Abstract: Apparatus for effecting passes of a self-propelled compacting machine following a spreading machine after the latter has laid a strip of surfacing composition. A guide vehicle is hitched to the spreading machine and is towed therewith, and has a guide member which may either have the contour of a closed geometrical figure such as a circle or be simply a pivot. The compacting machine turns about the guide vehicle along an epicycloidal path of travel. A sensing device on the compacting machine which may be a feeler or a flexible member is responsive to the variations of the radial distance between the compacting machine and guide member. The sensing device operates a limit switch when the variations exceed a predetermined amount which in turn controls an electrically operable hydraulic valve which communicates with a double-action cylinder and piston unit controlling in turn the direction of the front wheel of the compacting machine for increasing or decreasing the turning radius thereof.