Maintainer graders

Along with our production grader, we have 3 Maintainer graders. A lot of our work is private driveways. With a lot of larger contractors in the province, road work is hard to come by. Our 940 Volvo is a 2011, and still only has about 1200 hours on it. The Maintainer graders are the bread winners, going steady all summer. The 510 Puckett is an 88, and the hour meter quit at about 22000 hours, it is on it's 3rd engine. The 690 Alitec is a 99, again, hours are unknown. In 2012 they bought a Mauldin. It has a nice cab, A/C, lots of power...bla bla bla. I would rather roast all summer in the old puckett than spend 10 seconds in the Mauldin. Who puts tinted windows on a grader...... To anyone familliar with Maintainer graders, the valve banks are on each side of the seat. Blade controls on the left, and boom, bucket, ripper, and Auxillary on the right. Short leavers, hooked right on the valve, and close together. Mauldin offers the controls at the steering wheel, in order to give the big grader feel. The configuration is same as one of the JD patterns. The leavers are long, and flex quite a bit before moving the valve, so I find it hard to get a feel for them. Because of the length, it is almost impossible to use your fingers to move the controls in opposing directions. Sometimes I feel like Fred Flinstone pulling the leavers on the dino crane. In order to accomodate the cab design, they have narrowed the blade lift pistons in about 16 inches on either side to about 2 feet apart which makes the 10 foot Moldboard almost impossible to lift on one side without gouging on the other. Has anyone else tried the Mauldin, and had similar findings.

Maintainer graders