Midsize asphalt rollers can help you move up the paving ladder

Your niche is paving small driveways, but maybe it's time to move up to bigger driveways, parking lots, and possibly secondary road paving projects.

That one-ton roller works great on smaller paving jobs, but you know you will need a bigger and faster unit to handle larger projects. Just how much bigger is one question contractors need to answer before making a jump to a midsize roller. Drum size, vibratory frequency, special features, and compatibility with present and future applications all come into play when thinking about moving up the paving ladder.

"Contractors will see a lot of changes in rollers when they move from a one-ton to a midsize roller," says Shane Sirmons, marketing manager for Sakai America. "The most obvious is the engine as they move from gas to diesel. Smaller rollers also have a lower drum frequency. Higher frequencies become very important on larger paving projects where roller operators have to move fast to get the job done."

Sakai America offers three roller models in the 3-ton category, with 39-, 47-, and 51-inch drums. Sirmons notes that the 47-inch drum is a likely candidate for contractors looking to move into the small parking lot market. As a rule of thumb, he adds, three-ton rollers are ideal for 50-car lots, but operators will need to consider larger rollers, possibly those in the seven and eight ton category, to handle larger Wal-Mart type parking lots.

Age old concept
"You have to make sure the machine that you buy will get the job done," says Hamm America Marketing Manager Bruce Monical. "The age-old concept still applies: the heavier the hammer the faster the job gets done. The name of the game is the same, too, no matter what size job contractors are paving. The goal is to keep water out of the new pavement, and compacting hot asphalt with a vibratory roller works best in most applications."

"Application will drive the buying decision," he says. "How much material, how deep, and how much time it will take to get the job done all come into play. A wrong machine for the application may be too small or too big; it may hit too hard or not hard enough. The roller also needs to match the other equipment - the truck, trailer, and paving machine - in your equipment lineup."

Hamm America's midsize roller lineup includes a 2 ½-ton, 47-inch drum roller; a 4-ton, 51-inch drum roller; a 4 ½-ton, 54-inch drum roller; and a 7 ½-ton 59-inch drum roller. At the upper end, says Monical, contractors can compact faster and deeper, but with the larger drum size they will lose the ability to pave alleyways and bike paths and lack the maneuverability necessary to work around light poles and other small objects.

"Ideally, contractors moving from small driveway rollers would like the advantage afforded the smaller size but still have the ability to do larger paving jobs," Monical adds. "They would like the bells and whistles of even larger machines, too, in a midsize roller, including high frequency, a nice comfortable platform, warning devices, and so forth."

Trending
"Trends today in the midsize roller market are mainly for better ergonomics for the operator, more comfort, lower noise and vibration, and better visibility," explains Wacker Sales Engineering Manager Mark Conrardy.

"Companies are trying to put 'big roller' features into the smaller machines. One of the keys is for operators of the bigger machines to have good visibility and see the contact point where the drum and pavement meet. You don't want the operators to have to stretch or lean out to see the work they're doing. On larger jobs especially, fatigue can become an issue."

Wacker manufactures four roller models. The smallest of the four fall into the 1-ton and 1 ½-ton categories. The largest is a 2 ½-ton unit with a 39-inch drum. "A 1 ½-ton roller is still fine for driveways, but going to a 2 ½-ton machine would be too much in most parts of the country," Conrardy points out. "The mix used for driveways generally is for lighter loads and has finer aggregate, and the larger machines have too much weight for that material."