9 More Great Mini Excavator Attachments To Rent
Last year, we wrote about some of the best mini excavator attachments to rent. The list included common attachments for mini excavators including hydraulic breakers, augers, quick couplers, grading buckets, and more. While this list is certainly great, there are a few more mini excavator attachments we wanted to highlight in case you need to rent them for your next construction, forestry, or landscaping project.
1. Mulchers
Often used for jobs that require some form of land clearing, like oil and gas projects, wildlife restoration, or forestry jobs, mini excavator mulcher attachments are quite popular. What makes the mulcher attachments on excavators unique is that they allow for great distance across a horizontal plane because they're attached to the boom of the excavator. This allows the mulcher to be used in difficult-to-access areas for other types of machinery that don't have the range of motion of a mini-excavator.
Mulcher attachments for mini excavators are very good at removing trees, underbrush, vegetation, and other types of root systems you might find. They're great for reducing the amount of manpower that goes into a job and can help speed up the process, especially if root systems are dense like they would be in a forest or most land-clearing jobs.
2. Log Splitters
Another popular forestry-related mini excavator attachment is log splitters. Often attaching to the hydraulic or non-hydraulic thumbs of the excavator, these log splitter attachments are great for splitting almost any type of wood. Whether you're mass-producing firewood or trying to make some of the debris smaller and more manageable to move, log splitters, also known as wood splitters, are great mini excavator attachments for simplifying the wood-cutting process.
3. Rippers
Much like their name suggests, mini excavator ripper attachments are used to rip through tough, overgrown, hard-packed areas. They can even be used to rip and clear frozen materials and are quite popular in the wintertime to cut through ice. Because most rippers have a single point of penetration, they're incredibly powerful attachments that can rip through many different materials and landscapes, including dense roots. Once you've used the ripper attachment to clear an area and loosen up the soil or ground, you can switch to a bucket attachment to finish the job.
4. Trenchers
In the last blog about mini excavator attachments, we talked about trenching buckets which are still great attachments but a bit different than trenchers. Whereas trenching buckets are small and narrow buckets that typically allow for the clearing of dirt and soil in trenches, trenchers are the attachment that actually slices through the dirt and ground.
Trenchers are typically better than buckets because they can dig deeper than buckets, cut through the ground faster, and the soil that gets excavated is much finer, making it easier to work with. There are also various widths and sizes of trenchers, giving the operator more flexibility and versatility in the process.
While these attachments also exist for skid steers and compact track loaders, they also are great on mini excavators because they allow for range and motion that skid steer loaders and CTLs can't always provide.
Mini excavator trencher attachments can be used for a variety of different jobs but are most often seen on projects that involve irrigation, plumbing, electrical, and piping. When picking a trencher, it's important to know the material of the ground, as well as the power of the excavator, since that will impact the type of trencher you rent or purchase.
5. Winches
We talked a little about winches in our best attachments for dozers article recently but they exist for more than just dozers. Winches are extremely effective tools, especially in land clearing and forestry projects, as a rope-type attachment that can be used to move large objects like trees and fallen debris.
On mini excavators, winch attachments allow you to use the machinery for multiple functions. Most winches are high strength and extremely great quality as they use steel cables to perform heavy-duty tasks that can help you save costs on labor and also increase safety on the job site.
6. Blades
While many different pieces of equipment like skid steers, compact track loaders, bulldozers, and more can also utilize blades, mini excavators also have the blade attachment capability. Connecting to the base of the chassis of the excavator, not the boom, mini excavators are able to grade just as well as skid steers, CTLs, and bulldozers.
While other machines often require you to be in close proximity to whatever you're moving and grading, mini excavators have the unique capability of moving soil or material to the front of the excavator and then using the blade accordingly. This can make them better options for when areas might be tight or hard to maneuver.
Mini excavator blade attachments are great customizations that allow you to create slopes, grade land, and dig around objects that might already exist like sewer lines or tree roots. The tilt function of the excavator's thumb also allows you to use these blades in ways that other types of machinery are not able to utilize the blade. Other jobs that blade attachments for mini excavators can simplify are backfilling trenches, leveling terrain, shaping drainage swales, and more.
7. Rakes
Almost a mix between a mulcher and a bucket, mini excavator rake attachments are primarily used for jobs that require sifting through debris, demolition, ripping up large roots, removing overgrowth and shrubs, and land clearing jobs. When combined with some of the thumb attachments, rakes can also be used almost as a grapple, which we will get to next.
These attachments are usually incredibly strong as they are made of steel. Well-designed rake attachments for mini excavators typically include crossbars that strengthen the lateral capabilities of the rake but also help trap smaller debris as you move it from location to location. There are a wide variety of rake sizes and attachments, all used for similar but specific purposes so it's a great idea to know the specifics of what the job is requiring before renting or purchasing.
8. Grapples
Grapple attachments for mini excavators are powerful attachments that allow for the easy moving of large, bulky materials. Designed for jobs ranging anywhere from demolition, landscaping, land clearing, construction, or grounds maintenance, mini excavator grapple attachments are one of the most versatile and commonly used attachments that increase project efficiency. Other great uses for grapple attachments would be tornado and storm cleanup, logging, and railroad construction. They can also be combined with hydraulic clamps to act more like a rake, which we talked about above.
9. Forks
Last but not least we have the fork attachments for mini excavators. While these attachments may not be necessary if you have access to a skid steer, compact track loader, or forklift on your site, fork attachments may be useful depending on the job site. Much like how we mentioned with the blades, mini excavators can reach further on both the horizontal and vertical plans which might be necessary for some projects.
Popular Mini Excavator Attachment Manufacturers
Several mini excavator attachment manufacturers in North America will serve your needs including Bobcat, TAG Equipment, Spartan Equipment, Caterpillar, John Deere, and Premier Attachments, to name a few. When looking at manufacturers of mini excavator attachments, the most important part is looking at machine compatibility.
While many attachment manufacturers develop equipment that will work with each type of mini excavator brand, there may be some attachments that require more work or take more than just some simple loosening and tightening of pins. Whatever dealer or supplier you're working with, it is always a good idea to double-check that each attachment is easy to use with whatever brand of mini excavator you have.
Your safest bet would be to either purchase or rent your mini excavator from the same brand. However, this isn't always possible depending on the region or supplier you are working with.
Closing Thoughts
With our two articles, this one, and the top ten mini excavator attachments to rent, we hope that you've been able to find or learn about a few attachments for mini excavators that might work best on your next project. There is no best attachment for mini excavators. It's more about the job you need the machine to do.
The great thing is that most of the attachments we've covered in the two blogs are great for a multitude of industries ranging from forestry to landscaping, grading to land clearing, demolition to construction, and piping to oil and gas. No matter the job, mini excavators and their attachments will help you get the job done. Search the DOZR Marketplace for your next mini excavator and attachment rental or contact our sales team today.
