Champion 760

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rvannatta
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Champion 760

Post #1 by rvannatta » Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:42 am

Here is a recent photo of our champion 760 plowing snow. An all around good machine.
champion is an old line Canadian manufacturer lately sold out to Volvo. :D


Image


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Re: Champion 760

Post #2 by Nick Drew » Wed Aug 01, 2007 10:23 pm

Nice Shot of the famous Canadian Grader!!

:thumbs_up:

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Re: Champion 760

Post #3 by rvannatta » Wed Aug 01, 2007 11:29 pm

Nick Drew wrote:Nice Shot of the famous Canadian Grader!!

:thumbs_up:


I dont know if it is famous or not famous, but its a pretty good grader. Ihave had it around for 10 years or so. The main issues I have with it is the front end. All the joints in the front axle and wheel tilt and steer are ball joint joints. The ball joints have a habit of failing. We have also had some issues
with the king pins---they broke, but we have turned new ones on our lathe out of 4140 and they seem to be stronger and last better that the factory originals.

I think this machine is pushing 30 years old now. The photo is a recent one.---taken in the last year or two swamping a little winter snow out of the way. I usually put on 1 set of chains for snow plowing as those things are 30,000 lb sleds if you dont put on some chains.

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Re: Champion 760

Post #4 by rvannatta » Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:07 am

One of the interesting features of the champion 760 is that if you are creative you can jack up any part of it on the blade.

Here you see that I jacked up the left rear corner to install a tire chain on the rear driver. The creative part comes
from the fact that putting the blade down normally picks up the front of the machine, but you can pick up either rear side as well if you know the trick....

760chains.jpg


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Re: Champion 760

Post #5 by Ross » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:02 pm

Ha ha ha Nice trick with the grader. Would save alot of time especially in the snowy conditions pictured.

Ross

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Re: Champion 760

Post #6 by rvannatta » Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:38 pm

Ross wrote:Ha ha ha Nice trick with the grader. Would save alot of time especially in the snowy conditions pictured.

Ross


Not too hard actually. Ill set the blade at about a 45 degree angle back to the side I want to lift. --- then down on both blade lift cylinders.---- that picks up the front of the grader. then I pick up the blade on one side and she just rocks over lifting a rear corner.

The ability to do this depends on the balance of the machine which likely varies with model. Champion made a series
of models at this time --- a 720, a 740 and a 760 at least. For the most part they looked identical and were of the same or similar physical size. The real difference was the gauge of the steel they were made from. The 760 was a construction model made of heavy everything. Its weight is considerably more than the more common lighter machines.

The lighter machines are often sold to local governments for maintenance work. Its doubtful if a heavy weight frame and extra thick blade are needed for scraping gravel in chuckholes, or plowing snow. Likewise they are usuallly sold on a bid basis with price uber alles etc. Cat makes a line of lightweight bid graders as well.

they probably actually work better plowing snow, because the horsepower to weight ratio is better meaning that they will go faster, and it doesnt take you long plowing snow to figure out that faster is better. If you go slowly the snow tends to pile up in front of the blade until you cant push it anymore, but as you go faster you can get the snow to scour and it will hit the blade and literally fly off to the side, and if you have the power to go still faster it will fly higher and further off the road, which greatly enhances their ability to bury mail boxes, driveways and parked cars----all important attributes of any snow removal project. :evil:


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Re: Jacking up a grader.

Post #7 by Deas Plant » Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:11 am

Hi, RVannatta.
That trick of jacking up any wheel of a grader works with most of them that dont have a rear ripper and many that do, even without using the rear ripper to jack by. I always put the blade square across the machine and it works just as well if not better.

I came across a couple of old Australin-built Goodwin graders that had foul, evil great boat anchors of Cummins donks in them which were too back-heavy to lift this way but they have been the only rear-ripperless graders I have encountered that would not do it.

Thanks for reminding me.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

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Re: Jacking up a grader.

Post #8 by rvannatta » Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:53 am

Deas Plant wrote:Hi, RVannatta.
That trick of jacking up any wheel of a grader works with most of them that dont have a rear ripper and many that do, even without using the rear ripper to jack by. I always put the blade square across the machine and it works just as well if not better.

I came across a couple of old Australin-built Goodwin graders that had foul, evil great boat anchors of Cummins donks in them which were too back-heavy to lift this way but they have been the only rear-ripperless graders I have encountered that would not do it.

Thanks for reminding me.


I have no experience with the Goodwin. I learned on an ancient Cat #12--- so old that it didnt have power steering,
so you really learned what the wheel lean was for., and then we pedaled in and imported this 760 from Canada.

Ive gotten good service out of it, though the front end isnt built very well. Everything is done on ball bushings. they are easy to change, but need changing often. Ive also broken some king pins in the steering and a steering arm or two.

The cat was pretty much indestrucible on the front end, but this one comes apart when you hit something.--- as in hit a tree or a log with a front tire---something that is fairly common in working on logging roads.

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Re: Champion 760

Post #9 by IBH » Thu Aug 30, 2007 11:24 am

The Champion names lives on as Volvo sold their line of compact graders and the Champion name back to its previous owners:
http://www.championmotorgraders.us/


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