Put Wheels on the Plate Compactor
BY John Ball
Make life easier for the laborers by making the heavy plate compactor easier to move around the job site. You don’t want to encourage the laborer to run the plate compactor in vibratory mode across an already compacted area of pavement, yet moving it while it’s on is the easiest way to get this piece of equipment from point A to point B.
Laborer Jair Paixao runs the plate compactor on an area of binder course with the wheels in the “up” position, out of the way. All photos courtesy John Ball, Top Quality Paving & Training, Manchester, New Hampshire.
Rather than asking workers to lift and struggle to move the heavy item while it’s off, the team at J.H. Lynch in Rhode Island ordered their compactor with a set of wheels.
Here the laborer shows the plate compactor with the wheels in the “up” position.
The wheel apparatus is bolted to the compactor. The two 4-inch wheels can swing up or down on the hinge on the back of the compactor. When the compactor is in use, the wheels are up out of the way.
When the laborer is finished compacting an area, he can lower the wheels using the hinge to swing them down, under the plate. This makes rolling the plate compactor to another area of the work zone much easier.
When it’s time to move the compactor to another part of the job site, the worker can swing the wheels down under the plate. Then he rolls the compactor to another location, protecting the pavement and his back.
John Ball is the proprietor of Top Quality Paving & Training, Manchester, New Hampshire. He provides personal, on-site paving consulting services around the United States and into Canada. For more information, contact him at (603) 493-1458 or tqpaving@yahoo.com.