History of Champion Motor Graders

[Graderfan1981]

Here the site with interesting pictures from older graders:
https://www.facebook.com/WhereHaveAllTheChampionGradersGone/photos_stream

 

[Graderfan1981]

The homepage from champion graders is not available anymore:
http://championmotorgraders.com
Does someone know what happend?

 

[Former Wrench]

Good Photos. I the 70's I worked for a shop that was a Champion dealer. The photos brought back memories.

 

[Matt99]

BLH lima

To plowking740-

It was way before my time as an operator, but if I remember correctly from my pile of old literature, once upon a time Champion graders were labeled Cleveland, or Cleveland- DRMCO. I think the DRMCO was short for Dominion Road Machinery. Could be wrong. Austin-Western from the same era was marketed as BLH Austin-Western. BLH for Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. I think there was a lot of this going on in the 1960's

smoothoperator...family owned since 1959

I have a blh Lima dragline and it has no serial numbers on it it weighs 210k has 80' boom and a 4 cry bucket any hope for finding the numbers for it

 

[Graderfan1981]

Here the site with interesting pictures from older graders:
https://www.facebook.com/WhereHaveAllTheChampionGradersGone/photos_******

I don't know why in the forum the word s t r e a m is not alloed, but here another link:
https://www.facebook.com/WhereHaveAllTheChampionGradersGone/photos

 

[rsherril]

I saw a 1996 JD 570B for sale nearby. New paint, looked good and the price was $44K. I believe that it was on Machinery Trader. In regards to Brian Abernathy 2013 post above, I think that he had a good idea to produce a replacement for that size of a machine with all the functions of the bigger grader. It would fit the bill for many smaller municipalities. For me the economics of 570 series are superior to bigger machines.

 

[Motor Grader]

Hey guys...I've been gone for a while. Figured its time I get back on here. Been through hell and back but thats another story for another day. I ran across this thread and thought I'd start letting people know what happened to Champion Compact Motor Graders. We did sell the C80 and C86 design to LeeBoy. They rebranded it the LBP G-700. At ConExpo I noticed they had it branded LeeBoy 695. Honestly I have no idea what they are doing! I think the LeeBoy 685 is still in production though. We (Champion) did have an agreement with LeeBoy to keep producing the grader for them. It was going pretty good but we had the rug pulled out from under us and they brought in house to build. That pretty much crushed us. I saw comments about the website...yes due to $$$ I couldn't afford to pay my marketing agency to keep it going. My Dad still builds parts (the best he can). He is a one man show now. 30 employees down to 1. Sad story. I even had to leave and find another job. Thats kinda it in a nut shell. If you or anybody you know needs parts please contact parts@championllc.us

 

[Fatgraderman]

Hey guys...I've been gone for a while. Figured its time I get back on here. Been through hell and back but thats another story for another day. I ran across this thread and thought I'd start letting people know what happened to Champion Compact Motor Graders. We did sell the C80 and C86 design to LeeBoy. They rebranded it the LBP G-700. At ConExpo I noticed they had it branded LeeBoy 695. Honestly I have no idea what they are doing! I think the LeeBoy 685 is still in production though. We (Champion) did have an agreement with LeeBoy to keep producing the grader for them. It was going pretty good but we had the rug pulled out from under us and they brought in house to build. That pretty much crushed us. I saw comments about the website...yes due to $$$ I couldn't afford to pay my marketing agency to keep it going. My Dad still builds parts (the best he can). He is a one man show now. 30 employees down to 1. Sad story. I even had to leave and find another job. Thats kinda it in a nut shell. If you or anybody you know needs parts please contact parts@championllc.us

Thanks for the update Bryan. Sad news. I never had much to do with compact graders, but I would sure like to see full size graders reappear with the Champion name. I started on a series 3 730 operated 720's to 750's in series 3's to 5's (and a Volvo G720 with the Deutz engine after that) and it's a real shame to see a good product gone. Wish you the best on your present ventures.

 

[Graderfan1981]

Yes, really sad news, but thanks for your answer what happened to Champion. I wish you all the best for the future.