Huge John Deere Grader

Red1

Member
Just how big does a township road grader need to be? The ole boy that beat out the last township trustee told me the grader he used was way to large for that type of work..uses 15gal/hr just pushing a little rock around. So I stopped him after he won the election last year...still driving this mammoth jd...opened the door and you could tell the inside must be pressurized..heard a hissing sound as it opened..Has toggles on both armrests, for steering and blade controls...gps...thought he told me it cost in excess of 300 hundred thousand, and yes he said..looks like they (the township) was going ahead with buying it..(was leased). The problem is, it takes so much fuel, they only make one pass down the roads (50 miles in the township) and leave a windrow on the sides which keeps the water, of which we've had plenty in this area of kansas, from going into what is left of the ditches. So our roads in some areas are washed out really bad. Guess the township 'officers' will show that to the govt fema boys when they apply for next years aid.
 
Here in Iowa we township trustees do not work for the county road department. We have no say over what is purchased by the supervisors. I will say this, from being friends with the guys that run the graders. Try to push thru a 15 or 20 foot deep snow drift with a little bitty old fa+t Of a road grader and see how far you get. Sounds to me like someone knows what is needed.
 
(quoted from post at 11:26:31 08/22/13) Here in Iowa we township trustees do not work for the county road department. We have no say over what is purchased by the supervisors. I will say this, from being friends with the guys that run the graders. Try to push thru a 15 or 20 foot deep snow drift with a little bitty old fa+t Of a road grader and see how far you get. Sounds to me like someone knows what is needed.

The trustees do not work for the county here either...completely separate...budgets etc...County is responsible for all bridges and designated county roads..everything else is township controlled. We had great township officers until we got these crooks in that lied to the feds about the need for additional $$$....during the 06 floods.

And we don't get 15 or 20 foot snowdrifts here in kansas..my area anyway. Maybe 6 or 7 foot, and that is a rarity...
Nope, lived in this area for over 20 years. Past road graders were several steps down..way down. And those machines did way more work cleaning out ditches and actually shaping packed dirt into proper crowns for drainage. This township has been sucking the govt fema t*t since 06..and that is where the bucks are coming from for all the gravel and machinery that has never been used before..at the taxpayers expense. They will not maintain the road properly because of the fuel useage..imho..and that hurts all the people that have to run these roads everyday..
 
Fuel is relatively inexpensive compared to the price of a new machine. If the county officials knew what they were doing, they should have specified a lower fuel consumption in their bid specs. That would have shut out the fuel hogs and probably gotten them a machine with a Cummins that put out more HP and used less fuel than the JD. Too many counties buy machines based on favoritism rather than hard facts.

My nephew was amazed after he bought my brother's Versatile tractor with a Cummins engine; it uses a third less fuel while producing more HP.
 
(quoted from post at 15:36:12 08/22/13) Fuel is relatively inexpensive compared to the price of a new machine. If the county officials knew what they were doing, they should have specified a lower fuel consumption in their bid specs. That would have shut out the fuel hogs and probably gotten them a machine with a Cummins that put out more HP and used less fuel than the JD. Too many counties buy machines based on favoritism rather than hard facts.

My nephew was amazed after he bought my brother's Versatile tractor with a Cummins engine; it uses a third less fuel while producing more HP.

I don't say this lightly...There are more scams at this level of politics than we can imagine. Consider....all the higher level of greed and theft we read about in government..both parties..but hardly ever at the state county and township levels. Why? Kickbacks from machinery and quarry (the places that provide the road materials)...So easy to conceal because we are such a trusting constituency. Consider...couple days before the last township election I talked in length with the newly elected township trustee..the guy that runs the grader..He had nothing good to say about his opponent. For that matter neither did the commissioner for this part of the county. The last township officers cost the people thousands of dollars laying down improper road materials and ignoring the complaints from those with ruined tires and in some cases engine components where large pieces of rock were tossed into the motor compartment. The new trustee and I agreed on how a road should be conditioned...before laying new rock..usually inch and a quarter abs...you graded and filled the pot holes and then layed in the new rock which of course you graded down into a crown and pack..Never happened..The new trustee told me this large jd grader was way big for the job..he is still driving it..The new trustee told me the last one had started making only one pass down the roads...So now he is too..

I'm tellin ya..something smells rotten and I'd put money it is more common around the country than what you might think...
 
I sold equipment to all levels of government for years. I found corruption at all levels in some form or other. After the Nixon affair, things were more black & white for awhile - they would not even let you buy them lunch or they would flat out tell you that if you paid them so much you would get the bid! That only lasted a few years then it was back to the same old way.

There were some places that were run on the straight and narrow. When I worked for ADOT, we could accept a cap from a vendor; we could go to lunch with them but not out to dinner.

Some guys tried to influence the specs that I wrote but I told them that was the door where they came in. The most obvious was the Cat saleman and a female salesperson who tried to interest me in her own type of corruption - didn't work on me!

I slept well and never had to worry about going to jail.
 
(quoted from post at 09:32:43 08/24/13) $300,000 for a grader isn't that much? Price out a
Cat 24H!

Looks pricey...hard to find the cost on the internet...

My point is...the new trustee laughed his butt off at this machine when the other one got it...and I remember the other machines as being considerably smaller...and doing a lot more work...ditches were maintained, etc. Not now..

Been in this area for over 20 years...before fema, there weren't enough revenues to put gravel over all 50 miles in 5 years, let along 2 or 3 times in one year and the way they drop it...it ends up getting pushed into the ditches,,they don't even try to pack it with the blade so it nests and vehicles aren't wearing their tires down...

Talked with many a kansas resident, from all over..They'll tell you about the ole boy system...in place everywhere...People would rather get half the tread they pay for on tires than rock that good ole boy system where one generation replaces another as years go by and the roads aren't maintained like they should be....they just learn to live with it.
 
That "flea bit" township I used to work for had a 1957 Galion.. 3-71 Driptroit with 1 gumball light on the roof.. Fancy , Huh ??
 

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