The motor grader—also called a road grader, grader, or blade—is a road-building marvel.With it, you can build dirt roads from scratch, prepare a smooth-as-silk final grade before the pavers come in, and cut ditches and embankments.

It doesn't stop there. A grader is also great for maintaining roads, mixing materials, handling rough grading behind trucks and scrapers, and finishing grading to incredibly tight tolerances around curbs and manholes.

Plus, graders can plow snow, create and maintain mining haul roads, and form drainage ditches and terraces on farms.These machines are an essential part of the Dirt World's equipment fleet.They range in size from small maintenance-type units of less than 100 horsepower to mining behemoths that have 535 horsepower, weigh more than 161,000 pounds, and have 24-foot-long blades.Manufacturers include Case, Caterpillar, John Deere, Komatsu, LeeBoy, Rhino, Sany, and XCMG.