# New CAT Grader Plowing



## chevysilverado9 (Sep 14, 2011)

Lots of snow, high winds and temperature fluctuations this year. Drifts so big the V-Plows had to be pulled out. This is a video of a brand new 6 wheel drive CAT grader. 



 (Plowing starts at 3:25 in) It might not look like much snow in the video, but the flared wings on the v-plow are a little over 8 feet high. Enjoy!


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## dieselboy01 (Jan 18, 2011)

Awesome video! That looks like a lot of fun! I love the first song that was playing also!


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## edgeair (Sep 26, 2010)

chevysilverado9;1789455 said:


> Lots of snow, high winds and temperature fluctuations this year. Drifts so big the V-Plows had to be pulled out. This is a video of a brand new 6 wheel drive CAT grader.
> 
> 
> 
> (Plowing starts at 3:25 in) It might not look like much snow in the video, but the flared wings on the v-plow are a little over 8 feet high. Enjoy!


We are practically neighbours, I was pausing the video to see if I could recognize the signs, but a bit blurry. I thought I recognized some of the roads.

Thats a good summary video for how our winter has been, now time to shut it off!

Should have had a blower for some of that heavy stuff tymusic


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## SnowGuy73 (Apr 7, 2003)

Nice!..........


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## mercer_me (Sep 13, 2008)

Nice grader. I used to run a 2011 John Deere 670 with a V plow and wing for Maine DOT. I love plowing with a grader, you can really get the banks back off the road.


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## TKLAWN (Jan 20, 2008)

Nice work, those drifts are insane!


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## Landcare - Mont (Feb 28, 2011)

Nice video - impressive machine. Think I might have wanted to open some of those roads with a blower and then cleaned up with the grader but, to each, his own.


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## edgeair (Sep 26, 2010)

Landcare - Mont;1789795 said:


> Nice video - impressive machine. Think I might have wanted to open some of those roads with a blower and then cleaned up with the grader but, to each, his own.


Yes, some of the townships around here (close to where the video was made) have yet to realize the value of a snowblower. They will first smash away at snowbanks with the taxpayers $500,000 (approx. guestimate) piece of equipment and then only use a blower if they can't push it further back than the road edge. There are still some locations around here where there is no shoulder and a couple spots where there is still snow on the edge of the roadway.

I'm not a municipal guy so I know I am not one to talk, but in many cases they would have been much further ahead to run their plows the opposite direction and push the snow across to the other side of the road (down wind side). However they just kept pushing it into the already huge bank on the windward side.

The "famous" Bruce county wall of snow in pictures around the net is 3 miles from my house, and they actually used a tractor blower there (since it was about 12' high) but only as a last resort.

Before they ram it up into a bank, even a single auger tractor blower would have been able to get rid of a world of problems in many spots, but to each their own.  There are enough farmers around here with tractors that if they gave them the job it wouldn't cost the snow budget as much in the end and the roads would have been opened sooner and be in better shape.

I am impressed with how much those graders can push to the side, but I would have thought they would have had a bit more push when using the v plow before they spun out. However, knowing the consistency of the snow in those drifts myself, that was some heavy snow.


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## Landcare - Mont (Feb 28, 2011)

Gotta admit I was thinking more like this blower (in our album) or a loader-mounted one like Neige's than a tractor-mounted blower.


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## edgeair (Sep 26, 2010)

Landcare - Mont;1789825 said:


> Gotta admit I was thinking more like this blower or a loader-mounted one like Neige's than a tractor-mounted blower.


Yes I know what you meant. I was just saying that even a single auger 3pth blower would have handled alot. Certainly a purpose built unit mounted to the front of a tractor or loader would have been quicker.


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## LapeerLandscape (Dec 29, 2012)

I have been over that way snowmobiling, they really get the snow and the wind. Got to watch the snowblowers work on hwy 21. Very cool video.


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

Nice!

We're further south and the only temp fluctuations we had were cold and colder. lol

I would also congratulate you on the music used in the vid. One of the very few that I didn't want to stick ice picks in my ears within 5 seconds.


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## chevysilverado9 (Sep 14, 2011)

edgeair;1789826 said:


> Yes I know what you meant. I was just saying that even a single auger 3pth blower would have handled alot. Certainly a purpose built unit mounted to the front of a tractor or loader would have been quicker.


Yep, I totally agree with you, they should have been using blowers. At this time though, the chances of being able to find any blowers to hire were slim as the county and highway had already scooped them up and were working around the clock. They did get a farm tractor with a blower to open up a few roads, but as everyone knows, that's a major amount of snow for a farm tractor, so it was slow. One road that couldn't be opened up with the grader was opened up with an excavator.

The problem was the storm was just so relentless, I believe it lasted for about 4 days. It didn't matter how far you blew the snow, by morning, the road would be plugged solid again. Plow operators around here were working up to 15 hour shifts with no end in sight. Highway 6 up to Ferndale was opened with 3 airport blowers running staggered, and not to longer after they opened it, it was closed again because the plows couldn't keep up...

It's been a while since the municipality up here has had to pull the v-plows out. It was one wicked storm, and I'll tell ya mother nature showed everybody who's boss.


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## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

Compared to the last couple winters, this was definitely a windy one.


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## Mr.Markus (Jan 7, 2010)

The blowers only reach so far, you have about 8ft of shoulder then ditch, the walling effect then creates a snow fence that rolls it back into the road with the slightest breeze. The staggered peak that you create with a wing creates lift that will blow it up and over the other side. Our snow load wasn't far off our norm but the wind put it where you didn't want it. We saw some big new blowers this year...


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