The Backhoe is the most common piece of machinery used in construction industry. Backhoe probably is the one which can be mostly seen on any construction site - whether on roads or large structures. A Backhoe is essentially a digging equipment always fitted with a vehicle. It is often termed excavator or backhoe loader.

Backhoe functions much like human arm - it can dig, lift the material and throw (dump). Backhoe has three parts - boom, stick, and bucket. Boom is attached to the vehicle (often called tractor), and joined with stick. Other end of the stick is joined to the bucket. Now the design is complete - bucket as hands, stick as your forearm and boom as upper arm.

Tractor is attached with the other two components in the system - the backhoe and the loader. Backhoe does the digging, tractor makes the whole unit movable and the loader shifts the dug material. These three make up the whole unit needed on the construction sites.

Operating the backhoe

Operator sitting inside the tractor finds facing the control panel in his front on the dashboard. It has three major consoles - one each for the tractor, backhoe and the loader. A skilled operator knows that backhoe operations need more application than the front loader. Operator has to simultaneously operate the vehicle (tractor) and the backhoe. The operation starts with digging the hole and then dumping the dug material on the side (or even loading a truck parked nearby). Two stabilizer legs support the unit - once the tractor is parked at the desired place, these two legs are jutted out from beneath the unit. These two legs provide extra support to the unit. Once this is done, the operator will use one of the levers to reach the desired digging point by extending the arm. Another lever on the console is then used to lower the bucket to make it touch the ground. Third lever in the system is used to start the digging operations - this lever forces down the bucket into the earth. The inward motion ensures the dug material fill up the bucket. Once the bucket is filled up, it is either dumped sidewise or into the dump truck.

Compact backhoes

Another very popular variety of backhoes is compact backhoes. These compact backhoes can be kept in the same category as those like skid-steer loaders, compact wheel loaders and trenchers. While each of these types has its own sets of pro's and con's, it is important to keep in mind the main application where these will be put to use. Compact backhoes are known for very efficient digging, faster load and carry cycles and light attachment use. If you are looking to have an application asking for digging upto six feet depth, compact backhoes are exceptionally good for the purpose. Compact backhoes are very easy to use, and need far less time to be detached from the tractor unit. Curved bottom boom structures are also characterized by some compact backhoes available in the market. When the application involves heavy truck loading operations, compact backhoes have proved to be a great boon.

Some of the major and reputed backhoe manufacturers are JCB, Caterpillar, John Deere, Case, KPX, Massey Ferguson, etc.

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