Taking a Short Look at Backhoes
By: Dave Cole
The Backhoe (back actor, rear actor) is an articulated piece of
excavating equipment with a bucket for digging on one end and an
arm consisting of two parts. Backhoes are called a back or rear
part because they are mounted on the back of bigger equipment
like a front loader or tractor.
The boom is the section closest to the tractor or front loader
and it is connected to the vehicle by a pivot called a kingpost.
This makes it possible for the backhoe to move both right and
left as well as up and down. The dipper (dipperstick) is the part
of the backhoe that is connected to the boom and the bucket. The
backhoe itself nowadays is powered by hydraulics and can move a
total of 200 degrees.
The backhoe when curling the bucket into the dirt is at it's
strongest, followed by the dipper and then the boom.
Skid steer loaders are still called backhoes even though they are
attached at the front instead of the back. A backhoe is called a
backhoe not really because of the "back" reference but because of
the action "hoe" and the action associated with hoeing, that is
why a skid loader is still considered a backhoe.
There are many ways that a backhoe can be used aside from
excavation. It is often used to transport items between one site
and another. It has been used to pick up piles of debris to put
in dump trucks, and many more ways. A smaller version has also
been made to mount to smaller vehicles.
Backhoes are primarily used on the job site as excavators and can
be attached to many different vehicles. This flexibility of the
backhoe makes it a very valuable tool for the construction trade.
It can be attached to tractors, rear hoe, front end loader (FEL)
and bulldozers. There are also special attachments such as the
tilt rotator that can be used with the backhoe.
This useful tool was first made in Britain and was used with a
tractor in 1953. The backhoe is a very useful tool that digs fast
and efficiently, creating deep holes that would have taken hours
to do manually. But even though the backhoe is useful it is being
slowly edged out on job sites by multiple specialist tools like
the excavator.
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