Towed Equipment for Road Maintenance
Road maintenance with tractor-towed equipment is a must in developing countries. Tractors are easy to repair with spare parts generally available every where.
![](img/graders-novatech.png)
![](img/graders-equip.jpg)
![](img/graders-tg80.jpg)
In 1991, SMI's Lao affiliate company Novatech designed and manufactured their first Lao-made Towed Grader TG80. These towed-graders were hauled by 80 HP tractors. The steel came from recycled army equipment left in Lao PDR after the Vietnam war.
![](img/graders-tg80-4.jpg)
In contrast to imported road equipment that end up having 70% downtime due to difficulties in acquisition of spare parts from abroad and the need for highly skilled technicians to repair them, locally-made TG80 were designed to require less than 10% downtime and only 2 days of training by novice technicians to operate.
![](img/graders-back.jpg)
![](img/graders-drag-1.jpg)
![](img/graders-drag-2.jpg)
This towed drag is a simplified version of a grader used for road maintenance.
![](img/graders-compact-1.jpg)
This compactor uses recycled parts taken from both American and Russian military equipment.
![](img/graders-trailer.jpg)