Setting your Sights: Hi-Vac Vacuum Excavators
Before breaking ground on a new project, it’s important to know what buried utilities are hiding underground. Services such as One-Call are a great starting point at identifying a utility’s location, but they are not foolproof. Vacuum excavators, on the other hand, can be essential to your fleet, helping to expose utilities so you don’t cause serious and costly damage.
Vacuum excavation technology has been around in some shape or form since the 1950s. Vacuum hoses are often seen around work areas suctioning the earth to expose a utility in a fast, safe and surgical manner. Operators can safely identify and positively locate a utility — avoiding the potential of damaging it during a dig.
Vacuum excavator manufacturers provide their histories, summaries and specs for their product lines. Take a look at these machines and consider the benefits they offer when keeping crews safe on the job and utilities in working order.
Hi-Vac Corp.
For more than a decade, Hi-Vac Corp. has been manufacturing hydro-excavation equipment for use by contractors and municipalities. As the use of this equipment has grown, it has become a more important part of the Hi-Vac offering. It is no surprise that utility companies have embraced this technology as it has been proven safer than digging and does not require backhoes or other mechanical equipment that can damage underground utilities, piping systems and other critical infrastructure. Hi-Vac Corp.’s X-Vac line of hydro-excavation equipment is specifically designed to perform this function safely, effectively and efficiently.
Product Spotlight: X-8 Hydro Excavator
Hi-Vac’s X-8 Hydro Excavator offers a legally loaded 8-yd debris tank — eliminating overweight tickets. The unit features a 24,000-lb payload capacity and a 4,000-cfm, 27-in. Hg high-performance blower. Operators can choose from 6- or 8-in. vacuum hoses depending on their needs.
Advice
“Our advice is quite simple,” says Dan Coley, Hi-Vac president. “If you want to avoid overweight tickets, you need a hydro excavator that can be weight-legal with a full debris tank. An onboard scale system will tell the operator what they weigh at any time.”
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