Road Maintenance Operators Give Cat® Stable Blade Their Highest Grade

Troy Schroeder is blunt about what used to frustrate him on the job. “Life before Stable Blade was a headache.”  Schroeder is a motor grader operator for the McPherson County, Kansas Public Works Department.  He says road maintenance work inevitably meant rework as soon as something on the road would cause his machine to bounce. “You’ve got damage behind you on the road. You’ve got washboards. You’ve got wasted material. You’ve got more work that you have to backup and fix,” says Schroeder.

You can find Stable Blade technology only on Cat^® motor graders. It’s a first-of-its kind, anti-balance system specifically designed for a motor grader and patented by Caterpillar. “Stable Blade is the biggest technological breakthrough since Caterpillar put joystick controls on a motor grader,” says Caterpillar Motor Grader Expert Wade Porter.

Stable Blade uses an on-board sensor to detect when a bounce is about to happen. Once the sensor detects the bounce, the machine speed is automatically controlled. “There’s no operator intervention required,” says Porter. “The operator can simply sit back, relax and worry about moving material. Stable Blade works in conjunction with the standard electronic throttle control feature that comes on every Cat motor grader.”

Luke Wanninger, an operator from Sumner County, Kansas, says Stable Blade has improved the quality of his ride and his roads. “You set your cruise, you go down the road and if (Stable Blade) senses any sort of bumps or anything, it’ll slow you down,” says Wanninger. “It’s the best feature I’ve noticed in Cat graders right now.”

David Reeves of Franklin County, Kansas also sees how Stable Blade eliminates the need for costly rework.  “You don’t get any of that washboard effect out of it,” says Reeves. “You’re not going forward and backward cleaning it up.”

With that kind of improved productivity and fuel burn savings of up to 14%, Troy Schroeder says Stable Blade is saving money for taxpayers.  “If you look at the amount of work done compared to fuel burned, you’re way ahead - no doubt about it.”

Stable Blade is the better way to run a motor grader.  And there’s no doubt about that.