Choosing right excavator sizes plays a huge role in the success of your project. Get it right, and your project will go more smoothly; get it wrong and it may cost you dearly.
Because excavators as so versatile, they can be used for all kinds of projects like road works, land clearing, digging pools and ponds, house demolition, stump removal and more. It’s the reason they are one of the most common and popular construction machines around—but it also makes it difficult to know which excavator suits your project scope and needs.
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What do you need an excavator for? Stump removal? House demolition? Clearing trees? All these jobs can be completed with an excavator, but require different engine power, reach, breakout force and attachments.
Establishing what is needed to complete the job is the first step to choosing the right size excavator and which attachments you may need. At this point you may require an excavator with a quick-attach feature for maximum productivity onsite.
Similarly to knowing the job, you also need to take into account the scope of the work. Will you clearing a small residential lot or a large commercial lot spanning over acres? Is the site easily accessible, or will you need to organise tight-access mini excavators? Perhaps a knuckle boom excavator will be required for those hard-to-reach places.
Knowing the capacity required for your excavator will greatly narrow down your search. In general, the larger the excavator, the greater its bucket capacity.
Having a good understanding of how much needs to be dug and moved will give you a clearer idea on whether it’s worth paying more for a larger excavator for faster completion, or opt for a smaller excavator but extending the job.
While scoping the job, check the terrain for any possible requirements for specialist excavators. Look for things like swamps, steep hills, tight spaces, etc. Specialist excavators can include:
When it comes to excavator sizes and their applications, it’s important to get it right. Here’s a quick guide to excavator sizes and their uses.
Mini excavators, also known as compact excavators, are tiny machines built for tight-access spaces and light digging work. Weighing between 0 – 7 tonnes, these excavators are lightweight and therefore do the least damage to fragile infrastructure such as footpaths. They’re also very easy to transport, thanks to their compact size.
Mini excavators are ideal for:
If your job requires a little more capacity, a standard excavator (from 7-50 tonnes) may be a good option. These excavators can cover a wide variety of tasks and jobs. The smaller excavators are ideal for more light, nimble work, while the larger excavators are built for powerful digging jobs.
Standard excavators are ideal for:
Large excavators (from 50 – 100 tonne) are the workhorses of the pack. Their built to be strong, solid and with huge horsepower and breakout force. When your project calls for large levels of earthworks, these may be the excavators you need. They are not very maneuverable (for obvious reasons). You will require specialist transport and equipment to get it from site to site.
Large excavators are ideal for:
And lastly, mining excavators (over 100 tonnes) head up the excavator family. These things are absolute beasts and are used primarily for mining applications, such as surface excavation. Mining excavators are so massive, they require a large amount of level ground to operate on.
If you’re tossing up between hiring or buying an excavator for your project, we’ve put together a quick list of pros and cons that may help you decide. Either way, we have plenty of excavators for sale and excavators for hire on our site.
Brands use different methods to categorise their excavators, which can be confusing when you’re trying to research the right one. Check out these top 10 excavator brands, or take a look at our quick-reference table to see which brands offer which types of excavators, how many models, and their horsepower range*. We have grouped them by brand and excavator size/weight.
| Mini (0-7T) |
Small (7-20T) |
Medium (20-50T) |
Large (50-100T) |
Mining (100+T) |
|
| Caterpillar | 20 Models 13 – 44 HP |
7 Models 65 – 117 HP |
13 Models 212 – 352 HP |
3 Models 311 – 524 HP |
– |
| Komatsu | 5 Models 15 – 38 HP |
9 Models 66 – 121 HP |
18 Models
138 – 359 HP |
3 Models 429 – 487 HP |
7 Models 672 – 4,020 HP |
| CASE | 6 Models 16 – 64 HP |
5 Models 50 – 123 HP |
8 Models 159 – 362 HP |
|
|
| Kubota | 12 Models
10 – 47 HP |
|
– | – | – |
| Volvo | 5 Models 16 – 50 HP |
8 Models 58 – 172 |
8 Models 165 – 355 HP |
2 Models 516 – 603 HP |
– |
| JCB | 7 Models 12 – 47 HP |
5 Models 47 – 108 HP |
7 Models 179 – 281 HP |
|
|
| Yanmar | 9 Models
12 – 44 HP |
3 Models
56 – 72 HP |
– | – | – |
| Kobelco | 20 Models
10 – 38 HP |
13 Models
56 – 104 HP |
23 Models
158 – 363 HP |
– | – |
| Wacker Neuson | 10 Models
12 – 48 HP |
4 Models 48 – 73 HP |
– | – | – |
Did this article help you choose the right excavator? Let us know your thoughts below!
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*Data is correct at time of publishing, sourced directly from OEM websites for new excavator equipment ranges.
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