One of the most commonly used excavators is the long reach excavator. The long reach excavator is a tracked machine that has a bucket on its boom or arm. This machine offers great outreach, and can dig deep into the ground, making it suitable for a variety of applications. Just like all excavator types, the long reach excavator can be seen at every major construction or mining site.
The long reach excavator is designed to reach incredible heights and difficult places, without compromising the operator safety. It can be equipped with a variety of excavator attachments for increased efficiency and productivity. Beside construction and mining sites, the long reach excavator is also used for some improvised projects, such as digging river banks and other similar complex digging tasks. When equipped with a mechanical thumb attachment, the long reach excavator can lift pipes, poles and other heavy materials at incredible heights.
Although wrecking balls are generally used for demolition tasks, the long reach excavator is described as highly efficient demolition tool. The main advantage of the long reach excavators is the accuracy that is being provided. Equipped with a heavy-duty arm and long boom, the operators can use the long reach excavators even for demolition of tall buildings. For increased demolishing efficiency, you should consider a grapple or a special crushing attachment.
For increased stability while performing heavy-duty operations, the long reach excavator comes with a big counterweight to balance the weight of its long boom and arm. Unlike the standard excavators, the long reach excavators are designed with longer hydraulic cylinders for additional outreach and better maneuverability. As mentioned above, they also come with bigger counterweight than the typical excavators, because of the heavier arm and boom. If the counterbalance doesn’t match the total weight of the excavator, the machine can easily lose control, causing in this way a lot of damages on the job site.
The only disadvantage of the long reach excavator is the complex transportation process. Because it comes with long boom, the machine needs to be dismantled into smaller parts for more efficient transportation. The bigger parts are transported by separate commercial vehicles, while the excavator can travel by itself. The counterweight also needs to be transported separately, because it is very heavy. However, the long reach excavator is still a number one choice for many digging and demolition operations.