Grader Question

Panache · Jan 27, 2005

I am looking at getting a small motorgrader. Why would they need/want to articulate in the middle side to side? Several I have seen are designed to do this.

rdln · Jan 27, 2005

I'll guess......tighter turning radius?

jlazaro317 · Jan 27, 2005

Exactly....tighter turning radius. Nice for working in cul-de-sacs and tight turns.

Taylortractornut · Jan 27, 2005

one reason graders articulate is a tighterturning radius and another its to help counter the load the blade gets when ditching,windrowing and other functions.Most of the time we used the articulation is when we werer widening or windrowing a dirt or gravel road. THe grader tends to push awayfrom the angle of the moldboard and even with the wheels tilted it can be hard to overcome so you articulate the tail opposite of the blade to make the drive wheels closer to parrallel with the moldboard.

Tigerotor77W · Jan 27, 2005

Yeah, main reason is for a tighter turning radius. With a machine that is that long, using only two wheels to turn is a chore... so articulation helps that.| And yes, articulation does improve blade controllability as well. Think of it as pushing the blade into the cut, not just sliding it around a cut.

(Uh, yeah, what everyone's already said... whoops!)