Nine Jobs for Your Compact Excavator

It’s no secret that compact excavators can dig. But Bobcat® compact excavators reach far beyond the traditional role of digging. And to prove it, here are nine jobs that might expand the way you think about how you use compact excavators.

1. Breaking concrete
Excavators are perfectly suited for demolition work. Armed with a Bobcat hydraulic breaker, you can demolish concrete and asphalt driveways, sidewalks, trails, paths and swimming pools. This powerful combination can reduce small vertical structures – such as old buildings and retaining walls – into manageable chunks.

2. Clearing and loading
In areas targeted for development, Bobcat excavators can improve properties by leveling dead or fallen trees and removing underbrush. Versatile attachments such as buckets with teeth, clamps and three-tine grapples can grab, pull and drag saplings and rooted undergrowth, as well as sort and load trucks. Remove underbrush and growth with ease using the flail mower.

3. Compacting
An excavator can be fitted with a plate compactor or a packer wheel attachment to compact in trenches. These two attachments can eliminate placing workers in a trench to do hand-operated compaction or managing a walk-behind unit above ground to close up a trench.

4. Drilling holes
A Bobcat auger can install fence posts, piers and poles, or plant trees and other vegetation quickly. This attachment can increase your accuracy and convenience when digging footings for buildings, houses, decks and other structures.

5. Grading
A Bobcat excavator with an angle blade transforms the machine into a rough or finish grader, as well as a backfilling and leveling machine without forming dirt windrows. A grading bucket can cut swales and shape contours for drainage projects. Combined with the PowerTilt® or Hydra-Tilt™ swing accessories, buckets gain significant range of motion for improved precision. Bobcat compact excavator operators can dig faster using less effort and have greater precision with the Depth Check system.

6. Hardscaping
When recreating an outdoor environment, building an elaborate hardscape or constructing retaining walls, compact excavators provide grasp and precision. Their wrist-like flexibility allows you to dig square holes, load/unload and sort material, move vegetation and pavers, and place landscape boulders. Three-tine grapples paired with a clamp are the perfect solution for handling timbers or other dimensional lumber. And, for larger objects, the Bobcat Pro Clamp™ system is an ideal solution for M-Series excavator models.

7. Lifting
Excavators are ideal for loading/unloading trucks containing heavy items such as septic tanks. They can also replace tractor loader backhoes on horizontal directional drilling projects to lift and hold components into place for bore hole entry.

8. Ripping
Prepping a site for paving or planting could be done with your excavator fitted with a ripper to penetrate and scarify frost or hard ground.

9. Trenching
Adding a trencher attachment to an excavator creates a productive dual-capacity machine for utility or irrigation system installation.