Mini Diggers – 360 Degree Excavator 1.5 – 8 Tonne Tare

Main function

The Mini digger is a small excavator, It does many of previously very labour intensive jobs faster and easier such as digging small trenches, levelling areas,small highway maintenance jobs garden landscaping small rock breaking tasks and more.

General description

“Mini digger” is the term most commonly used to describe a 360 degree excavator weighing between 1.5 and 8.5 tonnes. It is a widely used machine by builders, landscapers, farmers, etc. The mini digger has become one of the most versatile and useful machines for small excavation jobs due to their high manoeuvrability, usually driven on rubber caterpillar tracks which can be used on most surfaces with minimal damage. They are very precise and easy to operate.

The main features usually include, caterpillar tracks on a chassis with a dozer blade a separate cab and hydraulic arm which can rotate 360 degrees round the chassis. The arm compromises of two parts the dipper and the main boom each of which can be moved independently from each other using the joysticks. There is another ram on the dipper which controls a lever system to cowl the bucket back and forward. Another feature which is very common is a swinging boom, this compromises of a pivot at the bottom of the main boom enabling the boom to rotate around 180 degrees from the cab. This enables the machine to dig straight trenches to one side of the machine as shown below:

Mini Digger Controls

Most mini diggers follow the European standard controls to increase safety for operators, the standard joystick controls are shown below:

Model Variations

Many Mini diggers now come with the Zero Swing feature,Up until a few years ago every excavator was designed so that counterweight hangs over the tracks for added stability when in the body is not in line with the tracks as shown below:

However when working in tighter spaces the counterweight is often found to be in the way. So a quite recently excavator manufacturer Yanmar started making zero swing excavators where the counterweight did not overhang the tracks yet the machine remained stable. Quickly most manufacturers followed suit and now many of the smaller excavators are available with a zero swing model. The picture below shows an example of a Terex TC37 with Zero swing.

Another variation of the mini digger is the Micro digger, This is basically the same machine but with a operating tare weight of between 0.5 and 1.5tonnes, these machines are so small they are able to fit through standard house doorways and work internally in houses. This means they are also capable of getting round the side paths of houses and working in gardens where access is limited for mini diggers and larger machines.

Buckets and attachments

There is a large range of buckets and attachments available for these machines, below are links to pages on some of the attachments available. Quick release mechanism Standard buckets Ditching bucket Riddle buckets Hydraulic hammer

Quick Release Mechanisms

Standard Buckets

Ditching Buckets

Riddle Buckets

Hydraulic Hammer

Common Manufacturers

Terex

Volvo

Bobcat