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John Deere’s first motor grader

by Keith Haddock

With the recent announcement of John Deere’s new G-series motor graders which offer users a choice of console-mounted industry standard controls or armrest-mounted fingertip controls, it’s time to look back at John Deere’s first motor grader launched over 40 years ago. Making big news in 1967, the revolutionary JD570 featured not only front wheel steering but also frame articulation, a first in the industry. Contractors soon found frame articulation to be a great advantage when working in confined areas, landscaping or ditch forming.

The JD570’s articulated frame combined with regular steering reduced the turning radius, and allowed the operator to “crab steer” the grader into new operating configurations. Articulation allowed him to put the front wheels over a windrow, on a slope or down in a ditch, and still keep the rear driving wheels on solid footing. The articulated frame concept became the standard of the industry as other manufacturers gradually developed similar designs. Now, with the exception of today’s compact utility machine makers, all grader manufacturers offer articulated frame machines in their line.

That early grader featured a 12-foot standard blade, an operating weight of 20,278 pounds when equipped with cab and scarifier, and an 83-flywheel-horsepower John Deere diesel engine. Its full power-shift transmission provided eight speeds forward up to 21 m.p.h. and four reverse speeds. The machine also featured all-hydraulic blade movements including a horizontal side shift of six feet outside the wheels and blade positioning up to 90 degrees left or right for bank cutting capability. The all-hydraulic controls were also a breakthrough in logical response since they were arranged to work according to the operator’s natural response. For instance, the 360-degree circle rotation was achieved by twisting a T-bar, and blade side shift was achieved by moving this T-bar right or left.

Although not meant to be a big high-production grader, the JD570 boasted all the blade movements of its bigger brothers, making its small size ideally suited to housing developments, industrial construction and the many finishing jobs often necessary after the big machines moved on. It found a niche market before today’s compact graders became available.

Deere added more sophisticated and larger graders to its product line, but the small JD570 was so successful it remained unaltered until 1972, and then only slightly modified to the JD570A. This model, with a bit more power and weight, enjoyed an even longer production run until 1986 when the improved 90-flywheel-horsepower JD570B took over.

Keith Haddock’s fully-comprehensive book “The Earthmover Encyclopedia” covers the history and development of every type of earthmoving machine. The soft bound book has 320 pages with over 900 black & white photographs. To order, send cheque for $42.95 to: Park Communications, 505 Hegler Crescent, Edmonton, AB, T6R 1T3. Or call 780-434-2840 for more information.

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