Let’s face it, road widening, aggregate placement, backfilling and other road construction tasks have always been messy, backbreaking operations. A lack of innovation has left road crews in the dust, relying heavily on large crews, big machines and a good dose of manual labor. As industry veterans ourselves, Road Widener has seen the effects of these inefficiencies firsthand, which led us to develop the FH-R shouldering and side paver attachment. Equipment born from necessity, because the traditional methods just didn’t cut it.
Now crews can place aggregate more precisely, with less labor, less maintenance and less overall cost than self-propelled machines. Here’s how.
More Precise Dispensing
Typically, aggregate is piled on the road for crews to scrape, push and sweep it into place. The inefficiency in this process is easy to spot. The FH-R can do it with one person in under 10 minutes! And as far as precision goes, the FH-R offers configuration flexibility for single, left side, right side or dual discharge to place aggregate exactly where it needs to go without additional scraping or sweeping.
Gravel, asphalt or topsoil feeds into the hopper at the top of the machine. From there, the aggregate can be dispensed along a roadway in 1-6 foot (30.5-183 cm) lay down widths with the entire operation being remote-controlled by a single person. The FH-R streamlines the jobsite by reducing the need for multiple machines, extra operators and additional crew for cleanup.
Less Downtime
The need for fewer machines also greatly reduces maintenance requirements and the associated costs. Downtime for maintenance kills profit, and if ignored, it only gets more expensive. The FH-R integrates with existing equipment and makes for 90% less maintenance versus a self-propelled alternative.
The attachment adds functionality to your fleet, not maintenance. The FH-R has just five grease fittings and attaches to the host machine that you’re already familiar with maintaining. It connects to most skid steers, loaders, compact track loaders and road graders via its universal mounting pad or optional adapter plate. After connection and a quick hydraulic hook up, the FH-R operates by simply pairing to the remote — no engine, no transmission, no filters.
The FH-R’s compact design reduces maintenance elsewhere, too. It fits on the same commercial trailer as the host machine or can be towed by a common pickup truck, cutting out the logistical frenzy of multiple trucks to transport multiple machines to the jobsite. This efficiency over alternative methods carries over to pricing and labor, as well.
Lower Cost
The FH-R is just a fraction of the cost of self-propelled shouldering machines, saving customers up to 80% off the purchase price. Additionally, the FH-R provides long-term labor savings by reducing crew requirements by half with remote-control operation and precise aggregate dispersion. That means crews can safely and efficiently knock out other tasks at the jobsite instead of pushing, scraping and sweeping aggregate.
Choose Innovation and Ease
We designed the FH-R to alleviate the frustrations stemmed by the inefficiencies of self-propelled road widening machines. We ended up with a low-cost machine that provides unmatched ROI — from day one through the lifetime of the machine.
