Excavator Buying Guide
Excavators bring a whole lot of power and utility to job sites, with efficient material transport being a primary draw. With an excavator, you can clear debris quickly and move your projects along. Not every excavator is the same, though, and you need to know what you’re looking for to avoid getting a piece of equipment that doesn’t work for you.
Buying any piece of heavy equipment can be tough, since there are a lot of aspects to consider, from basic utility, to individual manufactures and models — it can add up to a lot of research. We at Synergy Equipment have put together this short excavator buying guide to help you through some of the specific aspects to look at when shopping for an excavator. Read on for more information or head into one of our many locations throughout Florida and Georgia today!
An Excavator for Your Work
While there a lot of factors that will go into your decision on which excavator to buy, you should first understand what kind of tasks you expect your future excavator to be able to handle and use that as the standard going forward. It’d be no use getting a model that can’t do the work you need it to do!
Think about what you’ll be moving, where you’ll need your excavator to go, and how often you’re going to use the excavator. Having a clear understanding of what you need can help you match the right piece of equipment more easily to your work. You’ll just need to fill in the blanks.
Size and Weight
After use, the size and weight of an excavator will be a big factor in helping you determine if it’s the right one for you. If you’re mostly working in small, confined areas, then a larger excavator will certainly be out of the question. The more room you work with and the bigger the projects, the bigger piece of equipment you’ll need.
Also consider the materials you expect your excavator to handle. Smaller excavators might have issues with larger pieces of debris even if they aren’t too heavy.
Most smaller jobs or companies will be fine with a compact excavator or mini excavator. These machines range from being able to handle a few thousand pounds all the way up to 40 tons. If you need to handle anything more than that, you’ll be looking for a gigantic excavator. Not sure how to narrow things down? Just bring us a detailed description of your workspace and weight needs and we’ll help you better understand what you’re looking for.
Engine Power
The power of an excavator should be directly tied to its size, being that larger equipment needs bigger engines, but you’ll still have a range of options to choose from even when using this basic metric. Rather than choosing the largest, most powerful engine outright, simply start with what you’ll need at a minimum. As long as an excavator is rated for the weights you’re dealing with, you won’t need anything more powerful. Going bigger than you need just wastes money, both in upfront cost and in continued maintenance. While this won’t play as big a role in deciding what you get, it’ll probably affect what your excavator can do, so make sure you know the limits.
Bucket Capacity
Just like with engine power, you need a standard bucket attachment that’s rated to handle the weights you’ll be dealing with. Like with other aspects of excavators, model size will generally flow through to the size of the standard bucket, but some models are rated higher or lower when it comes to their buckets and bucket capacity.
Pay special attention to bucket capacity when shopping for compact or mini excavators, as they will be least likely to be able to handle higher weights and bigger buckets.
We hope some of these tips help clear up a bit of the confusion around buying excavators. Don’t risk getting the wrong machine. Come into Synergy Equipment today! Our team of courteous professionals will answer all your questions and help you find what you’re looking for. We have locations throughout Florida and Georgia, and we proudly serve our neighbors in South Carolina. Stop by for a look at our stock of new and used excavators from brands like Doosan and more.