-Agent-, Champion is one of the oldest names in motor graders. They actually built horse drawn pull type graders back in 1886 followed bu the first hydraulically powered grader in 1936. Check out http://www.championantiquegraderclub.ca for more information about where Champion started. In 1997, Volvo Construction Equipment bought the Champion Motor Grader line which consisted of a factory in Goderich, Ontario that built the large 700 Series as shown in your pic and a factory in Charlotte, NC that built smaller compact size graders. In 2004 Volvo divested the compact grader line and my Dad bought the company and the Champion trademark. My and my Dad's roots run a little deeper than just 2004 and you can get the whole story at www.championmotorgraders.us. We still build Champion graders today that range from 13,000 lbs to 24,000 lbs.
The 700 Series Graders built in Goderich, Ontario would be rebranded Volvo in 2000 and model numbers changed to the G900 Series. The G900 Series graders are going through some major changes as far as production. They have shut down the factory in Canada and a new addition in an existing Volvo plant in Penn. is in process where the plan is to move production. In the intrim production is being covered from an existing plant in Brazil.
I've given you a very small look into the history of the Champion graders. Its a long and exciting history at least for us grader lovers anyway! If you are looking for more information on larger graders over 24,000 lbs then go to www.volvoce.com and if something smaller is what you need try www.championmotorgraders.us for a complete line up of compact and production class graders. I hope this helps!
yes the champion are good graders on the snow plowing. buddy barry has a 1983 740 champion with a 6-71 detroit and we can plow snow with that machine. the highways department has the brand new volvos which are always broken due to computer problems. so the non computer 740 has been filling in. we start plowing and when it gets close to 12 hours plowing that is when we are looking for the fuel truck. i just did 31 hours straight last week and right on the 12 hours mark since i left the shop, buddy barry was there to fuel me up at 2 am in the morning.
these are great machine and easy to fix, we deal with jade in edmonton which is 1800kms away for parts because these guys get the right parts the first time around.
thansk
KoO
Published Author
Hi KoO..you guys should rig up a front plow for the grader. Sooo much better for plowing..
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Hi Grader4me
So I want to know the advantages of a front blade?
With a one way plow on a grader you can push the snow alot easier, especially the big storms. Much easier to push back turning places and snow banks. I find that you can go a couple of gears faster when plowing with a front plow, compared to using the moldboard. Now the moldboard also has its advantages over the front plow...cutting hard packed snow is one example.
I have an old state Hwy blade, it is 11' and is designed to angle only to the right but it will swing even to the left.
Is this a one way plow or a reversible plow? Picture would be nice.
So I've been trying to figure out,
1) should I set it up to angle?
2) angle with hyd cylinder or pin?
3) put/make sometype of end plate to be able to make a bucket pusher out of it.
4) put skid wheels on it for when plowing gravel roads.
Depends on what type of plow that you have.
Any recomedations will be great.
Paul
Simple and straight forward. Not very plush but will go forever and is easy and economical to repair when needed. It's a components machine. Champion didn't build any parts themselves save for the frame and cab.
Not sure I follow this statement about Champion not building any parts themselves. Sorry if I misunderstood but basically the entire grader was built for decades in Goderich, Ontario with very little out sourcing. The 8400 transmission was built by Champion also. I spent a great deal of time in the factory from 1993 until they had the auction to shut it down last month.
Engines were Detroit or Cummins and I'm sure others were used. They used Clark transmissions and rear ends for a time and the hydraulic system I forget the name. I will admit I'm not that familiar with newer ones so maybe by the end they were building more of their own parts. Nowadays its really only Cat Deere, Komatsu, and Volvo etc who don't use a lot of off the shelf components. How was it working for Champion? I always heard it was a good family run business atmosphere.