Page 178 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

That Tracy job was the turning point for Poppoff. “The next day, I discussed it with my boss and then went down to Peterson to meet with Der- ek [Pasut, Peterson salesman at the time]. We sat down and ordered a paver and got delivery from the factory three weeks later. That Cat paver paved everything on I-580 from Vernalis all the way to the Altamont in the summer of 2016. That was a $100-million job and it performed flawlessly. It never broke down and it’s still out there.”
PAVING BENCHMARKS
The biggest change in paving equipment over the last twenty years came with the rubber track con- cept. That’s when paving really took off, according to Marty Johnson, who has worked on every type of paver out there, over his three-decade career. “Cat was the first to use the rubber track design. Before that, there were two kinds of pavers. One had a steel undercarriage and rubber pads so you could run on the street. Their advantage was trac- tive effort, better flotation, and it could push trucks easier. The other was the rubber-tired paver that had less wear and tear, ran cheaper, and had bet-
ter maneuverability and higher speed. When the rubber-belted paver came along, it merged the two worlds. You got your tractive effort but also high- speed roadability and maneuverability around job- sites.” Cat introduced the first rubber track paver in 1996—the AP1055B—with two onboard com- puters. The other manufacturers soon followed.
Since then, Cat has made numerous improve- ments over several generations. By the end of the B models, 95 percent of the initial problems were gone. And today’s F model (2017) comes Tier 4 final-compliant and incorporates a Mobil-Trac System undercarriage with oscillating bogies and a rubber belt, a totally redesigned screed, and four- teen computers. “Everything on it is new,” says Johnson. “It’s a clean sheet of paper.”
THE NEW MTV
Another benchmark product debuted back in 1987 with the MTV and RTV trucks, or material trans- fer and remix transfer vehicles. These on-highway trucks provide a continuous feed of material into the paver, which translates to smoothness on the mat. Today, these vehicles are becoming more and more expected, even required, in the bid process.
In 2012, Caterpillar signed an agreement with Weiler Equipment to market their paving line exclusively through the Caterpillar dealership network. Peterson was happy to take on Weiler’s MTVs and RTVs, pickup machines, road widen- ers, and small pavers to further augment its own paving offerings. “Weiler is an incredible supplier based out of Knoxville, Iowa,” says Culligan. “They fit right in with us because they are Custom- er-First focused. They take extremely good care of the customer.”
In 2015, for example, Peterson sold a small Weiler P385 paver to 7 Peaks Paving based in Bend, Or- egon. But things did not go as expected. “It had electrical problems and kept throwing breakers
(L-R) Field tech Mike Harreld discusses Cat paver’s computer system with Marty Johnson
176 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG