering wheel out of the mix.....call me old fashion I guess...I suppose as I've said before..you get used to it...