A
backhoe, also called a
rear actor or
back actor, is a piece of excavating equipment or
diggerExcavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...
consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. They are typically mounted on the back of a
tractorA tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
or
front loaderA loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...
. The section of the arm closest to the vehicle is known as the boom, and the section which carries the bucket is known as the
dipper or dipperstick (the terms "boom" and "dipper" having been used previously on
steam shovelA steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...
s). The boom is attached to the vehicle through a pivot known as the kingpost, which allows the arm to slew left and right, usually through a total of around 200 degrees. Modern backhoes are powered by
hydraulicsHydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to...
.
Characteristics
Most backhoes are at their strongest curling the bucket, with the dipper arm next most powerful, and boom movements the least powerful.
Similar attachments for
skid loaderA skid loader or skid steer loader is a small rigid frame, engine-powered machine with lift arms used to attach a wide variety of labor-saving tools or attachments. Though sometimes they are equipped with tracks, skid-steer loaders are typically four-wheel drive vehicles with the left-side drive...
s are still called backhoes even though they are mounted on the front. This is because the name refers to the action of the shovel, not its location on the vehicle: a backhoe digs by drawing earth backwards, rather than lifting it with a forward motion like a
bulldozerA bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc., during construction work and typically equipped at the rear with a claw-like device to loosen densely-compacted materials.Bulldozers can be found on a wide range of sites,...
or a man shoveling.
A
backhoe loaderA backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, digger, or colloquially shortened to backhoe, is a heavy equipment vehicle that consists of a tractor fitted with a shovel/bucket on the front and a small backhoe on the back...
is a
tractorA tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
-like vehicle with an arm and bucket mounted on the back and a
front loaderA loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...
mounted on the front. This type of vehicle is often known colloquially as a
JCBJCB is a global construction, demolition and agricultural equipment company headquartered in Rocester, United Kingdom. It is the world's third-largest construction equipment manufacturer. It produces over 300 types of machines, including diggers , excavators, tractors and diesel engines...
in Europe (after its inventor) and simply a Backhoe or a Tractor Loader Backhoe (TLB) in North America. In North American terms, a Backhoe includes both a front bucket and a rear hoe, on a chassis originally derived from farm tractors. A dedicated hoe on its own chassis is more properly referred to as an excavator.
Backhoes can be designed and manufactured from the start as such, or can be the result of a farm tractor equipped with a Front End Loader (FEL) and rear hoe. Though similar looking, the designed backhoes are much stronger, with the farm variation more suitable for light work. The farm variation also requires that the operator switch seats from sitting in front of the backhoe controls to the tractor seat in order to reposition the equipment while digging, and this often slows down the digging process.
With the advent of hydraulic powered attachments such as a
tiltrotatorA tiltrotator is an hydraulic attachment/tool used on most excavators, and backhoes between 3-30 tons in the Nordic countries...
,
breakerA breaker is a powerful percussion hammer fitted to an excavator for demolishing concrete structures or rocks. It is powered by an auxiliary hydraulic system from the excavator, which is fitted with a foot-operated valve for this purpose...
, a grapple or an
augerAn auger is a drilling device, or drill bit, that usually includes a rotating helical screw blade called a "flighting" to act as a screw conveyor to remove the drilled out material...
, the backhoe is frequently used in many applications other than excavation and with the
tiltrotatorA tiltrotator is an hydraulic attachment/tool used on most excavators, and backhoes between 3-30 tons in the Nordic countries...
attachment, serves as an effective tool carrier. Many backhoes feature
quick couplerQuick couplers are used with construction machines to allow the rapid change of buckets and attachments on the machine. They remove the need to use hammers to manually drive out and insert the mounting pins for attachments...
(quick-attach) mounting systems for simplified attachment mounting, dramatically increasing the machine's utilization on the job site. Backhoes are usually employed together with
loadersA loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...
and bulldozers.
ExcavatorExcavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...
s that use a backhoe are sometimes called "trackhoes" by people who do not realize the name is due to the action of the bucket, not its location on a backhoe loader.
Backhoes are general purpose tools, and are being displaced to some extent by multiple specialist tools like the excavator and the speciality Front End Loader, especially with the rise of the mini-excavator. On many jobsites which would have previously seen a backhoe used, a skidsteer (colloquially often called a Bobcat after the most well known manufacturer and inventor of the category) and a mini excavator will be used in conjunction to fill the backhoe's role. However, backhoes still are in general use.
Sometimes a backhoe
bucketA bucket is a specialized container attached to a machine, as compared to a bucket adapted to the form of a human being...
is reversed to work in a power shovel configuration. This is generally when loading from a large stockpile, for picking up or filling material next to walls, to increase the reach of the machine, or working around obstacles such as pipes.
Thumb
The backhoe's scoop may have a metal bar called a "thumb" hinged to the scoop: see images in Excavator#Excavator attachments. It grips against the scoop like a man's thumb to pick up objects. When not needed some sorts can lie back against the backhoe arm.
Origins
The British company
JCBJCB is a global construction, demolition and agricultural equipment company headquartered in Rocester, United Kingdom. It is the world's third-largest construction equipment manufacturer. It produces over 300 types of machines, including diggers , excavators, tractors and diesel engines...
developed early backhoes. Their first tractor equipped with both a hoe and a front-mounted loading bucket was completed in 1953 and set the standard pattern for future designs of
backhoe loaderA backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, digger, or colloquially shortened to backhoe, is a heavy equipment vehicle that consists of a tractor fitted with a shovel/bucket on the front and a small backhoe on the back...
. Because of the long-time predominance of this marque in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and
IrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, it has become a
genericized trademarkA genericized trademark is a trademark or brand name that has become the colloquial or generic description for, or synonymous with, a general class of product or service, rather than as an indicator of source or affiliation as intended by the trademark's holder...
there, and all backhoe-equipped diggers are commonly called
JCBs, while the term "hoe" is almost unknown to the general public in this context. The founder of the JCB company, Joseph Cyril Bamford, holds the honour of being the only non-American in the US construction industry's Hall of fame.
The American company Hy-Dynamic, a division of Bucyrus-Erie, introduced the second purpose-built American-made backhoe loader in 1959, the Dynahoe Model A. It offered a 14,000 lb. operating weight, 14 foot dig depth, and was powered by either a 65 hp Continental flat-head "Red Seal" 6 cylinder gasoline engine, or starting in 1961, a
Detroit DieselAs a corporation, Daimler Trucks North America has decided to rename the company "DETROIT".Detroit Diesel Corporation is an American-based diesel engine producer headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, USA...
353 diesel engine. The gasoline engine was phased out in 1964, with only diesel powered units produced from that point on. The company marketed the Dynahoe as the only purpose-built backhoe-loader, previously all American backhoes were merely farm tractors fitted with front loader and rear backhoe attachments. The Dynahoe was built very robust from the ground up with heavy excavation in mind. Production of the Dynahoe continued into the early 1990s culminating in the model Dynahoe 200-4, with a 36,000 lb. operating weight, 4 wheel drive, and a 20 foot dig depth. Production ceased with demand wavering in favor of more modern and versatile excavator type machines becoming more cost effective, and productive. Many of the original Dynahoe Model A's are still in use to this day. The first, and much more popular
Case CorporationCase CE, also Case Construction Equipment or simply Case, is a brand of construction equipment from CNH Global. Under this brand name, CNH Global is the fourth largest manufacturer of construction equipment behind CAT , JCB and Komatsu -History:The origins of Case can be traced back to 1842, when...
introduced their backhoes in 1957. The design of the Case backhoes, from the straight arm boom assembly, to the "Extendahoe" design, which can extend the dipper from four to eight feet longer, are all registered with the U.S. Patent Office, along with the chassis design.
Backhoe fade
Backhoe fade or
JCB fade is a humorous term coined by the telecommunications industry, referring to the accidental severing of a cable by a backhoe or similar construction activity.
The term comes from the sudden and initially inexplicable loss of signal ("
fadingIn wireless communications, fading is deviation of the attenuation that a carrier-modulated telecommunication signal experiences over certain propagation media. The fading may vary with time, geographical position and/or radio frequency, and is often modelled as a random process. A fading channel...
") experienced when a cable is accidentally dug up and damaged. Depending on the particular cable destroyed, service may be interrupted to just a few customers or, for a large
fiber optic cableAn optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
, millions of customers across an entire continent.
Notable manufacturers
HITACHIHitachi is a multinational corporation specializing in high-technology.Hitachi may also refer to:*Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan*Hitachi province, former province of Japan*Prince Hitachi and Princess Hitachi, members of the Japanese imperial family...
Case CECase CE, also Case Construction Equipment or simply Case, is a brand of construction equipment from CNH Global. Under this brand name, CNH Global is the fourth largest manufacturer of construction equipment behind CAT , JCB and Komatsu -History:The origins of Case can be traced back to 1842, when...
(Subsidiary of
CNH)
Caterpillar Inc.Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...
ÇukurovaÇukurova is an international construction company based in Istanbul, Turkey, and active in Afghanistan, Libya, Bahrain and other countries. The company trades under the registered name of Çukurova İnşaat ....
Deere & CompanyDeere & Company, usually known by its brand name John Deere , is an American corporation based in Moline, Illinois, and the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world. In 2010, it was listed as 107th in the Fortune 500 ranking...
Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe)Hitachi Construction Machinery NV is a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co.,Ltd. and was established in 1972 in Oosterhout, The Netherlands...
(Subsidiary of
Hitachi Construction Machineryis a construction equipment manufacturer in Japan, and a Hitachi Group company. It is listed on the Nikkei 225.-Current Products:*Crawler*Excavator*Loader*Recycle machine*Roller...
)
HydremaHydrema is a dump truck manufacturer based in Støvring, Denmark, founded in 1959. They have specialized in the manufacture of articulated light dump trucks and earth moving equipment. A variety of models are produced, with a payload of up to 20 tonnes. A company subsidiary is also operating in...
JCBJCB is a global construction, demolition and agricultural equipment company headquartered in Rocester, United Kingdom. It is the world's third-largest construction equipment manufacturer. It produces over 300 types of machines, including diggers , excavators, tractors and diesel engines...
Komatsu
Kubota, is a tractor and heavy equipment manufacturer based in Osaka, Japan. One of its notable contributions was to the construction of the Solar Ark. The company was established in 1890.The company produces many products including:...
LiuGongLiuGong Construction Machinery Also known as, Guangxi LiuGong Machinery Co., Ltd. is China's largest construction equipment manufacturer and ranks 21st largest in the world. LiuGong both manufacturers and sells its construction equipment around the world...
Massey FergusonMassey Ferguson Limited was a major agricultural equipment manufacturer which was based in Canada before its purchase by AGCO. The company was formed by a merger between Massey Harris and the Ferguson tractor company in 1953, creating the company Massey Harris Ferguson. However in 1958 the name was...
(Subsidiary of
AGCOAGCO is an agricultural equipment manufacturer based in Duluth, Georgia, USA. As a leading global manufacturer of agricultural equipment, AGCO offers a full line of tractors, combines, hay tools, sprayers, forage and tillage equipment, which are distributed through more than 2,700 independent...
)
TerexTerex Corporation is an American-based diversified global manufacturer of a broad range of heavy equipment for a variety of industries, including construction, infrastructure, quarrying, recycling, surface mining, shipping, transportation, refining, utility and maintenance...
Volvo Construction EquipmentVolvo Construction Equipment is a subsidiary and business area of AB Volvo. Volvo Construction Equipment develops, manufactures and markets equipment for the construction and related industries.- Overview :...
(Subsidiary of
VolvoAB Volvo is a Swedish builder of commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses and construction equipment. Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems, aerospace components and financial services...
)
External links