Mini Excavators

Written By: Sylvia A. Arce

The mini excavator bucket is key to the performance of any compact excavator. Excavators are versatile tools that are indispensable in digging, trenching, grading, backfilling, and clearing projects, big or small. More specifically, they can be used by contractors in small-excavation operations, large-scale excavation projects, concrete removal, utility trenching, repair digs, tree planting, harvesting and transport, demolitions, home repairs and renovation, and road applications.

Sizes of Mini Excavator Buckets

Mini excavator buckets come in different sizes depending on their intended use. The common sizes for towable diggers are 6 inches to 20 inches wide, but manufacturers can also customize the width to as wide as 2 feet or more. Different mini excavator bucket sizes serve different purposes. Let's take a look at the typical sizes:

Narrow buckets. Narrow buckets are generally 6-12 inches wide and they are ideal for digging narrow trenches like those used for installing water pipes, drains, electrical cables, and gas lines. They can also be used for digging a small ditch for a backyard irrigation project or lifting heavy gardening and lawn items.

Wide buckets. Standard wide buckets have widths of 12-24 inches and they are useful in wet and muddy terrain. They are wider in size because they are used for re-handling and leveling soil as well as general cleanup operations like ditch clearing, channel cleaning, ditch maintenance and site clearance, grading, and slope work. Tilt-grading buckets are not equipped with teeth and they can be tilted 40 degrees to the left or right to make smooth surfaces.

Specialized Mini Excavator Buckets

Because compact excavators assume a wide range of functions, manufacturers have come up with specialized types that serve specific purposes. Some of them are:

Rock buckets. Because they need to withstand higher impact and abrasion in hard ground, rock buckets are equipped with up-rated teeth and cutters, internal wear ribs, and extra side cutters. They are good for digging rocky surfaces and ripping up concrete foundations.

V ditchers. V ditchers are V-shaped buckets that are needed for digging trenches with narrow base widths and wider top widths. Not very suitable for hard and rocky ground, they may or may not be supplied with teeth. They are typically manufactured to the customers' specifications in terms of depth, top width, and base width.

Riddle buckets. These buckets have riddled backs to allow the sorting of materials. They are used to separate stone, concrete, brick, vegetation, or other debris from the soil in quarrying and landscaping works.

Ditch-cleaning buckets. These buckets have smooth lips that don't cut the ground but clean up dug soil and other materials and level the soil in landscaping projects.

An undersized or oversized mini excavator bucket can affect the result of your digging, trenching, leveling, or lifting project. When buying one, do consider the size and type that will suit your needs.