During the peak of road repair season, having efficient tools that won’t strain other areas or compromise safety is important. Roadbuilding tasks have long been plagued with inefficient methods and extremely costly solutions. With the experience of roadbuilding in our background, we talked with other roadcrews about their pain points and incorporated our own experience and their feedback – amounting to decades of industry experience – into our design. Now, with our FH-R shouldering and side paver and Offset Vibratory Roller attachments, crews can increase efficiency without adding maintenance headaches or a significant cost investment. The new methods allow efficient and safe work even in today’s environment where there are simply less boots on the ground. Better yet, these attachments seamlessly integrate with equipment already in most contractors’ fleets, allowing them to do more with the equipment they already have.
Ready to take your road repair work to the next level? Here’s how:
Dispense Precisely and Safely
Some crews might still choose to start their days at 3 a.m., but that no longer has to include numerous trucks to transport equipment, multiple self-propelled machines crowding a jobsite or several crewmembers piling, scraping and spreading aggregate into place.
Rather than coordinating the logistics of hauling bulky, self-propelled machines to a jobsite, crews can now load the FH-R, Offset Vibratory Roller and host machine on the same common trailer, streamlining the transportation of key products.
Once onsite, contractors can unload the host machine and quickly hookup to the FH-R material placement attachment, which easily connects to loaders, graders, skid steers and compact track loaders. From there, a single operator can begin placing asphalt, topsoil and other materials exactly where they need to go the first time — no additional scraping or sweeping.
Gravel, asphalt or topsoil feeds into the hopper at the top of the FH-R. The operator then precisely dispenses the material along a roadway in variable laydown widths ranging from 1 to 6 feet (30 to 183 cm). The attachment comes in single, left or right side, or dual discharge configuration to accommodate roads in different countries. With its efficient design, the FH-R cuts out the multiple steps, machines and labor required with traditional methods. A single person can control the entire machine operation via remote control from the safety of the cab — no pinched fingers when making machine adjustments and less exposure to traffic.
Compact Securely and Efficiently
Once the FH-R accurately lays the materials into place, contractors can hookup to the Offset Vibratory Roller to safely compact the sloping shoulders, steep ditches and flat roadway.
The Offset Vibratory Roller gives crews a truly safer alternative to traditional compaction rollers. Rather than rely on the compaction drum as a source of motion, compaction and stability all in one — as compactors have for decades — we relocated the drum to a remote-controlled offset arm attachment. This design immediately solved the industry’s longstanding safety issue of tipping hazards. With the Offset Vibratory Roller attachment, the operator can drive on flat, even ground while the drum safely compacts the slopes and edges of the road. The improved safety also puts a major dent in workers comp claims, lowers insurance premiums and increases safety ratings — a necessity to contractors bidding on competitive jobs. And with three attachment sizes available, crews can purchase multiple sizes and get unheard of versatility to easily take on varying jobs with one machine. This is an impossible function for most self-propelled compactors because they only come with one size.
Reduce Fleet Maintenance
By opting for the FH-R and Offset Vibratory Roller, crews can cutout up to 90% of their typical maintenance since neither attachment has an onboard engine, transmission or any associated parts to maintain. Aside from five grease fittings to maintain and general brushing off of debris, neither attachment has any maintenance to speak of — no more oil changes, filters, transmission fluid or any hard parts to wear and break.
Equipment innovation has finally caught up with the demand for a better way to take on road widening, aggregate placement, backfilling and other roadbuilding tasks. Together, the FH-R and Offset Vibratory Roller create a refreshing new option for the industry.
