I have decided I have a need for a motor grader. 80% of the usage will be soil conservation work. Mostly filling ditches, some fixing terraces, smoothing out terraces and waterways. Finish a building pad every couple of years. I figure a budget less than $25,000. What do I need to look for when evaluating a machine? What features are useful for my type of usage? It won't be doing any road work.
An old Cat 120G(which has articulation) is a good machine. They are kind of a small/medium size machine that are maneuverable in tight spots. 3304 engine and powershift trans.
Well, after looking at the asking price of older 120G machines, they seem to have held their value quite well and the ones i saw on machinery trader mostly were in the 40k USD range but i'm sure there can be better deals found
If you ask farmers, they'll say get a pull pan or scraper behind a tractor. If you already know that and still want a grader, carry on. I hear that's a common strategy in the third world for road maintenance, even see some smaller townships in WI with a tractor and pull grader blade instead of the old grader.
Base values for any grader that runs is above $35,000. If you can actually run a grade with it the price climbs incredibly fast.
Anything cheap will be worn out. You can walk a good steering machine a fair distance. Do you have a gooseneck float to move one for farther moves. The cab is pretty high for a higher trailer. I'm a Volvo Champion man myself, but a Cat or Deere might be easier to get parts for. Like John C said, if you're good enough to put it on the line, you could get a lot of work for one. These are pretty handy if you can find one. Easier to move around, great in parking lots. Renohusker likes his
Four or five years ago, my county sold three 140G graders. A 1991,1993 and 1995. They went from a low of 59,000 to the newest one brought 69,000. The head of road dept. at the time was blown away by the price they brought, but from what I heard, there were a lot of buyers right then for newer G's and H's because no one wanted the new joystick M's. I would think you could get a deere, or champion galion- far cheaper around here than the Cat. I looked a galion with engine issues a year or two ago, it was cheaper than I could buy a used track skid loader, I was wanting something to just maintain my gravel yard and driveway. I kind of gave up finding a skid loader and thought about the grader instead- just because either would work for me (I ended up not buying anything). At the time I was looking, I saw a champion and a deere that I could have bought in your price range, both in "fair" used shape, but would have easily done part time use. I don't know if the prices on graders have gone up like everything else.
The biggest thing to look for would be a strong engine and transmission or last time they were overhauled Cat make us nervous around around 15000 hrs AWD probably out of budget so get some weight no small graders for terrace work Make sure it is equipped with diff lock Take your time and find a great deal they are out there
Cat graders I believe came standard with locked differential. Differential unlock was the option. Budget money is looking for something thirty or more years old with plenty of problems to spend money on. When i worked for the dealer a county cycled out 10 of their early 12H models. Low hours and mainly for snow and lane work. We gave over fifty each and sold all for more than $100K each. All were gone within weeks of them cycling through shop for just a wash down. Some went from the county shop to the customer direct. The county equipment manager should have lost his job.
I've got the scraper special tractor and pan. It doesn't do well when all I want to do is roll a ditch shut. I do have a 50 ton lay down neck, but I shouldn't be going over 20 miles. If it won't road that far it won't work. It sounds like a $25K budget is about the bottom of what I will have to spend for something decent.
I have had at least 4 different motor graders in the past 15 years and have some advice. One short sentence…. If it ain’t a Cat it’s a dog. However, the old John Deere 570A we have has been very reliable and quite capable. It is far and away the most maneuverable and quickest of all the ones we have. You couldn’t run fast enough to give me another Fiat Allis (torque converter makes it real thirsty). Champion is probably a little better but not much. The old 570A is a fuel miser. Right now I have an insanely clean tight 1995 Cat 130G I found at a farm auction. It is a very worthy machine. Probably gonna need at least 50 for a decent blade imho.
I see the word terrace work on here a lot. It's not a term I am familiar with
Its a water control land contour. You build "terraces" so that the rain water and snowmelt doesn't wash all the good soil away. They will build up with run off soil on the top side and need reshaped/ cleaned out.
Thank you, that's my new thing learned for today
Need farms grounds as we have here, "HEL" Highly Erodible Land, Loess Soil. EVERY Farm is terraced here on the S Side of the MO River. Our place was terraced in the 1940s to make More Productive, have been reworked a time or two and need it again.
Crane operator shows what I've heard called track hoe terraces. The land is steep enough the terrace is made by pulling the bottom side up with a hoe as steeply as possible, and the slope is not farmed. Where I am the land is not as steep and the rainfall much less. The terraces are typically pushed up with a dozer by pushing a berm to the downhill side. Around here the terrace channel is cut with about a 1/2% grade. The entire terrace is farmed. The terrace will typically drain into a grassed waterway. The grass slows the water to allow the soil to drop out. Typically when new there will be 18" between the channel and the top of the berm, with slopes of 1:6. When the height gets less than 9" water tends to break over the berm.
If you have lots of work for a machine then don't cheap out or you will pay one way or another and loose out on contracts, if your serious get a good working machine in good working order that has been looked after, a shiny new paint job could be just lipstick on a pig, the seller should have good maintenance records and receipts for any parts or work done, simply buying a used machine from someone that the machine has been sitting in his back yard for 6 months to a year can be a disaster waiting to happen, 25 grand is not going to get you much these days, you may find one but you will spend another 30 grand to keep it going, so in saying that don't Rob Peter to pay Paul. good luck to you.
https://www.machinerytrader.com/listing/for-sale/210930265/1996-champion-710a-iv-motor-graders https://www.machinerytrader.com/listing/for-sale/211344421/1990-deere-770a-motor-graders https://www.machinerytrader.com/listing/for-sale/195476241/1980-deere-670a-motor-graders https://www.machinerytrader.com/listing/for-sale/190972781/1998-deere-670b-motor-graders I just put in machinery trader- 1980 to 2000 year, and under $35,000. Looks like late 80's to late 90's stuff can still be had in the price range you're talking. Still enough counties buying new graders every year that I doubt the used supply will ever totally dry up.
The Champion looks like a nice clean unit. It's a little smaller but if you don't have heavy work to do it would be pretty economical to run with a 5.9 Cummins. With Champion you tend to get a few years newer for the same money. Cat is usually quite a bit more money.
Not a lot of farming around here. Forestry and mining was always king. The western part of the province has some potato farming. Never really noticed if PEI does this to their fields or not.
Terraces here are smaller and are farmed over. Same purpose as described by crane operator.
Friend of mine has a blade he pulls with his tractor. Designed like a land leveler. Distance from tractor hitch to rear wheels is probably 25ft, maybe 30ft. With 14ft moldboard about 2/3 toward the rear. Moldboard angles, lifts, tilts just like a grader table. Pulls it with a 200HP FWA tractor. Maintains his terraces and waterways with it. It's the only one of it's kind I've saw. He probably paid $20K for it, not sure about that. He didn't want to buy duplicate HP that he already had setting in the machine shed. I don't have a pic of it, sorry.
Ok, so I took you guys advise and bought more machine than I was planning on. Not mentioned in the listing is its hydraulic assist on the steer axle. What do you think? I'll go get it later this week. Any comments or suggestions? I have a 50 ton lay down neck with a 24' well. https://www.bigiron.com/Lots/1999JohnDeere772CHMotorGrader-3
Wonder if it's standard controls or the deere pattern like Overszd runs. I just drive it on, front wheels between the first 2 axles. Should be able to tuck your MB in so you're not over width, throw a few chains on her, and a bag on the exhaust, and bob's your uncle.....
If it has all wheel drive is a bonus. Can we ask what it cost? Looks pretty clean and tight but I wouldn't trust the hour meter. If the hour meter is correct it's just broken in.
Looks like the only rust is surface on the thin door panels. It sure is a nice looking machine, and its in the state also, which is a big bonus. You should be able to just drive the steer axle up on the trailer axles and park it on the bolsters, or do you have wheel well covers? Come from a county - or you don't know? Either way- buying more machine than you need is always better than not having enough machine, it looks great.
Cost was $55,250, plus 7.% sales tax I wasn't expecting. I think the hour meter was correct. The Kansas Turnpike Authority sold it in 2010 with 1316 hours showing to the seller. The seller had it into deere for transmission work in 2017 with 2869 hours. My lowboy has wheel covers, so should have no problem parking on the tail. I bought the machine from an oil well service company. They did some terrace work and kept up lease roads. I don't have interstate license on my trucks, so being in state and being able to get it myself is a big plus. One articulation cylinder pin is hacked, and the lower articulation pin turns in the housing rather than the bushing. It could use the ball joints tightened up, but none are slap bad.
That should be a good machine for you. In 99, I believe I bought one almost exactly like that, same model I think, for a mining operation I was supervising. Last I heard, they were still using it for a backup machine. So, that grader has lasted over 20 years, most of those years, it was used daily. Jeff
Based on this pic, it's standard rack controls. The pic shows the levers to the right of the steering wheel. The outer most lever is labeled to lift the right end of the moldboard. A pic of the left side would show the outer most lever lifting the left end of the moldboard.
I believe the hour meter based on the pics.
Hopefully it comes with the Operator's Manual. JD is good about detailing normal operator maintenance to keep the machine tight. In the below pic I want to point out a "slack" issue. Look at the brackets the moldboard slides thru to get lateral movement. The top bracket shows a considerable gap. This will translate into a 1/2" or so of moldboard slack. The manual will outline how to tighten this. It's pretty simple. Remove the top bracket "cap". There are shims stacked under it. Remove shims until you get the clearance you are after. When you do the left side extend the blade fully to the right. When you do the right side extend the blade fully to the left. I remove shims until I've got a snug fit in those positions. Then there will be appropriate slack when in the center position where it's the loosest. There are brass inserts involved also. When you remove the cap you'll see whether they have any "life" left in them or not. With the top cap off you can lower the moldboard until you create slack in the bottom. This will allow you to remove the bottom insert. Look them over and replace if needed. Don't let the moldboard rails wear thru until they are rubbing on the cast brackets. You'll cause damage that's very expensive to fix. The inserts will wear more on one surface. You can swap them side to side and wear on the thicker surface if you choose.
This machine can be converted to right hand lift very easily. It moves the scarifier control to the outer left lever. Moves the left blade lift control to where the scarifier currently is, second lever in on the right side. Swap the lever handles to put both blade lift levers on the right side, stacked side by side. Pull the cover off the main frame just in front of the windshield. Trace hydraulic hoses and swap them. Make sure the restrictor plate goes with the lift function. Otherwise the left end blade lift will be extremely fast. And the Scarifier will be extremely slow. I highly suggest this conversion. Especially starting with a "new" machine. As you are getting used to the machine you'll get used to having the controls set up that way. If you run it awhile as is and then make the swap you gotta learn all over again.
Here's some reference pics for the lever conversion. This is on a D model but would have the same result. First shows left side. Second shows right side. Third shows how I run with my right hand. I control articulation and blade lift without lifting my hand.
Curious what would have caused transmission and articulation pins damage with such low hours.
Some people figure if you don't use articulation, it doesn't need to be greased, but even with the locks in, or out, there is always movement. The center pins on my grader are not serviceable, if that's what he means. I assume they are sealed. We had one fail on one of the loaders. Top was dry and worn, and the bottom was like new.
Deere had some transmission problems during that time. Hard to say what was the cause of repairs in this case. Lack of grease would be the culprit for articulation failure. I have always greased the snot out of them. But I use my articulation almost as much as I use the steering wheel.
It's an assumption on my part that he means the articulation pin, not just the articulation cylinder pin. But you know how assumptions are....
I like the looks of that lever swap. One hand on the wheel and one on the levers that you use all the time.
The C series were a good machine. They were the first Deeres to have the radiator up the back of the machine instead of behind the cab like the A and B series Deeres. I remember the transmission was all new too and they had a few teething problems with them, but once sorted out they worked fine.
The problem with the radiator move was they stacked them. Was a challenge to keep the coolers clean. I tried to stay ahead of it and blew mine out frequently. Couple times a year would power wash them. In the beginning our machine sat outside. It was worse then because rain would soak the dirt between the coolers and it would setup like cement. Later years we had a shed which helped a lot. Now Deere has separated all the coolers and added reversible fans. No more problems. I never have to clean the coolers.
I'm glad the forum is back. Its been down so long I have about 30 hours on the machine already. Here it is loaded ready for the trip home. Here is a shot of the rear (rod) pin for the right articulation cylinder. I don't know what they were thinking, but they sure made a mess. 30 tons won't budge it. Here you can see where the pin retainer for the lower articulation joint is broken . It won't take grease either. I sure want to thank ovrszed for the comment about switching the controls to one hand operation. By the time I would have figured it out on my own I would have had to much invested in muscle memory training to want to switch. Chasing ditches or terraces I am constantly turning, so one hand for steering and one for the implement makes sense.
I'm sort of a mechanical thinking guy. That pin situation stresses me. That's going to be a bitch to fix.....