I got to spend the weekend on a case 865 and was pretty impressed with it. I have spent a good bit of time on graders (mostly cat) but never a case and have not heard good things about them. I really liked the shifter on it as you could bump it with your elbow to shift up or down without taking your hands off the controls. The only thing I wasnt too fond of was that was that it articulates in front of the cab instead of behind it but I guess you could get used to that. Heres some pics, at the end is the finished product. Me and my brother got the job done in 5 hours with the grader, a loader and a forklift.
A neighboring township used to have a Case, not sure of the number, they now have a Deere. I never got a chance to run it. They complained a lot about it. Did it seem weird to be sitting on the rear half?? I always thought that would be strange??
Yeah that was the only part I didnt like, when you try to grade around a really tight corner it made it alot harder to keep the rear tires off of the inside windrow. The other problem I found is when your making a finish pass and trying to keep the leading side of the blade just skimming the ground. When you articulate the view from the cab changes and you can lose sight of of the the edge of the blade behind the door pillar and you then have to look around it. But other than the articulation I actually liked it at didnt have any other complaints with it.
I never thought about the blade visibility. That would be an issue. I use articulation all the time. I maintain roads with the machine slightly articulated and always use it grading around a curve. I can see where the blade visibility would be a big problem.
Exactly, with the articulation behind the cab the view of the blade never changes as you turn, on the case it does. One more thing I noticed is that when the circle is swung out to the side like in the fourth picture it is possible to articulate the cab into the blade. If that happens you were probably doing somthing you shouldnt have been anyways but it is possible.
Good to hear that some one else uses articulation when grading, I maintain alot of gravel roads in our municipality and use it to different degrees extensively. About the only time I have the grader straight is my initial cut. I find that articulating the machine, more than slightly, opens up the veiw of the blade for better visibility, and it is very good for developing a good accurate crown when recutting and reshaping a road. Cheers, Mick.
Mick, My Deere uses one hand controls for blade lift, both levers are side by side and are held in the palm of my right hand. My right thumb rests on the articulation lever. It's a toss up which of those levers get used the most. I'm on the articulation all the time. As you said you can improve blade visibility dramatically as well as improving the efficiency of the grader. Also when I'm backing the machine I normally leave my front tires straight and steer with articulation. It would take some time to get used to the pivot point being in a different place!!! I hadn't thought about hitting the cab with the blade!!!! That's definitely a problem. I use my table in banking mode a lot. I have to pay very close attention to keep from getting the blade into the cab ladders. That would be nothing compared to knocking out a door glass!!!
In 2015 Case present new Grader-Models (C-Versions), they look like the european New Holland Graders: http://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/the-digger-blog/view/case-to-launch-grader-at-intermat
One of my loudest complaints about Case is their interpretation of the "articulating concept" in their line of equipment and it seemed like they took a long time to correct it.I am pretty sure that their new stuff has now caught up with the rest of the world.I have argued the point with other operators and the most of the Case diehards in my experiences have been raised on them and have never run anything else it seems.Hough was the first loader on the market with that feature and they stayed with it for a long time to therwise they are both robust machines in most other respects. Their loaders negate any advantage of being articulated by letting the tail end wag around while the operator sits on the front and being startled as his peripheral vision catches the rear end of the machine out of the corner of his eye as you make a sharp turn thinking that something is moving there that should not be there and you never get used to it and I have run them for years. With the conventional articulated loader you can load from a stockpile in a "V" motion with excellent efficiency but with the Case you have to cover at least twice as much ground travel or more to get the same job done.They are really no better than the old straight frame loaders from the last generation which articulation was supposed to improve upon and I have run both,a lot. I have run their grader some,maybe at an open house for heavy equipment and was not impressed,mostly because of that Case articulation corporate posture. I worked for a company for several years that had an old Huber Maintainer grader and I have prepared miles of streets and parking lots for paving and it was set up with the blade controls side by side on your right hand and I liked it and got used to it like that,enough to request it when I could on other machines that I have run,the last being a John Deere 570B.John Deere makes a kit to change their graders to right hand control,just changing the hoses around will work but you lose the float function on the left end of the moldboard without their changeover kit.Ron G
Wow! I have run Cat,Champion,and Volvo and would never have guessed that someone would would make the articulation that way! Glad I came across this as I was starting to look at Case for a grader for upcoming season ( I guess the test drive would have told me this but now I can save on research time). When did Case switch their loaders over to the "normal" articulation point? Thanks!
I think that some of the Case line is now made off shore and probably has been for awhile now.I hauled out from under a Case loader a few years ago and I thought that is was conventional articulation but I may be wrong there,my memory is not what it should be since I got sick.I ran a newer Case dozer about 10 years ago and it had the look and feel of an overseas heritage.I ran a Case excavator and it was a Sumitomo and very nice machine as any of the Sumitomos were that I have ever used....Link-Belt etc. Ron G
I think Case has been articulating ahead of the cab for a while now. A company close to my home runs a lot of old stuff, like back in the 70s. They bought a Case loader that looks like it's in the 90s with front articulation. We have a 2012 loader, and it is a New Holland through and through. Right down to the rattle in the fan. Actually, I am pretty sure that New Holland graders articulate ahead of the cab, and so do the compact champions, below the 110.
The german Faun-Frisch graders has the frame articulation in the 90 years yet.
Case / New Holland has takeover graders from two firms, the ones from Fiat-Allis, they had a frame articulation too. And the tookover the german O&K Graders.
Here the video from the new C-Series for Europe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA1TL-KdLCU
Here a report video from a 865B Grader from Case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdlOi8ppgHY&list=PL3i-oof3SnJOW74N8MXlQNztIwgO_Ghkp
Question, does anyone know where the case 865b grader engine diagnostic connector is located? Thank you.
This is a pretty old thread. You should start a new one in the Grader section, it might get more attention