I've mentioned here before I worked on a road construction crew as a summer college job in the mid 60s. I was used to moving our big Cat grader around the job site. One day the operator wanted to know if I would move the Cat a couple of miles away to a new location. LIKE, YEAH!!! So I had this machine on the open road and was approaching a wide boulevard turn. I canted the front wheels over as far as they would go and took the turn around 30 mph! Good god, all the wheels were ripping the stone off the asphalt all the way around the turn. I was a little worried that the boss would see the black tire path and say something like, "We're trying to build roads here, not rip them up!" But nothing ever came of it; heck I was 18!
I operated a grader exactly once in my lifetime, I felt like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. Man, there's a lot going on on those things. It's a short list of things I cannot do but grader is right up there with bricklayer. My hat is off to you, nice job. Best regards from Indiana.
I worked with a grader operator and he could scrap the blue paint off the tops of grade stakes. He was an unbelievable operator. His Cat had six bald tires completely filled with water to take out any harmonic motion in the blade. He was one can short of a six pack, but no one could come close to him on that machine.
Since I was a young child and continuing today I love seeing grading, excavating, dump trucks etc doing what they do. I’m sixty six now and just love watching you do your thing Chris. Awesome job!
The motor grader is cool! You operate a lot of different equipment and they are all cool in their own way - we don't see the grader often but it's cool!
Brings back memories, I worked for my dad building haul roads for the army years ago , I would push soil off ground with p65 komatsu dozer then we had two excavators one side of road just digging out chalk and placeing to construct a road across fields , then I would level chalk and my dad would use grader to build crown and then stone up over chalk then all soil went into chalk hole . So finish job each day , we need more operators like you Chris, 👍👍🇬🇧
Untill I started watching your channel and seeing you operate a grader, I had no idea how much the operator is constantly adjusting the controls. A lot more to it than it appears at a distance. Thanks very much for sharing Chris, thoroughly enjoy, especially when you go through the explanations like you did here.
Like it when you explain the why when your doing it. With the camera looking directly at the blade then the light comes on in my head, that's why. Great video.
Reminds me of my childhood days in the 60s watching the road work department doing road maintenance work going in our small town. It was all gravel roads back then, dusty during the dry season and quiet slippery during the wet season but it was fun...
Love the shots of the grader blade doing it’s job.Such an informative and interesting way to show how a grader actually works.Thanks for sharing this Chris.
It's nice to keep learning about the life of a road, and this aspect was just as interesting as the last time. (county road extension/widening). I am starting to understand it a bit now, catching my self guessing what's coming next each pass. Thanks for explaining this stuff as well as you do Chris. Some of it really is sticking now. Be well. ;)
I have to agree with some of the other posters, watching the stone roll off the moldboard is just mesmerising. Some of the townships up here have motor patrols to keep their roads up, but here in the big town they're used to plow snow. Do a way better job then a plow on a tandem. Chris running the Motor grader and the two big cats are my favorite videos!
Greetings from our family in Alaska! There is nothing quite like a well maintained dirt road. Especially when the neighbors are great people, contributing equally to keep it maintained!!
Hi from uk chris👋👍 3 machines 1 man 1 uncle john 1day 1time every year and only 1 ld18 👌💪 if any one else had this job this drive would of grew wider by 10ft but because its you it just stays the same but better every time you leave 👍👌 thanks for your time and be safe see you soon 👍👋
I said it before… you have an impressive eye for grade line Chris! And let me add a good feel for material volume control too. Could give a description of the grader controls sometime when you’re operating it. You are so quick and incremental that it’s difficult to relate your hand movements with grader movements.
I always liked running a grader. I never ran enough to get good at it but I could rough things in so the skilled guy just had to touch up. I'm sure those folks look forward to seeing you come rolling in with your equipment. Beautiful job on the road. Cheers Terry
Another great video bro, I see what you mean about a different tire on the front of the grader you mentioned to Matt about. I never noticed before and still been none the wiser. That road only needs maintenance every 2 years that say a lot about the way you guys looks after it. Private roads here need constant care to stop potholes getting out of hand. Safe travels
I understand the community annual road maintenance fund. I guess each individual house is responsible for the maintenance of their private driveways. Thanks for explanation of what you were doing to the road with the grader. Out of all the equipment you use, the grader is by far the I understand the least. All of those levers and handles. Maybe one you could explain what and why the blade has all of the different functions. For instance, why is the blade most often straight up and down and other times the blade is tilted far forward of vertical. Great video!!
Man, you really want to coach our friend Matt on his Christine grader. You make it look easy but looking at ya operating your's, and reading comments below, it sure is a lot engaging job ! Kudos to you Chris ! 👍
The stone your using looks like #53 limestone packs about like concrete but does need a good base. Back in the 70's I lived on a farm and had a drive that was close to 1/2 miles hauled a ton of stone. I would have hired you if you were old enough.
I used to run an old 112 Cat grader grading our access road and truck parking area, what wrist busting old brute compared to your machine....awesome job !!!
Love when you give commentary and explain what it is your doing. It would be nice to know where your looking and what your feeling for while operating the equipment especially the motor grader.
I think, for me, the camera mounted underbelly and watching the mouldboard doing it's job is most interesting. I notice / hear that engine is running very 'sweetly', nice bit of work Chris.
Always looks oh so much better when it’s all slick up. Nice job young man. You know if you hadn’t mentioned that right front tire on the grader being different I would probably never noticed it, as they say, if it works, don’t fix it. Thanks for the ride along.
Yeah, I remember last time, when you done this one Chris. Nice change of pace, got ya out of the nasty ass mud, and trees for a min. anyway !! lolol.... That little Grader of yours does a pretty damn good job , Ya know it......Well, Have a Great Holiday Weekend Chris !! "I bet you work though"....lololol... Take a day anyway Man, throw some steaks on the grill , have a couple cold ones, and enjoy that Beautiful New Home ya got !! lolol... Have a Great Weekend, and Evening !! And, On too the Next.....
It looks really nice. Those customers will be very pleased. Most people don't know of just how much time is saved when u have someone like John letting the gravel out the way he does it.
Beautiful area where u are working. Enjoy watching u work the grader controls, very coordinated as lots to operating it. Thank u so much for video, and God's blessings.
Could you imagine if you didnt have the road grader and had to do that job with the skid steer it still would look great alot of different in man hours though super nice job Chris 😎👍👍
We use to have gravel streets and the county never got it right. They scraped it at an angle straight across from one side to the other. It made all of the snow and rain run into our driveways and yards
Used to ride along with the grader operator back in Mt View Arkansas. It was a summer youth job where we usually cut weeds with a weed wacker of walked along behind a truck shoveling asphalt patch into potholes. There were a lot of potholes in Mt View. And quite a few miles of dirt roads that needed to be dressed after every heavy rain. It was better riding in the grader than cutting weeds. Every once in awhile we’d catch a submerged boulder which would bend the mould board back until it either scraped the top off the rock or jumped over it. Either way the whole grader would jump off the ground and slam back down. Pretty scary the first few times. Great times.
We found out that crushed concrete works great too for road fixing. It is a little cheaper if you can get it too. Those sandy Easter Carolina gravel roads sure need a lot of attention.
Chris someone in Acworth Georgia has a boneyard of vintage equipment for sale. it’s posted on the Facebook marketplace. look like an old vintage motor grader and an old vintage Cat Dozier parts only its on blocks Some type of old vintage drum tamp attachment. Probably all scrap metal but I don’t know. it’s a big Motograter
Should have guessed it wouldn`t be long after running Christine that you want to get on your Fiat-Allis. It wasn`t pond work and definately not digging mud- but a nice looking 'country road'.
Very relaxing to watch the blade close up. How does this work: if their is a pothole or washboard in the road that the front wheels ride over, isn’t the blade going to move up and down too? So how does a washboard gets smoothed out?
Wish I had about $50K burning a hole in my pocket so we could get you & your uncle to come fix our 1.1 mile drive... It could really use your masterful touch!!! Well done gentlemen!!!
Hi Chris. I used to do paving. I got pretty good at grading. Didn't matter what brand of rake I used. Lol ( mostly driveways and small parking lots) Sincerely Ed from Chicago
I have a private road we do once a year . Same situation. Except unfortunately all I have is a skid steer with a tilt bucket. It takes forever to do with that grader will do
