took some photos today of an aveling austin grader not sure how old but I would think nineteen fifty's as I drove aveling barfords in the nineteen sixty's so they had change name by then . note the steering handle you had to just tap the lever not hold on to it. I saw the grader working last year
Bob

These were american Austin Westerns made under licence by Avelling Barford hence the 'Avelling Austin' moniker

unreal bit of gear , go anywhere , 4 weel drive ,front and rear steer , full hydraulics
the old man had two of them but wrecked one , both had the leyland motors
he also widend the rims to take the wider tyres but they were a bit hard on axels
there was one thing i learnt real quick was not to steer by the rear axel at full noise and top gear
in there day they where well engineered compared to cat graders
still got parts lying around here for them

Thats a fair old prop shaft. Looks like one that ought to be restored.

Hi, Folks.
That model of Aveling Austin or one very, VERY much like it was marketed as the 99H DowNunder. They were a good, solid, reliable machine and very hard to stop in poor traction conditions. I can't honestly remember seeing any of them with anything but a 'screamin' demon' GM 4-71 diesel in them, noisy as all get out but got the job done.

I ran a couple of Aveling Barfords 6x6x6's for a while. One would have been about the size of the machine in those photos if you put a tandem drive rear end in place of the single rear axle. This one was powered by a 90 horsepower Leyland 'donk' and proved to be almost as good a 'go-anywhere' machine as the 'Terrible-X' 82-30 dozer working on the same site. It was somewhat less user-friendly than the Cats of the day, at least IMHO. Sure, the hydraulics were easier on the operators hands and wrists than Cat's gear controls but it had a foot-operated circle lock under your LEFT foot so that you could not use the circle reverse and the clutch at the same time and the visibility around the machine was not as good. The control lever layout left a little to be desired too. The rear end steering via a turntable arrangement gave them more manoeverability on the back end but they needed it 'cos the front end steering didn't have the lock available on the Cats due to the front wheel drive. No leaning front wheels either.

The second Aveling Barford was an altogether different beast, 20 tons, 16 foot blade, 250 horsepower from a 6V-71 'screamin' demon' Jimmy. It was a very easy machine to control, even unto having thumb-operated micro switches for the front steering on the blade lift levers so that you could steer without taking your hands off the blade lift levers. This little feature was great for working around pegs and in tight spaces. It was basically the smaller machine above grown a bit, complete with the turntable rear end steering but I did think it had better visibility all round than the smaller machine. You were sure sat up a lot higher. Made people pay attention when it was driving down the road too - in the Western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, in 1983.

I also operated an American-built Clark 6x6x6 grader for a while. I think this jigger was largely derived from the American Austin Western graders and was about the same size as a Cat 12E 70D or DowNunder-built 17K but a little heavier due to the front wheel drive and the rear turntable steering. This one had a front dozer blade and rear rippers and handled reasonably well with a 4-71 Jimmy punting it around. Like all of the other machines mentioned above, it could sure put its grunt on the ground with that 6-wheel drive.

Anybody learn anything?

Hi Deas,If you want a trip down memory lane there is a 99h for sale on ebay but i think it was down in victoria.My grandfather operated aveling graders for gold coast city council many many years ago.I was a gold coast boy born and breed. In the mid 70's worked on the road around sea world,bugger of a job got to watch the dolphin and water ski shows every day ,for months. The mob i was working for had some pretty iffy gear. Had 3 three piont rollers die on the job, in desperation they pulled one out of the workshop that was in there to replace the pinon gear.The old fella that was driving it used to hang tin cans on wire under it to catch the oil drips[THERE WERE LOTS OF THEM} AND EACH AFTERNOON POUR THE OIL BACK INTO WERE IT CAME FROM.We were working on the last piece of road going up to a helipad, each time the old fella went up you would see and hear the missing pinon tooth, The poor bugger was right at the top when the pinon decided enough was enoughand stripped at the teeth and headed back down the hill heading straight for the broadwater. 12 ton roller pick up a bit of speed when free wheeling!!! Anyway the old fella's starts winding the big wheel on the handbrake like his life depended on it ,which basicily it did .He pulled it up about a foot from the edge of the retaining wall that dropped into the water.They had a little 3ton 3point roller and decidedit would be the perfect machine to roll a white quarts driveway at this biggg flash house we were working on.It took us most of the day to get it there,towing it round and round the block to get it started then drive it miles to get it there. The little hump back bridges over the canals would takes about ten goes to get over{run out of revs ,throw the clutch wait for the revs to build and up it again] Finally got it there and did the first run up the nice white driveway,The owner of the house takes one look at it and the black oil trail it left behind it ,tells the boss in no uncertain terms to get the pile of cr@p off his driveway and clean up the oil trail or he was not getting paid.The good old days ,drive to the quarry in a j1 bedford and put 3 ton of screening on the back drive back to the job with the front wheels barely touching the road then shovel the whole lot off when you got to the job. I dare say you could tell a tale or two about the old days deas? ian.

Hi, IANOZ.
I think I'll almost manage to survive passing on that trip down memory lane. With regard to stories from the 'old' days, if you send me an email, I'll send you a 'work-in-progress' manuscript with a story or two in it. Be warned - make yourself a sandwich and a 'cuppa' before you start on it. LOL.

Catchyalater.

Hi DEAS, I got talked into pressing the new posts button, insteed of looking at the forums like i usually do , and guess what ,seems the system totally missed this post ,one that robban c posted on the excavator forum and christ knows what else i missed. Tecknolagy,Aint it grand .I think i shall go back to the old way of looking for myself . So my model making mate if you happen to see this theres a bug in the system somewhere.But no worrys If you geta S & hit it thats what usually happens. I will email you deas but not tonight its 1.30 am and i gotta work tomorrow ,sorry today ian.

Found in our yard,although has Aveling Barford on it,looks the same.Has K reg on it,whick would make it 1971/1972 ish??

Here is a picture of an Austin Western that was used in road maintenance during the 50's. Even 6 wheel drive couldn't help it here. That's my old man on the right. I was walking home from school as a little kid when the operator picked me up and gave me a ride home in this machine. Must have been a turning point as a grader has been my implement of choice ever since!