Backhoes - The Most Mobile Machine

• August
• 5

11:35 pm construction equipment

Like the rest of the machines we cover here, backhoe loaders are primarily used for two of the most common tasks on construction sites: digging holes and moving the resulting piles of dirt around. The main difference is that backhoe loaders can handle both types of jobs simply by turning around.

With an excavator-style digging arm on one end and a two-armed bucket on the other, backhoe loaders can tackle a wide variety of trenching, loading, scooping, filling, and leveling chores that would otherwise require multiple machines or considerably more time.

Backhoe loaders are the most mobile of these heavy machines, too. Due to their size and rubber wheels, they can quickly get around the job site with ease, in mud or loose debris, as well as being able to drive themselves over regular roads. Try that with an mini excavator and you can imagine the damage!

There’s a tradeoff that comes with this increased mobility, though: loader backhoes require additional stabilization when doing serious excavating work, because the wheels don’t provide a solid enough platform to really dig into hard earth. Backhoe loaders come with extendable stabilizing legs that provide a more dependable base to work from. To use the legs on asphalt or concrete, you may need to pay a little extra to get rubber pads that prevent damage.

Like skid steer loaders and mini excavators, backhoe loaders can also support multiple types of attachments. If you choose a loader with a standard tool carrier or quick coupler, you’ll be able to use a wide variety of attachments. Instead of the usual loading bucket, you could attach grapples, clamshell buckets, sweepers, or snow blowers; instead the digging scoop you could mount hydraulic hammers, crushers, or thumbs.

As with mini excavators, use of multiple attachments isn’t the biggest strength of backhoe loaders: in their default configuration, they have two of the most popular attachments mounted. But for specific applications, this ability can mean you don’t have to bring out a second piece of equipment.