After a grueling hospital stay requiring two mid-level surgeries, our old M100-B Allis Chalmers grader, Serial No. 815, returned to service Friday, her involute curve Roll-Away Moldboard throwing a windrow in the piney woods like a CAT twice her size. For more on the Roll-Away moldboard used by Allis Chalmers graders, later by New Holland, and now hopefully continued by CASE in a grand tradition, see 'Smooth Material Flows Boosts Efficiency": http://neffequipmentrentsclient.neffrental.com/equipspecpdfs/S06109/Motor Grader Series Brochure.pdf I'm not sure and don't have a CAT nearby to compare with, but I have a suspicion the patent on the Roll-Away design expired some time ago and you-know-who picked up on it, finally getting the blade action they must have always dreamed of. Thirty minutes in, and this old gal is doing pretty well without a single missed lick despite advancing congestive heart failure, it crossed my mind that if one could buy one of these same machines new today, what would it cost? The M100B back in the day: http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...OBUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qZADAAAAIBAJ&pg=3692,5639013
Found this the other day. Cheers, Greg
OMG! Someone actually replied to my M100 thread. They were quite the machine back then. But I figure part of what got 'em was the number of grease fittings all over God's half acre, and an exposed PTO shaft running from the rear of the engine to the control box. I'll wager that more than one poor sap got caught up in that whirling tasmannian devil. What's really cool is the way the clutch and brake pedals and shift levers are made to be operated while standing up, which is how I run ours. One can see in the picture show the pedals are made to be pushed straight down while the operator is on his feet. It's great backing up long distance because you can turn your whole body sideways instead of breaking your neck. And, of course, the patented involuted Roll Away Moldboard just simply outclassed anything else on the market. I've never seen anything roll dirt like it does, with the exception of a well made agricultural moldboard plow. Appreciate the pic, Greg. That's one to keep around for the desktop. Thanks.
Yeah, I miss being able to run a grader that way ,even though some people frown at the practice. In terms of power to the ground, our old M100B could probably mix it with the 12G we have now. When it comes to the transmission and blade response............. well that's a different story. Cheers, Greg