Road Machinery Unveils New Farmington Facility

On July 26, Road Machinery Co. held an open house to celebrate its new Four Corners area facility at 901 Troy King Rd. on the west side of Farmington, N.M.

Road Machinery has been in business since 1955, when Harold R. Bone opened his first facility at the present headquarters location at 716

S. 7th Street in Phoenix to sell and service construction and mining machinery. The company initially sold street sweepers, motor graders, air compressors, and WABCO/Haulpak Trucks, now part of Komatsu. The company has grown from seven employees to over 300 in eight locations, including Phoenix, Prescott, and Tucson, Ariz.; Albuquerque and Farmington, N.M.; El Paso, Texas; Perris, Calif.; and Sonora, Mexico. Some of this growth was accomplished by acquiring existing distributorships such as Border Machinery Co.

Today, all locations provide a broad range of machinery to both construction and mining industries, including excavators, dozers, dump trucks, backhoe loaders, motor graders, skid-steer loaders, crushers, shovels, crawler carriers, wheel loaders, compaction equipment, drills, ground engaging tools, hydraulic hammers, attachment couplers, buckets, forks, distribution trucks, and trailers. Of course, Komatsu is the primary line of equipment sold, however, Bomag/Hypac, Hensley, JRB, Mega, Metso/Nordberg, and NPK product lines are also represented in order to better meet all needs of all customers.

Road Machinery serves the mining, construction, industrial, and governmental markets by providing top-quality equipment, supported by excellent repair and rebuild facilities, field service capabilities, well-trained mechanics, and a broad parts inventory.

The Farmington open house was supported by a variety of staff from Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque, including Dennis Romanson, president; Ray Baca, general manager-New Mexico/Texas; Art Franklin, sales manager-New Mexico/Texas; Danny McGaugh, vice president-sales; Gary Beal, vice president-used equipment; Nic Meister, Komatsu district manager; Gary Hafrtey, NPK district manager; Jim Hornsby, Bomag district manager; Paul Bennett, Metso manager; and 13 other managers from various locations. Eric Hirengen, Farmington account manager and 27-year Road Machinery employee at the Farmington location, had a prominent role in the festivities. Customers attending had obviously developed strong ties with Eric in the years he has worked with them.

Art Franklin, sales manager-New Mexico/Texas, dedicates a lot of his effort to supporting the Farmington customers as well. He said, "We have the best products on the market. We have the largest production dozer in the world — the D575. Our challenge every day is to get the customers to try our machinery, especially the GD655 and GD555 motor graders. Our backhoes were introduced in 2000 and have been well accepted. We want all prospective customers to try our whole machinery line. They will like them. This Farmington branch is really going to grow."

Eric Hirengen, Farmington account manager, handles customer needs in machinery sales, rentals and in product support. After 27 years with Road Machinery, he says, "I wouldn't have been with Road Machinery so long if they weren't just great with employees and customers. They have supported me and our customers through the best and the worst of times. Farmington is really booming now. Things are moving so fast that it is hard to keep up. We are strong with the Navajo Nation and with the oilfield services. We are moving to get more county and municipal business." Eric is supported in Farmington by Kansas Nez, parts and rentals coordinator; and Pat Dietrich and Bruce Dahl, field service.

Sterling Brothers Construction is a major contactor with a long and excellent history in the Four Corners area. Kathy Sterling said, "Our relationship with Eric Hirengen goes back to the Border Machinery days. Eric has been a lifesaver to us. We still have some International Harvester equipment that needs parts and service. Eric never lets us down. The dealer ownership has changed, and the name on the equipment has changed, but Eric has been constantly taking care of our business. We have a lot of loyalty to Road Machinery because of our relationship with Eric. We are working on a project near Carlsbad, over 450 miles away, and Eric was our contact for getting the equipment."

Mike Waybourn, president of Ace Service, speaks highly of the Road Machinery organization in their products and support of his oilfield service company. Ace Service owns four Komatsu excavators, three Komatsu D155 dozers, a D85 dozer, a D41 dozer, a CK35 track mounted skid-steer loader, a GD655 motor grader, and Bomag compactor. Waybourn says, "The products are excellent and the after-sale support we receive is without equal. As you can tell by the machinery we have bought from Road Machinery, we are a very satisfied customer. Road Machinery is our supplier of choice every time we need machinery. We are always watching for new products from Road Machinery and Komatsu."

Another satisfied customer is Consolidated Constructors of Farmington, a major contractor with sand and gravel operations as well. James Helickson of Consolidated said, "The machinery and product support has been really good. We had some problems a few years ago, but managers came from Phoenix and from Japan to make things right and get our business back going strong. Their mechanics are very good, too."

In order to make the open house even more enjoyable, Spare Rib BBQ Co. served a catered lunch and KISS Country 97.9 FM had a live broadcast on-site and provided music. In addition, there were special open house prices on most of the Komatsu product line, as well as on NPK GH-10 hydraulic hammers, Metso CV50 box screens and Mega 12K water stands.

With this new facility, Road Machinery is better able to serve the machinery users in the Four Corners area.