The New Holland RG series is a line of motor graders — the long, articulated machines that level and shape roads and building sites. The film below shows an RG 140 at work. The sources used for this page describe the company and its construction business, not the graders themselves.
New Holland RG series at a glance
| Maker | New Holland, construction equipment division |
|---|---|
| Type | motor graders |
| Seen in the film | an RG 140 shaping a road |
| Job | levelling and shaping roads, yards and building sites |
| 1998 purchase | Orenstein & Koppel, the German construction equipment maker |
| O&K in North America | sold to Terex |
| Group | CNH Industrial, after the 1999 Case merger |
| Company founded | 1895, New Holland, Pennsylvania |
| Technical data | not given in the sources used here |
| Example filmed | a working RG 140 |
The sources describe the company and its construction business, not the RG graders; model data is left out because it is not in them.
History of the New Holland RG series
Graders among the tractors
New Holland’s catalogue reaches well beyond the farm. Alongside tractors, combines, balers and sprayers it has sold construction machinery, and the motor grader is one of the oldest machines in that trade: a long wheelbase, a blade slung under the middle of the frame and an operator who can cut, spread and finish a surface in passes. The RG series is New Holland’s line of them, sold mainly to road builders, contractors and municipal fleets.
How the construction business grew
The company’s earthmoving side grew by purchase. In 1998 New Holland bought Orenstein & Koppel, the German construction equipment manufacturer, and sold O&K’s North American operations on to Terex. The move came at the moment when the whole business was being reshaped: Fiat had bought the company in 1991, the single New Holland brand was launched in 1996, and in 1999 New Holland merged with Case to form CNH, the company now known as CNH Industrial, with its administrative headquarters in Turin.
Machines and badges
After the Case merger, New Holland and Case continued to sell tractors and excavators under their own names, and the machines differ less than the badges suggest: much of the mechanical side is shared, and the cabs and trim are developed separately. The RG graders belong to that wider family of equipment, and the film below shows an RG 140 earning its keep on a road job. The sources used here do not give its weight, blade width or engine, and this page does not invent them.
Design and features
- Motor grader: a finishing machine for roads and building sites.
- Construction division: part of New Holland’s earthmoving range rather than its farm line.
- RG numbering: the model numbers of the grader series.
- Working survivor: the RG 140 in the film is still on road work.
New Holland RG series versions
- New Holland RG 140: the grader shown in the film.
- Other RG models: the rest of the grader series.
- New Holland excavators: the crawler machines sold by the same division.
The other side of the construction range is on the New Holland D series page, and the farm tractors on the New Holland T series page. More machines are in the New Holland section.
Video: Motoniveladora New Holland RG 140.b Parte I
Video by Matheus Dellatorre on YouTube.
Sources
- New Holland Agriculture, English Wikipedia: Orenstein & Koppel purchase, headquarters
- New Holland, Dutch Wikipedia: O&K deal, shared engineering with Case and Steyr
