Compact excavator

A compact or mini excavator is a tracked or wheeled vehicle with an approximate operating weight from 0.7 to 8.5 tonnes.

Unlike a conventional backhoe, the operator can slew the entire house and workgroup upon the undercarriage for spoil placement.

The workgroup of a compact hydraulic excavator consists of the boom, dipper or arm, and attachment (e.g. auger, bucket or breaker).

It is connected to the front of the excavator's house structure via a swing frame that allows the workgroup to be hydraulically pivoted left or right to achieve offset digging for trenching parallel with the tracks.

The blade can be used to increase dump height and digging depth depending on its position in relation to the excavator's workgroup, this makes it very versatile.

There are two distinct classes of compact excavators, conventional tail swing - units that have a rear counterweight that will extend beyond the tracks when the house rotates, and zero-tail swing - units with a house whose diameter stays within the width of the tracks through full rotation.

A Bobcat compact excavator
A Bobcat mini excavator. Note the backfill blade
A Kubota compact excavator
A NPK breaker fitted to a Wacker Neuson compact excavator
A Wacker Neuson excavator with zero-tail. The tail does not extend to the street.
A Bobcat excavator is digging for the laying of a broadband cable in central Ystad .