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How Deep Can a Hydro-Excavator Go?

Published: Febraury 29th, 2024 | Author: Admin

Any type of excavator is necessary if you need to loosen and move large amounts of soil. Hydro-excavators are some of the safest excavation types of machinery available in the construction industry. For delicate excavation projects or underground applications that need precision, hydro-excavators are your best bet.

Do you work in excavation and want to learn more about how deep a hydro-excavator can go? This post will explain the basics of hydro excavation, discuss how deep these suction-type excavators can go and compare the advantages and disadvantages of specialized excavator trucks.

The Basics of Hydro Excavation

A hydro-excavator is a specialized machine typically used in construction and hydro-excavation work to remove soil, debris and other materials safely.

What Is Hydro Excavation?

Hydro excavation is the process of unearthing and removing materials by using high-pressure water and a powerful vacuum system. It's a similar process to pneumatic excavation, except for the use of water instead of compressed air.

Hydro-excavators are often used in sensitive areas where underground utility lines or structures are present. They're safer, more efficient and more accurate. These machines can carve out holes and trenches with exact dimensions with a much lower risk of damaging subsurface systems, such as water pipes, power cables and wires. 

Hydro excavation is also useful for the following processes:

• Daylighting or potholing: Uncovering underground utility lines safely for maintenance or repairs and replacements.
• Trenching: Creating ditches of the same width and depth quickly and efficiently.
• Removing debris: Picking up and hauling debris in one hydro excavator truck instead of using separate machines.
• Heavy-duty digging: Digging and creating holes of specific widths and depths that are inefficient with manual labor, like pilings.
• Melting snow: Using heated water to melt snow and hardened snow in cold seasons.
• Tight space excavating: Digging in narrow streets or sites with limited space is easier and less dangerous with a hydro-vac.

How Does Hydro Excavation Work?

A hydro-vac is a piece of equipment that's attached to the hydro excavator truck, containing a large water tank that supplies the pressurized water spray. Here's a quick breakdown of how a hydro-vac works:

1. The machine injects pressurized water into the ground through a hose. 
2. This water creates a slurry.
3. As liquid forms, a boom system with a suction hose vacuums the slurry into the truck's debris tank, keeping it from going back into the hole.
4. The truck then carries the slurry mixture to dump it at a different location.

Since the hydro-vac has a hose attached to it, the excavation can happen some distance away from the truck.

Hydro-Excavator Digging Depths

The depth a hydro-excavator can dig largely depends on the ground's composition and the machine's design and capabilities. Generally, hydro-excavators can dig anywhere from a few inches to several feet deep. Besides the equipment, project requirements and safety guidelines impact how deep hydro-excavators can go.

In shallow excavation projects, the machine carefully removes the soil around utility lines or underground structures. For deeper excavations, hydro vacs can roughly dig 20 to 30 feet but can go as deep as 70 feet with the right extension tools and additional equipment.

Design and Specifications

Hydro-excavators with certain specifications can typically achieve greater depths. This is how their components affect the outcome:

• Water tank: Hydro vacs come with different-sized water tanks. Most have adequate capacity for general excavation jobs. The bigger the water tank, the deeper the hydro-vac can go, as it has the capability to work longer without needing to be close to a water source.
• Water hose and pump: High water pressure makes it easy to dig deep. However, if the pressure is too high, it could potentially damage underground utility lines.
• Suction hose and vacuum system: Trucks parked closer to the work area can reach deeper than those located far away, as the suction hose won't have to accommodate for the truck's distance.
• Debris tank: A higher debris tank capacity means the hydro-vac can vacuum more slurry from the digging site. If the hydro-vac can offload the debris into another vessel, the truck can work on the site for a longer time.

Soil Types and Conditions

The type and condition of the soil at a job site will always play a role in how quickly and how far a hydro-vac can dig.

• Composition and density: Heavier and densely compacted soil requires a hydro-vac that can dig deep enough.
• Types of soil: Clay-based soil is tougher to get through than looser soil types like sand or silt, requiring a hydro-vac with enough power.
• Weather conditions: It's difficult to dig through ice and frozen ground, requiring the appropriate ice-melting solutions and a capable hydro-vac.

Advantages of GapVax's Hydro-Vac Lineup

GapVax hydro-excavators have wet and dry vacuum capabilities that can be used for industrial cleaning applications, such as spill cleanup and process industries that generate waste. Our HV Series trucks are durable and feature compatible options to handle any type of job.

Depending on the model you choose, this series offers the following features:

• Debris tank between 6 and 15 cubic yards
• Water tank between 600 and 1,000 gallons
• 27-inch blower between 4,500 and 5,250 CMF
• Tube boom with an up to 25-foot reach from center
• Rubber boom with an up to 18-foot reach from center
• Three to four cyclones
• Water pump with 10 to 29 GPM at 3,000 to 4,000 PSI

With a proper service plan, a GapVax truck can operate for up to 2,000 hours before operators need to change filter bags, lowering one of your greatest maintenance expenses.

Get the Most out of Your Hydro Excavations With GapVax

When you're out on the job site, you want to work with equipment that won't let you down. Our line of hydro-vacs can help you tackle even the toughest hydro excavation jobs, allowing you to dig the exact depths you need to progress in your projects.

When you buy a hydro-excavation truck from GapVax, you become part of our family. To find out more about how our hydro-excavators can help you with your upcoming projects, get in touch with us today to request a demo.

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