Excavator Blade: Behind or in Front?

[Alan W.]

I was raised up that you never dug against the drive motors.
Always dug with the idlers towards the bucket.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Seems pretty clear by now that the issue has never been resolved, and maybe it depends on the application.

 

[M59]

1. Experts on the Internet say to keep a mini-excavator's blade behind you when digging.

2. Experts on the Internet say to keep a mini-excavator's blade in front of you when digging.

Help.

I don't know anything about the qualifications of the "experts on the internet" so you should take 4570Man's guidance to heart as he is your only response to date who I know has extensive excavator experience and moves earth for a living.

Bottom line. Start digging and you will find out, real fast, what works for you and your projects.

 

[dfkrug]

Seems pretty clear by now that the issue has never been resolved, and maybe it depends on the application.

As a famous economist once said, "there are no 'solutions', only trade-offs".

This is your thread, and those of us with small Chinese mini-X experience know that almost everything under 2T has poorly protected direct-drive wheel motors. Conversely, branded minis use proper planetary gearboxes for wheel drives. Better-protected, but still way more vulnerable than the blade-side of the machine.

With super-light machines, branded or not, digging uphill is extremely difficult with the blade in front. And digging downhill is nearly impossible with the blade in back.

 

[Fixastuff]

If I move it to a location with the blade in front of me, and then I spin it to put the blade behind me, it makes it more likely I will get stuck when I try to leave.

This is a confusing statement.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

When I spin the excavator too much, it tears up the ground, and the excavator sinks to where it gets stuck.

 

[Fixastuff]

When I spin the excavator too much, it tears up the ground, and the excavator sinks to where it gets stuck.

Drive it with blade in back to dig spot?
I guess you don’t have drive pedals to lift/slee/track to make turning easier and less damage.

My opinion is the blade is a tool, use it in the best way to get the job done.

I don’t think there is any “truth” to digging on drive unit end damages them on mini or midi sized machines.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I've only been around the ones too big to have a blade. The guy I learned from was a lifetime heavy equipment operator and just started digging however he got to the spot. If it was more efficient to "back" to the spot then the back was now the front. I followed his lead, unless I was going to be in a rocky area long enough that it didn't waste too much time, then I would make sure I was digging on the idler side.

Also, don't dig the dirt out from under you, you might just fall over. I was also told that if you are digging at the side of a drop off to dig at least at a 45 so the counterweight does not go past the tracks on the drop off side. Goal being not to have the tracks parallel with the drop off, from perpendicular to a 45 is ok.

 

[Engineer42]

Depends on what's you're doing. Habit would be to dig over the idlers. If no thumb ya may need the blade to trap things you are picking up and dont want dirt mixed in. Just don't be banging the bucket into the blade. Seals won't like that.

 

[veedub]

When I spin the excavator too much, it tears up the ground, and the excavator sinks to where it gets stuck.

Part of the beauty of an excavator is aside from quicksand mud you almost never get stuck. You can nearly always stick the boom way out dig the teeth in and pull as you walk the tracks and get back to better ground.

That being said best to not tear the ground up and make a mess and have to fix it. If you need to do a full turn around curl you bucked under so that the back of the bucket faces the ground curl the boom so the bucket front of the tracks far enough away to clear as they spin. Push down and lift the front of the tracks in the air like a wheel. Up just enough to get it off the ground you don’t have to go crazy. Then you turn the tracks as you swing the boom. Go about 90 degrees and reset and do it again. If this doesn’t make any sense YouTube “how to do an excavator jump turn”

Learn this trick you will save a lot of turf and it’s easier on the machine.

As for your digging, like others said. It depends but most of the time if you are doing real digging, rocks, roots, stumps you will want the blade in front and set on the ground. Now you’d have to pull the blade through the ground to tip this gives you more force. Ditching without major rocks and roots as others say you have a bit more room on the non blade side. But also it’s on tracks so it’s really not that hard to walk as you go…