The construction industry uses a range of heavy earthmoving equipment. Each piece of equipment is quite expensive. Therefore, if you are going to start a construction business, in addition to learning about earthmoving machinery, also learn about plant and equipment insurance.
You need these machines for digging foundations, moving earth and so on. These machines are also referred to as heavy hydraulics, heavy vehicles, engineering equipment, construction equipment, heavy machines, and heavy trucks. These machines use hydraulic drives. The following are the common machines used in this industry.
Excavators
It has a cab, bucket, dipper and boom. The cab is on a rotating platform called “house”. The undercarriage below the “house” has tracks or wheels.
Bulldozer
This machine with a metal plate called blade is used to push materials such as rubble, sand or soil.
Backhoe Loader
This machine is used for tasks like construction, paving roads, digging holes/excavation, small demolitions, breaking asphalt, transporting building material, landscaping, and powering building equipment.
Motor Grader
This earthmoving equipment is used in the grading process to create flat surfaces.
Skid-steer Loader
This heavy-duty machine is used in applications like landscaping, excavation and construction, trenching and digging, and clearing snow.
Trencher
You need this machine to dig trenches for installing drainage and laying electrical cables and pipes.
Wheel tractor-scraper
This machine has a sharp horizontal front edge that cuts into the soil and fills the hopper. This load is used to fill areas.
Loader
This heavy-duty machine is used for loading materials such as asphalt, dirt, snow, demolition debris, gravel, feed, raw minerals, logs, woodchips, rock, recycled material, sand etc onto a railroad car, feed-hopper, conveyor belt or dump truck.
Dragline Excavator
This equipment is used in surface mining and civil engineering. You need this machine for driving rigs, pond and canal dredging, port construction and road construction.
Compactor
It is a machine or mechanism used for reducing the size of biomass, waste material and other materials through compaction.
Paver
You need this machine to lay asphalt on parking lots, bridges, roads and other places.
Feller Buncher
This self-propelled machine has a cutting head. This motorized vehicle gathers and cuts trees.
Telehandler
You can configure the boom of a telehandler to accept an attachment coupler. Some of these models can lift around 20,000 pounds to 100 feet.
Other common earthmoving machines include:
- Pile driver
- Dump truck
- Crawled loader
All these machines cost a boatload of money. Therefore, plant and equipment insurance is a must.
