[twothamendment]

Any excavator beats a shovel!

I'm just a homeowner with a decent size piece of land and lots of trees. The ground is glacial till/drumlin, so rocks vary from gravel, to bowling balls and table size boulders.

I have a 7,000 lb excavator and couldn't imagine using smaller for my needs, but there is a right size for everyone!

I'd love it if mine were electric. I don't use it all of the time or all day, but the smoking old diesel is not the part of it that I enjoy.

[voakbasda]

I have owned a 3.5T mini excavator for over a decade. This class of machine is around 8’ wide and almost 10’ tall. Any bigger any I couldn’t haul it with my pickup truck. I use it regularly on my farm and love it, but it is far too big for many tasks.

Consequently, I recently bought a 1.3T micro excavator. It’s only 36” wide and less than 8’ tall, and even shorter with the canopy off. It opens up a whole new world of jobs that I can do without breaking my back, but it cannot come close to doing the same amount of work as the bigger machine.

Recently, I mucked out a livestock shelter with the micro machine, as my mini could barely reach into the structure without bumping the roof. The micro can drive all around in the structure; however, it can barely reach high enough to dump its bucket into the dump trailer. As a result, the small machine made a big pile outside the structure, then the big machine loaded it into the trailer.

Each machine did its portion of the work at least twice as fast as the other would take. It was a great demonstration of using the right tool for the job.

[ianburrell]

Would it be feasible to have micro-excavator drone? It seems like for one in article, a lot of space is used by the human driving it. They could make a smaller one that doesn't have cab and is controlled by remote. That would especially lower the height.

[voakbasda]

I would not try to convert one of these micro-excavators into a remote piloted unit, for a variety of reasons.

First, these machines are extremely unstable. You can find videos of people getting thrown off these micro-machines or laying them on their side. While removing the human operator would lower the center of gravity slightly, I would not expect that to be enough to change the equation.

Second, operating the machine involves sensing force feedback from the machine as it encounters resistance. I am not sure how that feedback could be translated to a remote operator. The operator seat also gives the best vantage point for seeing where you're driving, swinging the arm, and using the bucket/attachment.

Sure, you might be able to upgrade the controls to use solenoids for remote piloting, sensors on the hydraulics to send force feedback to your controller joysticks, and add a FPV camera system and AR headset that gives roughly the same visual perspective. Those extra systems would likely double or triple the cost of the machine. Even then, I think those solutions would be grossly inferior to the sensory feedback (and overall visceral experience) that you get from sitting on the machine and operating it directly.

For perspective, I spent less than $6K for a brand new machine, a pallet full of attachments (quick connect, two augers, several buckets, rake, and grapple), as well as a variety of performance and convenience upgrades (oil cooler/filter, swing motor cushion valve block, hydraulic thumb, auxiliary valves, and much more). At the end of the day, that is significantly less than the medical costs involved with repairing an intestinal hernia or ruptured disc.

[kylebenzle]

Also great demonstration of the benefits of being exceedingly wealthy.

[rembicilious]

Please, the exceedingly wealthy don’t muck out their own barn. Where I live a piece of equipment like an excavator is a great investment. It’s a tax write off and it frees up time for you to do other more valuable tasks instead of breaking your back with a shovel for far too long. Many (most) people will take out a loan to purchase a piece of equipment with the expectation that it will “pay for itself” over it’s service life.

[542354234235]

Ah yes, the classic trope of the wealthy farmer, mucking out the barn and then checking the time on his Patek Philippe watch. I bet his pigs only drink Voss water.

[kotaKat]

Yeah, dude got wealthy by mucking shit out of a barn. Pick up a shovel and give it a try -- you too, can get exceedingly wealthy :)

[buggeryorkshire]

really?