Compacting the ground for pavers works great

Driveways

Good for the money

Works great but leaks a lot of oil

I have two of these compactors. The oil overflow sensor tends to malfunction. When this happens, you will notice that your machine just shuts off when you are using it and then it won't turn back on or it might turn back on and then shut off shortly after turning it on. I included an image to show where the sensor is. It's easy to alleviate, just open the small black casing near the on/off switch and disconnect the oil sensor. You just have to figure it out by following where the wires go. Your machine will operate fine afterwards. It just shuts off the compactor when it tips over or it's at too much of an incline so oil doesn't get in the combustion chamber. Just avoid this situationThe ICPI recommends a compactor to have minimum compaction of $7,000 lbs. This one only delivers in the mid-2000s. I highly do not recommend this if you are going to use it to compact base material for driveways or anywhere that has vehicular traffic. I would only use it for walkways, patios, and only pedestrian traffic. I haven't had an issue with any of my favorite installations settling or syncing in the past couple years that I've had my contactors. Had I known when I first bought these and started my company I would have bought a bigger one because now I have to rent a compactor for building driveways. I suppose you can use this for doing a driveway, but just compact the base material at increments of three or four inches at a time but I wouldn't risk it to avoid having to come back in waste time repairing an area that sank.I bought this compactor at the time because the price is excellent for what you get. Compactors that deliver that recommended 7,000 lb compaction Force are generally very expensive and too heavy even for two people to lift. When I bought the compactors, I had just started my company and I was the only employee so I needed to be able to lift it myself. It is heavy but I'm able to deadlift it and put it in the bed of my truck or I a wood ramp that I can use and slide it into my trailer.Overall I love this little thing but I would only recommend it for compaction of pedestrian traffic areas. Don't do anybody dirty by using this to compact the base material for a driveway or vehicle traffic. It also looks unprofessional to use a tiny compactor like this to do a job like that. And remember, if it shuts off on you out of nowhere and it doesn't run and you're thinking to yourself why is it doing this? Then disconnect the oil sensor near the on/off switch and try it out. Try to baby it and replace its oil when it is recommended so you don't have to deal with a possibly non-existent customer service and parts department. I wish you all a great experience