Patent ID: 7771138

Claim:
A multi-stage road paving equipment system comprising: a base tractor first stage for providing basic controls and motive forces and a first stage-to-stage coupling, disposed at a rear end of said base tractor; an intermediate stage, configured to mate with the first stage-to-stage coupling and further configured with a second stage-to-stage coupling, said intermediate stage being disposed rearward of said rear end of said base tractor and centered with respect to a center line extending rearward from said rear end of said base tractor; the intermediate stage is additionally configured to laterally transport hot mix asphalt away from said center line; wherein the intermediate stage is rigidly coupled to the base tractor first stage via the first stage-to-stage coupler which is configured not to be readily decoupled and recoupled in the field; and a first of a plurality of third stage road paving tool attachments configured to mate with the second stage-to-stage coupling, where each of the plurality of third stage tool attachment provides a differing function and where each of the plurality of third stage road paving tool attachments is not configured to be directly mated to the first stage-to-stage coupling.