Hi, The company I work for is currently looking in modernizing the fleet of heavy equipment we use for some road maintenance contracts we have. Currently we have 2 1998 14h's (about 25 000h each) we want to replace. These graders probably have 20 000h of construction, the other 5 000 are on road maintenance. The options we have are the following; 1- JD 870G 2- Volvo G970 3- Cat 160M2 The most interesting options are JD and Volvo, price wise.The last JD we purchased, 772g (2002), we had alot of problems, overheating, fan pulley drive-shaft, etc. The optional equipment we will be using are windrow eliminators and side wings, so the graders have to be able to use these equipment's. We have 2 Volvo G990's (2008)in our fleet, with no major breakdowns or problems, but we feel that they are overkill, too big for the job we have to do. We also have 2 14m's (2009) which run great, but again is simply too big for the work we do. On a yearly basis, the machine are operated on average 1600h a year, and work in harsh winter conditions, northern Quebec (-45 c), and easily (35 c) of dusty gravel roads in the summer. Each grader has about 100-120 km of road we have to maintain weekly, grade summer/comb winter. Graders are usually store indoors overnight during the winter. Due to our past experience with JD graders, we are hesitant to go back in that direction, but I believe that JD has improved their graders. Does anybody have any constructive comments or experiences that could help us out in our decision. Thanks in advance.
just a thought, my local county road department had certified rebuilds done on some of there 140h's, this was after buying gen 1 140m's and having problems with them, and then they bought a couple volvo's not sure on the size, the volvo's seem to be replacing the cat graders in oregon and washington state road departments....theironoracle
For years the county that I have worked for has used 14's from the original model debut, right on thru to the M's. We love the 14's. Their cutting power alone almost makes them worthwhile, and is a very noticeable difference from those smaller class machines like the Cat 160 and Deere 870's. But we have found that the 14's weight and mass which seems to make up their overall benefits, is also their main downside in a road maintaining situation. The last few years we have tried out some smaller all wheel drive machines. The Deere 872 and cat 160M AWD are great machines. Their dimensions are much more smaller and manageable than a 14, which makes them a joy to work with on narrow county roads, plus to maneuver with. The difference is like a compact car compared to a fullsize pick-up with the 14's when at a dead end or driveway! They also have the power to keep up during snow removal, but we have found sometimes we miss the mass of the 14 when busting through drifts in the winter. The AWD is also a great one, you can pull yourself through some tricky spots, and even do some serious grading that can make you keep up with a 14, in particular slope work. In some situations though... The county has actually decided to eventually replace their 14's with 160's eventually, minus a couple that work building roads earth moving. It seems that the local Cat dealer can still provide the best deal for us though, hence the overall decision for 160's over the others, including Deere. Best of luck with whatever way you go, just my two cents. Take care.
From an experienced operator, go with the Cat M Series my friend. With the xtra pull of AWD, you have great performance and up near a 14M which I run in heavy and difficult materials at the moment anyway!
Thanks for the help guys. Due to the uncertainty of the JD graders and the trade in ($$) Cat is giving us for the 14h's, we are pretty sure that we will be replacing them with 160m's. We did not look into the AWD options since we do not think it will be useful and eliminate the possibility of the system breaking down and raising our maintenance costs. While reviewing the specs, we found that all graders had basically the same weight and HP, but overall the trade in value won us over. Cat's keep their value.