What is he on about now!? Well it’s simple. Here at G.A. Plant and Machinery in Cheney Manor, Swindon, we can offer a zero tail swing, 1.5t excavator.
The benefit of a zero tail swing excavator is it can work in even tighter spaces than a conventional excavator whilst loosing nothing on performance. It is simply a clever bit of design whereby the mini digger can rotate and the rear of the machine will remain within the width of its tracks. This means if you are close to a wall or fence for example, you won’t have to worry about the rear of the machine striking that fence or wall as you spin the machine around.
Have a look at this picture and notice how the rear of the digger is inside the outside edge of the track.
Just because it is more compact does not mean it is less able. In fact our Kubota U17-3a packs a bigger punch than many of its rivals.
Ok, enough about the swinging tail, how do I operate a mini digger? A common concern when people come to us to hire a minidigger, especially the DIY market, is that they have no experience of driving a mini digger or excavator. Well, there really is nothing to worry about. When we deliver the mini digger we will give you a quick run through on how the controls work. After that it is just a case of getting on and having a go. We always suggest putting yourself, and the machine, in a good open space, moving all cats, dogs and children out of the way and having a go. After half an hour of fiddling you will have a good grasp of how to drive the machine and you will be ready for some work in tighter spaces. Of course, between you and me, it’s actually a lot of fun. People pay to do this at Diggerland!
These mini diggers also come with expanding tracks. No, that does not mean they get bigger but instead it means they get wider. With the flick of a lever you can slide the tracks from a narrow 990mm to 1240mm. This means you can pull the tracks in to get down a narrow pathway and then push them back out. It is important to always operate with the tracks out if you can as this gives the machine much better stability. Also the zero tail swing feature only works with the tracks out. Whilst we think about the tracks, they are made from heavy duty rubber which means they won’t leave damaging marks all over your nice new driveway or patio.
One more important consideration is what is under the ground you are about to dig. All the services to a modern property are normally run underground. We don’t have housing estates full of cables. Cable tv, electricity, clean water, dirty water, they are all lurking somewhere under your property. Dig up the local sewage pipe or mains cable and your day is about to get expensive and potentially dangerous. We can supply a special detector called a C.A.T., cable avoiding tool, to search for cables and pipes before you start digging. Of course this increases your hire bill a little but can you afford not to?
The uses for a mini digger are wide a varied. You may be digging out for a driveway, landscaping your garden or even digging footings for a new extension. This machine can do all these jobs and more. The mini digger will be supplied with a range of buckets of varying widths including a wide grading bucket to help you get that perfect level finish. The buckets are easily changed using a quick hitch system with an over centre catch.
With digging comes soil or waste. If you need to move the spoil you may well benefit from hiring a dumper from us. A very useful dumper to hire is the 1 tonne high lift dumper which is well suited to this size of excavator. The advantage of the 1 tonne high lift dumper is it will lift directly into a skip. Unless you are digging right next to your skip, where you can load from the excavator into the skip, then a dumper is going to speed up your production considerably and, although it is going to increase your hire costs, it will pay for itself in time saved.
