What are excavators used for?

Excavators, often referred to as diggers, can be used for all kinds of construction, mining, landscaping, demolition, river dredging, and material handling projects.

Other excavator tasks can also be accomplished by using various hydraulic excavator attachments such as your traditional bucket that digs towards the cab and machine.

The rock and V bucket are two types of buckets that look like a digging bucket but with longer sharper teeth and a narrow V-shaped edge for cutting.

Excavators can also be fitted with auger attachments for digging holes and trenches; breaker attachments to break into tougher surfaces like stone and concrete; clamp attachments to easily pick up large materials like tree stumps and concrete that are too oversized for a bucket; and coupler attachments that allow you to quickly switch between tools and attachments without needing a crew.

What are the different types of excavators?

There are seven types of excavators:

Crawler Excavators: Are used to lift heavy debris and soil for mining and heavy-duty construction projects.
Dragline Excavators: The dragline excavator uses a hoist rope and dragline system to clear earth. This type of equipment is primarily assembled on site due to their weight and can be used for underwater projects or canal dreading.
Suction Excavators: These excavators are also known as vacuum excavators that use water jets and a high-pressure vacuum to clear away dirt and debris and are primarily used on delicate excavation projects.
Skid Steer Excavators: Unlike your standard excavators, the skid steer bucket scoops away from the driver cab. This design allows the equipment piece to get through narrower gaps and has the ability to make tighter turns. Great for residential projects and small clearing tasks.
Long Reach Excavators: The design of the long reach excavator allows you to operate in harder-to-reach locations with an extendable arm that can reach over 100 feet horizontally.
Mini Excavators: Often referred as mini diggers, the mini excavator is a compact and smaller version of a crawler excavator. They are ideally used for smaller jobs, and often on delicate terrain such as landscaping projects.
Wheeled Excavators: Wheeled excavators or mobile excavators are the same as a regular excavator but are operated on wheels instead of tracks. Primarily used in city projects but are increasingly becoming more popular.

What is the difference between an excavator and a backhoe?

Backhoes, also known as loader backhoes, are often confused with excavators. They share similar digging and lifting capabilities but ultimately, they differ in size, weight, and functionality. A backhoe is generally much smaller and shares more similarities in appearances with a tractor then an excavator. The biggest difference between the backhoe and the excavator is the rotational capability of each equipment type. The way the backhoe has been designed; it can only rotate 200 degrees side to side. Whereas the excavator, weighing up to 200,000 pounds, is designed to rotate a full 360 degrees.

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