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Application Tips: Motor graders

June 12, 2007 |

Since you’ll probably hang onto a motor grader for 10 to 15 years, get a good handle on the average size of your jobs and how much dirt you’ll be moving before making a purchase.

If your projects are usually along the lines of one-acre parking lots, a small, 80- to 150-horsepower grader will work, says Mark Bolick, service manager for LeeBoy. Driveways, landscaping and road maintenance are also good applications for small motor graders. And if your work primarily involves these types of jobs, a small grader will give you the added advantages of better maneuverability and easier transport compared to a larger machine, says Bryan Abernathy, vice president of sales and marketing, Champion Motor Graders.

You also need to take ground conditions in your area into account before purchasing, says Gary Atkinson, product manager, motor graders, Volvo Construction Equipment. Some situations require extreme blade down pressure while others benefit from lower ground-bearing pressure. As a result, ground conditions affect the selection of the machine itself, attachments, tire sizes and type, as well as optional accessories. “For instance, extremely rocky conditions may dictate the use of a heavier machine,” Atkinson says. And high-impact loads can take an early toll on pins, bearings and basic structures, making options such as blade lift and side shift accumulators wise investments.

Maurice Nesbitt, John Deere’s motor grader product consultant for North America, says six-wheel-drive graders, which have been around for 25 years, are a well-kept secret. “Most contractors assume because they’ve always had tandem-drive graders, that’s all they need,” he says. While a six-wheel-drive motor grader costs about 15 percent more than a tandem-drive unit, Nesbitt says it can increase productivity up to 30 percent.

He says many contractors think they would only need six-wheel drive in mud or snow, but the extra drive wheels can boost productivity in all applications – from site development to fine grading. In the past, one complaint about six-wheel-drive graders was that a lot of front-end horsepower was wasted due to inefficient drive axles. But Nesbitt says the efficiency of the front-wheel drive has been greatly improved in recent years and that’s not the case anymore.

Aging operators
Because a motor grader is a complex machine to operate, this task usually falls to the most experienced person on a job. Abernathy says he sees a lot of company owners still serving as the grader operator.

With few experienced motor grader operators left, more construction companies are using laser and GPS systems because they make precise operation easier for younger operators. Bolick says 8 or 9 percent of contractors are using GPS systems on their motor graders, compared to less than 1 percent a few years ago. Another reason for using automatic grade control systems is the tight tolerances engineers are putting in jobs today.

As a result of the lack of skilled operators, Nesbitt says contractors are relegating graders to finish work, using dozers instead for rough work. Consequently, there are fewer training opportunities for new operators. “It’s a circular problem,” Nesbitt says.