![jcb](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Jcb.backhoe-loader.jpg)
A backhoe loader, also called a loader backhoe, loader excavator, digger in layman's terms, or colloquially shortened to backhoe within the industry, is a
heavy equipment
Heavy equipment or heavy machinery refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. ''Heavy equipment'' usually comprises five e ...
vehicle that consists of a
tractor
A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...
-like unit fitted with a
loader
Loader can refer to:
* Loader (equipment)
* Loader (computing)
** LOADER.EXE, an auto-start program loader optionally used in the startup process of Microsoft Windows ME
* Loader (surname)
* Fast loader
* Speedloader
* Boot loader
** LOADER.COM ...
-style
shovel
A shovel is a tool used for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore.
Most shovels are hand tools consisting of a broad blade fixed to a medium-length handle. Shovel blades are usually made o ...
/
bucket
A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the ''bail''.
A bucket is usually an open-top container. In contrast, a ...
on the front and a
backhoe on the back. Due to its (relatively) small size and versatility, backhoe loaders are very common in
urban engineering Municipal or urban engineering applies the tools of science, art and engineering in an urban environment.
Municipal engineering is concerned with municipal infrastructure. This involves specifying, designing, constructing, and maintaining street ...
and small construction projects (such as building a small house, fixing urban roads, etc.) as well as developing countries. This type of machine is similar to and derived from what is now known as a TLB (Tractor-Loader-Backhoe), which is to say, an agricultural tractor fitted with a front loader and rear backhoe attachment.
The true development of the backhoe actually began in 1947 by the inventors that started the Wain-Roy Corporation of Hubbardston, Massachusetts. In 1947 Wain-Roy Corporation developed and tested the first actual backhoes. In April 1948 Wain-Roy Corporation sold the very first all hydraulic backhoes, mounted to a
Ford Model 8N tractor, to the Connecticut Light and Power Company for the sum of $705.
History
![60 Jahre Unimog - Wörth 2011 040 (5797928784)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/60_Jahre_Unimog_-_W%C3%B6rth_2011_040_%285797928784%29.jpg)
Evolving in parallel to development in the U.S., backhoes were first produced in the UK in 1953 by
JCB, but it was just a prototype. The world's first backhoe loader with factory warranty was introduced in the U.S. by J.I. Case in 1957. Their Model 320 was the world's first serial backhoe loader. Although based on a tractor, a backhoe loader was and is almost never called a ''tractor'' when both the
loader
Loader can refer to:
* Loader (equipment)
* Loader (computing)
** LOADER.EXE, an auto-start program loader optionally used in the startup process of Microsoft Windows ME
* Loader (surname)
* Fast loader
* Speedloader
* Boot loader
** LOADER.COM ...
and the
backhoe are permanently attached. Backhoe loaders are also not generally used for towing and usually do not have a
power take-off (PTO) as often this is used to drive the hydraulic pump operating the attachments. When the backhoe is permanently attached, the machine usually has a seat that can swivel to the rear to face the
hoe controls. Removable
backhoe attachments almost always have a separate seat on the attachment itself.
![Koparko ladowarka](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Koparko_ladowarka.JPG)
In Britain and
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
they are commonly referred to simply as JCBs; they are popularly called "JCB" in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. In the United States, they are often referred to as "backhoes", although the term '
backhoe' only refers to one component. In
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
they are referred as
excavator
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...
-
loader
Loader can refer to:
* Loader (equipment)
* Loader (computing)
** LOADER.EXE, an auto-start program loader optionally used in the startup process of Microsoft Windows ME
* Loader (surname)
* Fast loader
* Speedloader
* Boot loader
** LOADER.COM ...
s.
In 1970, Hy-Dynamic, now a division of
Bucyrus-Erie
Bucyrus-Erie was an American surface and underground mining equipment company. It was founded as Bucyrus Foundry and Manufacturing Company in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1880. Bucyrus moved its headquarters to South Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1893. In 1927, B ...
, manufacturer of the Dynahoe, was the first company to incorporate a
four-wheel drive
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
system into their backhoe loaders, allowing these models to go over almost any terrain with little difficulty. Since the backhoe was invented, several companies such as Caterpillar and John Deere have changed the backhoe's back arm to be slightly curved like that of an
excavator
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...
, which can allow more maneuverability.
Use
Backhoe loaders are very common and can be used for a wide variety of tasks: construction, small demolitions, light transportation of
building material
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rock (geology), rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materia ...
s, powering building equipment, digging holes/
excavation,
landscaping
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following:
# Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal o ...
, breaking
asphalt
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
, and paving roads. Often, the backhoe bucket can also be replaced with powered attachments such as a
breaker
Breaker may refer to:
Objects
* A breaking wave on water, or a "breaker", a shallow over which waves break
* Circuit breaker, an electrical overload switch
* Breaker (hydraulic), a percussion hammer attached to an excavator
People
* Breaker Mo ...
,
grapple,
auger
Auger may refer to:
Engineering
* Wood auger, a drill for making holes in wood (or in the ground)
** Auger bit, a drill bit
* Auger conveyor, a device for moving material by means of a rotating helical flighting
* Auger (platform), the world's f ...
, or a
stump grinder
Stump grinders can be the size of a lawn mower or as large as a truck. Most accomplish their task by means of a high-speed disk with teeth that grinds the stump and roots into small chips.
A typical stump grinder incorporates a cutter wheel wi ...
. Enhanced
articulation of attachments can be achieved with intermediate attachments such as the
tiltrotator
A tiltrotator (known under a number of trade names) is a hydraulic attachment/tool used on most excavators, and backhoes between 1,5 and 40 tons in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, and Norway). A tiltrotator is mounted on the excavator such ...
. Many backhoes feature
quick coupler
Quick couplers (also called quick hitches) 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 attach ...
(quick-attach) mounting systems and auxiliary
hydraulic
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...
circuits for simplified attachment mounting, increasing the machine's
utilization on the job site. Some loader buckets have a retractable bottom or "clamshell", enabling it to empty its load more quickly and efficiently. Retractable-bottom loader buckets are also often used for grading and scraping. The front assembly may be a removable attachment or permanently mounted.
Because digging while on tires intrinsically causes the machine to rock, and the swinging weight of the backhoe could cause the vehicle to tip, most backhoe loaders use hydraulic
outriggers
An outrigger is a projecting structure on a boat, with specific meaning depending on types of vessel. Outriggers may also refer to legs on a wheeled vehicle that are folded out when it needs stabilization, for example on a crane that lifts ...
or stabilizers at the rear when digging and lower the loader bucket for additional stability. This means that the bucket must be raised and the outriggers retracted when the vehicle needs to change positions, reducing efficiency. For this reason many companies offer miniature tracked excavators, which sacrifice the loader function and ability to be driven from site to site, for increased digging efficiency.
Their relatively small frame and precise control make backhoe-loaders very useful and common in
urban engineering Municipal or urban engineering applies the tools of science, art and engineering in an urban environment.
Municipal engineering is concerned with municipal infrastructure. This involves specifying, designing, constructing, and maintaining street ...
projects such as construction and repairs in areas too small for larger equipment. Their versatility and compact size makes them one of the most popular urban
construction vehicles. For larger projects, a
tracked excavator
Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...
is generally used.
In recent years, small compact tractors have become very popular with private homeowners. Subcompact tractors, the size between a compact tractor and lawn tractor, are also often sold in backhoe loader setup, sometimes with a belly-mounted
mower
A mower is a person or machine that cuts (mows) grass or other plants that grow on the ground. Usually mowing is distinguished from reaping, which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for harvesting grain crops, e.g. with reape ...
also included. These tractors offer private homeowners the ability to perform minor excavation projects.
File:Backhoeplowingsnow.jpeg, A backhoe with a snow plow
A snowplow (also snow plow, snowplough or snow plough) is a device intended for mounting on a vehicle, used for removing snow and ice from outdoor surfaces, typically those serving transportation purposes. Although this term is often used to re ...
attachment clearing snow
File:ExcavatorLoader3654.JPG, A worker attaches a lifting cable to a concrete sewer pipe section. Note the retracted stabilizers on this Case backhoe.
File:ExcavatorLoader3655.JPG, Pipe transported using a lifting cable
File:Backhoe loader during Operation Desert Storm.JPEG, Unimog
The Unimog (, ) is a range of multi-purpose tractors, trucks and lorries that has been produced by Boehringer from 1948 until 1951, and by Daimler Truck (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler AG) since 1951. In the United States and ...
backhoe loader of the USMC
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...
during Operation Desert Storm
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
Manufacturers
*
Bharat Earth Movers Limited
BEML Limited, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Limited, is an Indian Public Sector Undertaking, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. It manufactures a variety of heavy equipment, such as that used for earth moving, railways, transport and ...
*
Bobcat Company
Bobcat Company is an American-based manufacturer of farm and construction equipment. Its American headquarters is in West Fargo, North Dakota, formerly in Gwinner, North Dakota. Its European headquarters moved in 2017 from Waterloo, Belgium, to ...
*
Case Corporation
The Case Corporation was a manufacturer of agricultural machinery and construction equipment. Founded, in 1842, by Jerome Increase Case as the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, it operated under that name for most of a century. For anot ...
*
Caterpillar Inc.
Caterpillar Inc. (stock symbol CAT) is an American ''Fortune'' 500 corporation and the world's largest construction-equipment manufacturer.
In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 65 on the ''Fortune'' 500 list and number 238 on the Global ''Fo ...
*
John Deere Tractors
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
*
Escorts Group
Escorts Kubota Limited formerly Escorts Limited is an Indian multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate that operates in the sectors of agricultural machinery, construction machinery, material handling, and railway equipment. Its headq ...
*
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
*
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
*
HEPCO
*
Hidromek
Hidromek is a heavy equipment manufacturer founded in Ankara in 1978.
History
Hidromek was founded in 1978 by Hasan Basri Bozkurt in a small workshop in Ankara. In the first years, Hidromek produced parts such as pumps and torque converters for ...
*
Hitachi, Ltd.
() is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo ...
*
Hydrema
Hydrema 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 t ...
*
Hyundai Heavy Industries
Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI; ) is the world's largest shipbuilding company and a major heavy equipment manufacturer. Its headquarters are in Ulsan, South Korea.
History
HHI was founded in 1972 by Chung Ju-yung as a division of the ...
*
J. C. Bamford
JCB is a British multinational manufacturer of equipment for construction, agriculture, waste handling, and demolition, founded in 1945 and based in Rocester, Staffordshire, England. The word " JCB" is also often used colloquially as a ge ...
(JCB)
*
Komatsu LTD
*
LiuGong
*
Mahindra
*
Manitou Group
Manitou () is a French heavy equipment manufacturer that makes forklifts, cherry pickers, telehandlers, and other heavy equipment. Manitou started in France in 1957 when Marcel Braud designed the first forklift truck for use in rough terrain. Its ...
*
New Holland Construction
New Holland Construction is an American manufacturer of construction machinery. Along with New Holland Agriculture, New Holland Construction is a brand of CNH. New Holland Construction produces construction equipment including backhoes, excav ...
*
Mecalac
*
VF Venieri
*
Volvo Construction Equipment
Volvo Construction Equipment - Volvo CE - (originally Munktells, Bolinder-Munktell, Volvo BM) is a major international company that develops, manufactures and markets equipment for construction and related industries. It is a subsidiary and busine ...
In popular culture
Scoop from
Bob the Builder
''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series follows the adventures of Bob, a building contractor, specialising in masonry, along with ...
is a yellow Backhoe Loader
Diggs from
Construction Site
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and co ...
is a blue Backhoe Loader
References
External links
{{Commons category, Backhoe loaders
How a backhoe-loader works* NIOSH Publication
Construction equipment
Engineering vehicles
Excavating equipment