ForConstructionPros.com

Matching a paver to your fleet means taking a look at the clients you have, the type of work you expect to do, the long- and short-term cost of a new piece of equipment, and support from the manufacturer or dealer.

It also means matching the paver to your existing fleet. Unless you have more work than your current paver can handle, you don't want to simply buy the same machine. You need something to enhance the fleet you already have in the field, a paver that will enable your crews to do more work, different work, and perhaps the same work quicker.

When Dan Dauffenbach, president of Northland Paving, LLC, was in the market for a mid-sized paver, he looked for one that will be a good match to the company's mainline paver, a 10-ft. Blaw Knox PF5510. He wanted a paver that can be used interchangeably with the Blaw Knox, which he uses to pave the many commercial, industrial, and retail jobs that are the backbone of his work.

A 30-year veteran of the asphalt paving industry, Dauffenbach started Northland Paving three years ago. His hard-working equipment fleet includes Caterpillar 140 motor graders, Case and Caterpillar wheel loaders, one vibratory and one static steel roller, a pneumatic roller, and quad-axle trucks for loading the mainline paver. And then there's the mid-sized paver.

"We need a mid-sized paver that we can put side-by-side with the mainline and get the same quality mat," Dauffenbach says.