{"id":1144,"date":"2026-06-25T05:34:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/?p=1144"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:34:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:34:57","slug":"wheel-drive-planetary-gearbox-for-road-reclaimers-and-graders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wheel-drive-planetary-gearbox-for-road-reclaimers-and-graders\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheel Drive Planetary Gearbox for Road Reclaimers and Graders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Wheel<\/p>\n
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Korea Ever-Power \u00b7 Application Engineering \u00b7 Road Reclaimers and Graders<\/p>\n

Wheel Drive Planetary Gearbox for Road Reclaimers and Graders<\/h1>\n

A reclaimer pulverises 300 mm of asphalt at 3 km\/h. A grader shapes the recycled material to \u00b15 mm over 100 metres at 5 km\/h. Both depend on wheel drive speed accuracy \u2014 the reclaimer for cutting depth, the grader for blade-to-GPS response. Every millimetre of road surface tolerance originates from the wheel drive speed stability.<\/p>\n

Browse Wheel Drive Planetary Gearboxes \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Two Machines, One Road \u2014 How Reclaimers and Graders Use Wheel Drives Differently<\/h2>\n

Road reclaimers and motor graders are different machines that often work on the same project \u2014 the reclaimer pulverises the existing road surface, and the grader reshapes the recycled material into the new road profile. Both use wheel drive planetary gearboxes<\/a>, but with fundamentally different speed, torque, and precision requirements.<\/p>\n

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Road Reclaimer \/ Soil Stabiliser<\/div>\n

Self-propelled machine (20 to 35 tonnes) with a cutting rotor that pulverises asphalt, concrete, or stabilised soil to a depth of 150 to 500 mm. The rotor consumes 300 to 600 HP \u2014 60 to 80% of engine power. Working speed: 2 to 8 km\/h. The ground speed controls the cutting depth and the particle size of the recycled material: too fast produces coarse, poorly graded output; too slow produces over-processed fines that weaken the base. Speed accuracy: \u00b13 to 5% for consistent recycling quality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Motor Grader<\/div>\n

Six-wheel articulated machine (14 to 25 tonnes) with a 3.7 to 7.3-metre blade (moldboard) mounted between the front and rear axles. The blade shapes, levels, and finishes the road surface. Working speed: 3 to 8 km\/h for rough grading, 5 to 12 km\/h for finish grading. GPS or laser-guided blade control adjusts the blade position 10 to 20 times per second based on the real-time grade signal \u2014 and the effectiveness of this adjustment depends on the ground speed being constant and predictable. Speed accuracy: \u00b11 to 2% for GPS-grade finish quality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The motor grader has a unique wheel drive configuration: the rear axle is a tandem arrangement with four wheels (two per side) driven through a single planetary gearbox per side, and the front axle has two steered wheels that may or may not be driven. The tandem rear arrangement distributes the machine weight across four contact patches \u2014 reducing the ground pressure on the freshly graded surface and providing traction on loose material where a single-wheel arrangement would spin.<\/p>\n

The reclaimer wheel drive faces a challenge similar to the forage harvester: the cutting rotor consumes most of the engine power, leaving limited power for propulsion. On a 500 HP reclaimer cutting 300 mm of hard asphalt, the rotor may consume 400 HP \u2014 leaving only 100 HP for the wheel drives to push 30 tonnes through the cutting resistance at 3 km\/h. The wheel drive efficiency (ratio of traction power at the wheels to hydraulic power at the motor) directly determines whether the machine maintains the target speed or bogs against the cutting reaction force.<\/p>\n

The motor grader tandem rear axle introduces a torque-distribution challenge unique to this machine type. The tandem drive transfers torque to four rear wheels through a chain-drive or gear-drive transfer case that connects the upper and lower wheels on each side. The planetary gearbox drives the tandem input shaft \u2014 and the transfer case distributes the torque approximately equally between the upper and lower wheels. If the transfer case chain stretches or the gear mesh wears, the torque distribution becomes unequal \u2014 the wheel with more torque pushes harder and the wheel with less torque contributes less traction. On a freshly graded surface, unequal torque can leave different tyre marks from the upper and lower wheels \u2014 visible as parallel scuff lines in the finished surface that the grader was supposed to smooth.<\/p>\n

The grader front-wheel-drive option adds traction on loose surfaces \u2014 pulling the front axle through material that the rear tandem cannot push through alone. When engaged, the front wheel drive adds 30 to 50% additional traction \u2014 but also adds steering resistance (because the driven front wheels resist turning) and changes the machine handling characteristics. The operator must adjust the driving technique when front-wheel drive is engaged \u2014 and the wheel drive must provide smooth, progressive torque engagement without a sudden traction surge that could jerk the blade out of the GPS-controlled position.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

\"Wheel<\/p>\n

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GPS-Grade Precision \u2014 How Wheel Drive Speed Stability Determines Road Surface Quality<\/h2>\n
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Modern motor graders use GPS or laser-guided blade control that adjusts the blade elevation and cross-slope 10 to 20 times per second. The control system calculates the required blade position based on the design surface model and the current machine position \u2014 and moves the blade hydraulic cylinders to match. The blade adjustment speed (how fast the blade can move to the correct position) is finite: typically 10 to 50 mm per second for fine grading. If the machine drives faster than the blade can adjust, the surface finish degrades \u2014 the blade cannot follow the design profile accurately because it is always catching up to the speed-of-travel-induced position changes.<\/p>\n

O wheel drive planetary gearbox<\/a> must deliver constant speed to match the blade adjustment capability. If the ground speed varies by \u00b15% (from gear mesh cogging, traction variation, or hydraulic pressure fluctuation), the blade control system receives a continuously changing speed input \u2014 and must adjust the blade position to compensate for the speed variation in addition to the surface design changes. This speed-compensation demand consumes blade-adjustment bandwidth that should be available for surface-accuracy corrections \u2014 reducing the achievable surface tolerance from \u00b13 mm (at constant speed) to \u00b18 to 12 mm (at \u00b15% speed variation).<\/p>\n

The economic value of this precision is substantial. A road surface finished to \u00b13 mm tolerance passes the International Roughness Index (IRI) specification for highway pavement without correction. A surface finished to \u00b110 mm requires milling and overlay \u2014 adding USD 2 to 5 per square metre of corrective work. On a 1 km x 7 m lane (7,000 m2), the cost difference between \u00b13 mm and \u00b110 mm surface tolerance is USD 14,000 to 35,000 \u2014 directly attributable to the wheel drive speed stability that the grader blade control depends on.<\/p>\n

The speed consistency requirement also affects the reclaimer \u2014 but for different reasons. On a reclaimer, the ground speed controls the number of rotor impacts per linear metre of road surface. At 3 km\/h with a rotor at 150 rpm and 20 cutting tools, the surface receives approximately 600 impacts per metre. At 4 km\/h (33% faster), the impact density falls to approximately 450 per metre \u2014 producing a coarser, less uniformly graded output. The compressive strength of the recycled base material depends on the particle size distribution, which in turn depends on the impact density. A reclaimer that varies its speed by \u00b110% across the road width produces a base layer with variable strength \u2014 creating differential settlement patterns that appear as cracks and ruts in the finished pavement within 2 to 5 years of service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"601L1A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Asphalt-Temperature Operation \u2014 Wheel Drives on Hot Recycled Material<\/h2>\n

Road reclaimers that perform hot in-place recycling (heating the existing asphalt before milling) produce recycled material at 100 to 160 degrees C. The reclaimer wheels drive through this hot material \u2014 and the tyre and wheel drive are exposed to surface temperatures that far exceed normal agricultural or construction-site conditions. The wheel drive housing temperature can reach 70 to 90 degrees C from radiant and conductive heat transfer from the hot recycled material \u2014 elevating the internal oil temperature to 100 to 120 degrees C even in temperate ambient conditions.<\/p>\n

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The seal material must withstand this elevated temperature continuously during the recycling pass \u2014 typically 2 to 4 hours per lane-kilometre. Standard NBR seals (rated to 100 degrees C) are marginal; FKM seals (rated to 200 degrees C) provide adequate margin. The tyre compound must also withstand the hot-material contact \u2014 standard construction tyres soften and accelerate wear at temperatures above 80 degrees C, and some hot-recycling reclaimers use heat-resistant tyre compounds or steel wheels for the rear axle that runs directly through the heated material.<\/p>\n

Cold-recycling reclaimers (which add cement, lime, or bitumen emulsion to the pulverised material without heating) operate at ambient temperature \u2014 but the chemical additives present their own wheel drive challenges. Cement slurry (pH 12 to 13) splashes onto the wheel drive housing and attacks standard seals and paint. Bitumen emulsion coats the housing in a sticky, heat-retaining layer that reduces the convective cooling effectiveness \u2014 raising the oil temperature by 10 to 15 degrees C above the clean-housing baseline. Both chemical types require daily power-washing of the wheel drive surfaces to prevent cumulative coating build-up.<\/p>\n

The tyre selection on reclaimers also affects the wheel drive specification. On hot in-place recycling, the rear tyres run through material at 100 to 160 degrees C \u2014 and standard rubber compounds soften, deform, and wear rapidly at these temperatures. Some hot-recycling reclaimers use steel wheels on the rear axle for the cutting pass, switching to rubber tyres for road transfer. The steel-wheel configuration changes the rolling radius by 5 to 15% compared to the rubber tyre \u2014 and the wheel drive gear ratio must account for this change to maintain the correct cutting speed. A two-speed gearbox or a variable-displacement motor provides the flexibility to optimise the speed for both steel-wheel cutting and rubber-tyre transfer modes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"605L2<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

\"Gear<\/p>\n

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Three Failure Modes for Road Reclaimer and Grader Wheel Drives<\/h2>\n
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1<\/div>\n
Rotor-induced vibration causing gear fretting on the reclaimer (similar to stone crusher)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The cutting rotor on a road reclaimer generates vibration at 3 to 15 g at the wheel drive mounting point \u2014 comparable to a stone crusher. Each carbide-tipped tool that strikes the asphalt surface produces an impact that propagates through the machine frame to the wheel drive. The vibration causes the same false-Brinelling bearing damage and gear-tooth fretting described for stone crushers (WD-07) \u2014 but at a somewhat lower amplitude because the reclaimer frame is heavier and more rigid than a stone crusher frame, providing more vibration damping. The wheel drive must still be specified with elevated bearing preload and thread-locked fasteners \u2014 standard road-construction gearbox specifications are insufficient.<\/p>\n

Prevention: Bearing preload to 3\u20135% of dynamic rating. Thread-locking on all housing bolts. Vibration monitoring at 500-hour intervals.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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2<\/div>\n
Surface-finish degradation from grader wheel drive speed pulsation<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On a GPS-guided motor grader, wheel drive speed pulsation of \u00b13 to 5% consumes blade-adjustment bandwidth and degrades the achievable surface tolerance from \u00b13 mm to \u00b18 to 12 mm. The pulsation can originate from three sources: gear mesh cogging (periodic, at the tooth-engagement frequency), hydraulic pump ripple (periodic, at the pump piston frequency), and traction variation (random, from changing surface grip). Of these, the gear mesh cogging is the most problematic because it is continuous and cannot be compensated by the blade control system \u2014 the system treats it as a real speed change and adjusts the blade accordingly, producing a periodic surface undulation at the cogging wavelength. On a grader operating at 6 km\/h with a 40:1 gearbox and a 30-tooth output gear, the cogging wavelength is approximately 55 mm \u2014 visible as a fine corrugation in the finished surface that is detectable by a straightedge but may pass the IRI measurement. Over time, traffic loading preferentially wears the corrugation peaks \u2014 producing a progressively rougher surface that eventually fails the IRI threshold and requires costly maintenance grinding.<\/p>\n

Prevention: DIN Class 6 gears for the grader wheel drive. Hydraulic accumulator to damp pump ripple. GPS speed reference (not wheel speed) for blade control input.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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3<\/div>\n
Heat damage from driving through hot recycled asphalt at 100 to 160 degrees C<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On hot in-place recycling operations, the wheel drive housing absorbs radiant and conductive heat from the recycled material at 100 to 160 degrees C. The housing surface temperature can reach 70 to 90 degrees C \u2014 elevating the internal oil temperature to the point where standard mineral oil and NBR seals are at or beyond their thermal limits. A 4-hour hot-recycling pass on a summer day (35 degrees C ambient) can produce sustained oil temperatures of 115 to 130 degrees C \u2014 conditions that degrade mineral oil within 100 to 200 hours and harden NBR seals within a single season. The thermal damage accumulates with each hot-recycling job and is not reversible through oil changes alone \u2014 the seal material must be replaced once it has hardened.<\/p>\n

Prevention: FKM seals (200 degrees C rated) for hot-recycling reclaimers. Synthetic PAO gear oil. Heat shield between the recycled material path and the wheel drive housing. Oil temperature monitoring.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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S\u0131k\u00e7a Sorulan Sorular<\/h2>\n
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How does a grader wheel drive differ from a reclaimer wheel drive?<\/h3>\n

The grader requires \u00b11 to 2% speed accuracy for GPS blade control (versus \u00b13 to 5% for the reclaimer) and has a tandem rear axle configuration that distributes torque to four wheels per side through a single gearbox. The reclaimer faces higher vibration (3 to 15 g from the cutting rotor versus 0.5 to 2 g on the grader) and may encounter hot recycled material at 100 to 160 degrees C. The grader prioritises speed precision; the reclaimer prioritises vibration and thermal resistance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What is the typical service life?<\/h3>\n

Grader: 6,000 to 10,000 hours. Reclaimer: 3,000 to 6,000 hours (shorter due to vibration). Both machines operate 1,000 to 2,500 hours per year on active road construction projects. The reclaimer seal life on hot-recycling machines is typically 1,000 to 2,000 hours with FKM seals \u2014 requiring replacement at every annual service. Cold-recycling reclaimers achieve longer seal life (2,500 to 4,000 hours) because the thermal stress is lower \u2014 but the cement and bitumen chemical exposure produces different degradation patterns that must be monitored through visual inspection at every 500-hour service interval.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What gear ratio is typical?<\/h3>\n

Grader: 20:1 to 45:1 (working speed 3 to 12 km\/h, road transfer 25 to 45 km\/h). Reclaimer: 30:1 to 60:1 (working speed 2 to 8 km\/h, road transfer 15 to 25 km\/h). The grader requires a wider speed range (3 to 45 km\/h) than the reclaimer (2 to 25 km\/h) \u2014 some graders use two-speed gearboxes to cover both the fine-grading and road-transfer speed ranges without compromising either.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Does Korea Ever-Power supply wheel drives for reclaimers and graders?<\/h3>\n

Yes. Korea Ever-Power manufactures wheel drive planetary gearboxes for road reclaimers (5,000 to 40,000 Nm with vibration-rated bearings and FKM high-temperature seals) and motor graders (5,000 to 30,000 Nm with DIN Class 6 gears for GPS-grade speed accuracy and tandem-axle-compatible output configurations). Provide the machine manufacturer, model, working speed range, whether hot or cold recycling is performed, and whether GPS blade control is used (for graders) for a specification matched to the precision, vibration, and thermal requirements of the specific road construction application.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Road Reclaimer and Grader Wheel Drives \u2014 Grade-Precise, Vibration-Rated, Heat-Resistant<\/div>\n

Korea Ever-Power provides road construction wheel drives from 5,000 to 40,000 Nm for reclaimers, stabilisers, and motor graders with GPS-grade speed accuracy and hot-recycling thermal protection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

View Wheel Drive Range \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n
sat\u0131\u015f@planetary-gearboxes.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Edit\u00f6r: Cxm<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Korea Ever-Power \u00b7 Application Engineering \u00b7 Road Reclaimers and Graders Wheel Drive Planetary Gearbox for Road Reclaimers and Graders A reclaimer pulverises 300 mm of asphalt at 3 km\/h. A grader shapes the recycled material to \u00b15 mm over 100 metres at 5 km\/h. Both depend on wheel drive speed accuracy \u2014 the reclaimer for […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[965],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-application-and-technical-guid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1149,"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions\/1149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetary-gearboxes.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}