As for heavy equipment, earth mover rentals hold a special place in the heart of many a roughneck. If you conducted a poll a Tonka bulldozer would probably rank in the top 3 most gifted toys for five-year-olds. They are often referred to in general as: heavy vehicles, heavy construction equipment, heavy trucks or vehicles, and engineering equipment. A unifying characteristic for all earth movers is that most of them use hydraulic drives to power movement.
Earth moving equipment is usually rented for moving large masses of, you guessed it, earth and used for a wide range of duties including landscaping jobs, laying foundations, light and heavy demolition, rock and dirt excavation, as well as trench digging.
A seasoned hardhat will tell you there are many types of earth movers to rent and matching the right one for the job is key to a smooth project. Earth movers are broken down into 3 classes: tractor & loader rentals, excavator rentals, and dozer rentals; however, each has there own subset of machines. Let’s dig a little deeper (pardon the pun) to understand where they differ and which of these heavy equipment rentals is right for your next job.
Tractors & Loaders are great for working with loose materials. Think of them as a giant ladle scooping up a bowl of stew, which unlike dense soil, is loose (this analogy will help us later in the article). They are a form of tractor and for the most part wheeled, hence the name wheeled loaders. Whether it’s snow, sand or gravel a loader can have it transported to most anywhere on-site in a matter of minutes. Loaders also shine at clearing rubble and loading and transporting materials onto trucks. Their accurate and precise material handling capabilities make loading jobs more efficient and easier.
One subset of this category is the skid steer which is sort of a mini-loader. They are the swiss army knife of earth mover rentals because of the myriad of interchangeable attachments available to rent. Each attachment plays a different role. They include but are not limited to: mower for skid steer, tiller, auger attachment, hydro hammer breaker attachment, and skid steer for planer. If you’ve ever wondered where the name “skid steer” originated you’ve come to the right place. It derives from the unique manner in which it steers as there is no steering mechanism. The wheels stay straight and do not move left or right relative to the cab. It is similar to the manner in which a military tank turns. With the option of wheels or tracks you find the right skid-steer rental at our Petaluma or San Rafael location. By powering the left and right wheels or tracks at different speeds it can control the direction by dragging and skidding its wheels across the ground.
Another smaller heavy equipment loader is the versatile backhoe loader. You can rent a backhoe loader for digging, rock breaking, light moving, and demolition. So what’s the difference between a skid steer and a backhoe loader you ask? First, a backhoe loader can turn its wheels. Second, a backhoe loader can be fitted with two attachments simultaneously (front and back). On the other hand, a skid steer is limited to one attachment at a time on the front of the loader.
Excavators are rented for digging. You are more likely to see them on larger, commercial jobs for they are bigger and have more muscle than your traditional loader. However, our mid-sized compact excavator rentals also come in handy for all types of commercial and residential construction situations. Remember we used the analogy of scooping stew out of a pot with a ladle when describing the large open buckets on backhoes and loaders? Now think of scooping your favorite ice cream from a carton. A soup ladle wouldn’t do the trick. It would break or buckle because of the density of the material. Instead, a compact rigid scoop that can dig out the ice cream would serve a better purpose. The keyword here is dig. So where does all this muscle come from needed for this heavy scooping? Robust hydraulics and size. The average backhoe (which we’ve learned falls within the “loader” category) weighs around 18,000 lbs whereas excavators can range in weight from 3,600 lbs to 205,000 lbs. The largest excavator we have in our rental inventory is our mid-sized excavator the Cat® 308E which weighs in at 18,500lbs. The extra oomph provided by excavators can come in handy in a myriad of ways on a project site but they especially work well for trenching, foundations, mining and river dredging. Compared to a backhoe, a big difference with an excavator is its rotation flexibility. The cab on an excavator sits atop the undercarriage and can rotate a full 360 degrees. Generally, a loader’s pivot potential maxes out at about 200 degrees. Pivoting and turning on excavators are quicker and more precise due to their hydraulic systems, which are controlled by a joystick.
Now for the meanest, heaviest hog of the bunch – the dozer. It looks like a stout tractor with a big blade on the front and excels at moving large quantities of soil, sand or rubble over wide parcels of land. There are two main types: crawler dozers and wheeled bulldozers. The latter sometimes referred to as a tire bulldozer, is larger and offers better maneuverability and overall handling. To provide mobility and prevent these behemoths from sinking in the mud, crawler dozers are outfitted with huge, extra-wide tracks, sometimes called “swamp tracks”, that stabilize and distribute its weight evenly. Our tracked dozer rentals come in two different sizes: a 75hp 15,720lb dozer with an 8’ blade and a 104hp 20,300lb dozer with a 9’ blade. An interesting feature for the dozer is the blade’s ability to rotate at different angles which helps in controlling the distribution of dirt on grading projects. Need to protect your new football field from future drainage nightmares? By manipulating its blade positioning a dozer can easily build a crown on your field using a 2% slope. On the backside of a dozer, you’ll usually find a long claw type apparatus called the ripper. It breaks large blocks of clay or rock into smaller, more manageable pieces. The ripper will have multiple or a single shank(s) that has a replaceable tungsten alloy tip (sometimes called a “boot”). For tough ripping jobs, the single shank version is usually preferred.
You should now be able to hold your own when the topic of earth movers comes up at your next cocktail party, but what if you have a big construction project looming and need to learn more? Call Cal West Rentals. We love this stuff and would be more than happy to help you with your heavy equipment decision-making.
To rent earth moving equipment please call us today.
Petaluma 707 – 763 – 5665 or San Rafael 415 – 884 – 0610
Despite the alliteration, bulldozers and backhoes have very different functionality. It's important to understand the similarities and differences between backhoes and bulldozers to get the most out of their performance.
If you throw the best parts of a wheel loader and an excavator together, you'll have a backhoe. The back side of the machine has an excavator-like arm and a digger, allowing it to dig holes, trenches, and more, while the other side has a bucket that makes it a great earthmoving machine. The bucket is typically around 1.3 cubic yards and is great for lifting and dumping materials into dump trucks. The arm has two outriggers that add stability while the machine digs.
It's important to note that, unlike excavators, backhoe buckets don't have a thumb. Thumbs, which function exactly as human thumbs do on a hand, enable the machine to easily pick up material. Since backhoes don't have thumbs, their buckets are better at digging than they are at grabbing.
A backhoe's cab is completely sealed, though all windows are clear so the operator has lots of visibility. Because each part of a backhoe has a different function, they're considered to be multipurpose machines. They can dig, lift, dump, and remove material, and are great to have on-site for multiple jobs.
Backhoes don't have much dig depth variation, as can be seen in our backhoe spec guide. Take a look at the variety of features different brands offer.
When you think of heavy construction equipment, bulldozers are probably one of the first images that come to mind. Bulldozers have sealed cabins and a variety of different blades. They typically run on tracks instead of wheels, since tracks are more efficient on sticky and rough dirt.
Wide-track dozers, also known as low-ground pressure (LGP) models, have larger front blades that prevent the dozer from sinking into the ground and getting stuck. Bulldozers have multiple attachments, which are all mainly used for clearing large quantities of material, earthmoving, excavation, and grading.
Bulldozers come in a wider range of models and sizes than backhoes and can be used for jobs ranging from residential roadwork to quarrying and mining.
Backhoes and bulldozers are very different machines and the main thing driving their differences is functionality. They are super versatile machines that specialize in digging and light earthmoving projects while dozers specialize in clearing material and heavy earthmoving.
As an excavation machine, backhoes come in handy when digging. The excavator bucket scoops dirt toward the machine which allows it to dig trenches for utility projects and remove material easily. Dozers can be used for digging as well, but only for shallow trenches and creating slopes. Because their blades can't reach the depths that a backhoe bucket can, digging is not a primary application of dozer machines.
In terms of material clearing, bulldozers have the upper hand. The front end of a dozer can easily push through large piles of dirt or gravel while a backhoe would not be nearly as efficient in this capacity. As such, bulldozers are a great option for grading work, land clearing, and pushing material. And, since dozers run on tracks, they don't lose their traction over material piles in the way that backhoes do.
The front bucket on a backhoe can clear some material, however, because of traction issues, backhoes are better equipped to stay in one spot and lift the material up to a certain height. And because of their size, these machines are typically used on light and medium-duty projects while dozers are most common on commercial and large-scale projects.
Because of their clearing and demolition abilities, you can almost always find a bulldozer on quarries, farms, and other construction sites pushing debris and other heavy materials.
Backhoes have an excavator arm and front bucket, while bulldozers have a front blade and nothing attached to their backside. These structural differences largely account for how their purposes differ.
Another structural aspect to consider is that the majority of backhoes run on wheels, while the majority of dozers run on tracks. You can find both machine types in their alternative wheel type, but it isn't an equipment standard.
Since dozers have tracks, they have much more stability on wet, muddy, or non-level earth. The traction dozer tracks provide is much better than the traction capability found on wheeled backhoes.
There are fewer attachments available for backhoes than bulldozers because the rear arm of the machine needs an attachment that won't interfere with the machine's overall stability. Augers, couplers, and rippers are among the few rear backhoe attachments. Brooms, snowplows, and grapples are common on the front end.
Bulldozers only have an attachment site located at the front of the machine. Since there are so many types of terrain that need clearing, there are a lot of bulldozer blades to choose from, which all have their own purpose. They can also be equipped with root rakes, winches, rippers, and more.
Bulldozers are powerful, rugged machines. Depending on their size, there are various degrees of strength and engine power. The smallest dozers start at 80HP while ones with operating weights over 100,000 can have up to 890 HP!
In comparison to dozers, backhoes are smaller and less powerful. Their operating weights range from 16,000- 19,500, and models have between 74 and 100 HP. Backhoes are capable of performing solid work at an efficient pace, but bulldozers bring another level of power to the table.
With these two machines, the differences outweigh the similarities. While both backhoes and dozers can be used for transporting materials, the front bucket on a backhoe is better equipped to lift material than a dozer.
When dozers push material, they're technically transporting it from one spot to another. The blades can't lift material up to elevated heights the way buckets can, but they can start the transportation process. These machines often can complement each other very well on medium-sized projects.
The best way to summarize the difference between bulldozers and backhoes is as follows: The former is best at clearing material, grading, and pushing material, while the latter is best used for digging, moving, and lifting material.
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