Motor Grader Financing

Finish grade comes from the grader. Rough grade might come from a dozer or a scraper, but the precise slope, crown, and surface that a road base or subdivision street needs before paving comes from a motor grader's moldboard. For contractors who do road work, subdivision site preparation, county maintenance, or commercial parking lot prep, a motor grader is not optional equipment. Financing one through our program is as direct as the machine's function: application-only up to approximately $400,000, same-day quotes, and funding in about two weeks on clean transactions. We handle graders from every major manufacturer and from every seller type.

Motor graders are commonly used by road and highway contractors, grading and earthwork contractors, and county and municipal road departments. The financing program covers all of these buyer profiles.

Motor Grader Classes and Resale Values

Motor graders are typically categorized by horsepower and blade width. The most common classes in the contracting market:

Small graders (100-145 hp): Used for subdivision streets, light road maintenance, and utility site work. Caterpillar 120, John Deere 670, and Komatsu GD555 are representative models. New prices run roughly $250,000 to $350,000.
Mid-size graders (150-200 hp): Primary county road work, highway maintenance, and production road building applications. The Caterpillar 140 and Komatsu GD655 sit in this class. New range is approximately $300,000 to $500,000.
Large graders (225 hp and above): Mining access roads, major highway construction, and high-production site work. Caterpillar 160 and equivalent large machines run $500,000 to $700,000+ new.

Used motor graders from the small and mid classes are actively traded. Machines from Caterpillar and Komatsu have the strongest resale markets. John Deere and Volvo also trade consistently. Secondary market depth supports favorable loan-to-value treatment for clean machines from these manufacturers.

Tandems, the dual rear-axle configuration, are the standard on most production graders. Single rear-axle models are sometimes found on older used machines. Tandem configuration is generally preferred by lenders because it has the broadest buyer pool.

Motor Grader Financing from Application to Funding

Motor graders in the small and mid-class ranges typically fall in the $100,000 to $400,000 transaction range for used machines in good condition. Most of these deals qualify for application-only financing without requiring full financial statements. The application takes about ten minutes, and we have a credit decision back in 24 to 48 hours on most files.

What we collect:

Business credit application with owner information
Machine details: make, model, year, serial number, hours
Seller information and purchase price
Three months of bank statements for deals above $200,000 or for credit profiles that need additional support

Once approved, we prepare loan documents, coordinate with the seller on title and any payoff information, and wire funds at close. The full timeline from completed application to funded deal runs 7 to 14 business days for most motor grader transactions.

Structures available include fixed-rate equipment loans and equipment leases. For operators who purchase a new grader and want to capture the full Section 179 deduction in the year of purchase, we can structure the deal around that goal. For operators who already own a motor grader with equity, a cash-out refinance or sale-leaseback can convert that equity to working capital.

Who Finances Motor Graders Through Our Program

Motor grader buyers in our program are typically experienced contractors with established businesses. The common profiles:

Road and highway contractors who run graders as primary production equipment on highway and county road projects. These are often the most financially sophisticated buyers in our program, with established equipment finance relationships.
Subdivision site developers who finish street grades before paving. A single grader may be the most-used machine on a multi-lot subdivision project.
Contractors working county road maintenance contracts in rural areas, where a grader is the primary tool for gravel road crown maintenance and drainage management.
Sand and gravel producers who grade haul roads, plant site roadways, and material stockpile areas at aggregate operations. Our aggregate and quarry operators page covers this buyer segment.

Finance Your Motor Grader

We quote grader deals the same day and fund in two weeks for most transactions. Tell us the machine and the price. New, used, dealer, auction, or private party, we handle the full spectrum of motor grader financing.

Related Paths

Other machine and capital paths worth comparing.

Q&A

Questions operators ask.

Practical answers before you send a full file.

Can I finance a motor grader with GPS grade control included in the purchase?

Yes. GPS and machine control systems that are factory-installed or dealer-installed as part of the sale are fully includable in the financing package. These systems add real value to the machine and are recognized in the appraised value. Factory-integrated systems (like Cat Grade Control or Komatsu intelligent Machine Control) are cleaner to document than aftermarket installations.

My grader is under a county maintenance contract. Does that help my financing application?

Absolutely. A signed public contract with a government entity is strong supporting documentation for a financing application. It demonstrates committed future revenue that directly supports the machine payment. Send us the contract or at least a copy of the award letter when you apply, and we will include it in the context we provide to lenders.

Can I refinance a motor grader I bought with cash last year?

Yes. Refinancing a recently purchased machine you own outright is essentially a cash-out loan secured by the grader. We evaluate the machine's current market value and your credit profile to determine how much you can borrow against it. This is a clean transaction as long as the title is in your name and there are no existing liens.

How old is too old for a motor grader to be financed?

There is no absolute age cutoff, but machines older than 15 years typically need to be in exceptional condition with documented recent major service to finance cleanly. The term shortens considerably and a down payment is often required on older machines. The key is condition and market value: a 15-year-old grader worth $80,000 in the market can still be financed, the question is at what term and what down payment.

I want to add a motor grader to my fleet alongside my existing excavators. Is there a fleet deal available?

Fleet financing is a separate program that works well when you are adding multiple machines at once. If you are buying the grader as a standalone addition, it goes through our standard program. If you are buying two or more machines simultaneously, we can present that as a fleet deal to lenders who offer better terms on combined collateral packages. See our fleet financing page for details on that structure.

Quote Desk

Put the machine, seller, and timeline in front of us.

Send the excavator class, purchase price, hours, seller type, and how soon the unit needs to be on the job. We respond with a practical structure instead of a generic rate sheet.