A trackhoe is an excavator with rotating tracks used in heavy construction for demolition, excavation, and finishing work. They come in various sizes and are also used in other industries. Safety precautions must be followed, and familiarity with outdoor construction and mechanical engineering environments is required.
A trackhoe is a type of excavator used in heavy construction that is built on a pair of rotating tracks similar to those used by tanks. The name comes from the fact that the machine is similar to the backhoe loader in the UK. The use of a trackhoe in construction is often used to finalize the demolition of a building after a wrecking ball has brought down most of its walls and structure. The trackhoe has a knuckle arm with a large bucket on the end, which is used to break up concrete and other debris, scoop it up, and deposit it in a dump truck or other location to be hauled off site. They are also used, as the name of the excavator suggests, to excavate the ground around a foundation and prepare it for new construction.
Tracked machines come in a range of sizes, with the smallest models called mini-excavators or compact excavators. A similar type of miniature version of an excavator usually built on wheels instead of tracks is the American bobcat, or skid loader. It is often used in confined spaces where a trackhoe would be too awkward or too heavy to do the job. Trackhoes are also generally referred to as excavators or “360s” when they are capable of rotating 360° on their axis. If such a machine has wheels at its base instead of tracks, it is called a “rubber duck” in UK construction terminology or a “Yumbo” in Japan.
The trackhoe is a common machine seen on construction sites during the early stage of land preparation for construction, but they are also used in a variety of other industries. They have applications in demolition and mining as well as finishing work around buildings such as landscaping. Their ability to rotate fully on their axis and lift heavy loads also makes them useful where heavy pipes are being laid or if rivers or other waterways need dredging.
The heaviest crawler excavator construction equipment weighs 85 tons and requires a solid foundation to operate on. Even moderately sized machines, however, can be difficult to operate, as there are many safety precautions that must be followed. They are also machines that are used for a variety of tasks, so using a trackhoe requires someone with a familiarity in many types of outdoor construction and mechanical engineering environments. The U.S. Occupational Outlook Handbook listed 75,700 U.S. excavation equipment jobs as of 2008, with projections that the overall outlook for moving materials would decline 1 percent between then and year 2018.
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