Petersen Landscaping has been using Road Widener’s FH-R material placement machine since September 2020. As a small contractor, this tool has helped my company take on demanding jobs that no one else wanted to touch — and do it profitably — all with a small crew. It’s a game-changer for my business. With a crew of three — one in the skid steer and two running trucks — we can lay as much as 5 linear miles (8 km) in a day, with high levels of precision. And can easily work around mailboxes, which is a huge productivity factor for us in residential areas.
Petersen Landscape discovered Road Widener when doing research for a challenging job. A local Homeowners Association (HOA) was struggling to find a contractor to repave 26 miles (42 km) of roads in a four-year timeframe. The roads were built in 1995 and have had zero maintenance work done since, leaving them in rough shape. Many ditches were silted or washed out and multiple culverts were plugged. And often there was an 8- to 9-inch (20- to 23- cm) drop-off from the edge of the asphalt to the shoulder.
Our research led me to the Road Widener FH-R material placement attachment, so I contacted my local equipment dealer, Wagner CAT. Once we added the FH-R attachment to our skid steer, we ran two trucks to keep it fed, and the host machine operator used the remote control to manage the attachment’s settings. With this setup we’ve been managing up to 5 linear miles (8 km) in a day.
One huge advantage we’ve seen with the FH-R is a factor that often gets overlooked on these types of jobs: mailboxes. Sometimes you only make it 100 feet before reaching another mailbox. With the FH-R, we could lay material right up to the mailbox, retract the shoe, keep driving and then extend the shoe out. It was a matter of seconds, a stark contrast from what it might have taken with one of the larger self-propelled machines that struggles with maneuverability.
Two years in, we’re on track to finish the project on time and budget. Things would not have gone this way without the FH-R. Any contractor in road construction or asphalt — or even municipalities — will see huge benefits from this tool. The FH-R will completely transform your productivity.
