I'm considering a fg85. Don't know anything about them. Are they any good? Have enough power and weight to do anything? Anything good or bad I'd like to hear it.
What have you got planed? Im sure it will be right for small tight jobs.
I want it for heavy grading. I have a couple small graders. This grader is supposed to weigh 31000lbs and have 160 horsepower. It is articulated with a heavy ripper on back. I would think by looking that it should be able to be fairly aggresive.
I would just find out first who will support that grader after you buy it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that model to no longer be in production. Spare parts, technical support my low while spare parts price high.
Will know soon..... I don't know a thing about the FG85 B but I just bought one and am getting ready to have it shipped up here to Alaska. I should know more in a few weeks. It looks like a pretty nice machine from what I can tell. I know it has a cummins engine. The gear box is probably made by Clark or someone like them. The finals are probably a standard brand. I understand they were bought by Hitachi. I doubt it will compare to Cat but I don't have enough blade work to justify spending 120,000 bucks for a 12000 hr 143h. This one has 3800'hrs and cost me less than 30000. I will be happy to post my thoughts when I put it to the test. If it suck you can bet I will let everyone know.
The older Fiat Allis graders were widely used in Texas by county governments, as were Galion graders. When the name changed to New Holland, there were lots of problems with bearings and leaking seals on the rear tandems on the models made in Brazil. It was so bad, our local dealer discontinued selling them. Some BS about the bearings were manufactured tight but would heat up when place in service and seat themselves. Not to mention the heat would take out the seals. It was a real mess for a nearby county that bought several. But the old Fiat Allis machines were reasonably good for the money. We're still running our M100 on occasion.