Backhoes Are No Longer Toys – They Have Joined The Heavy Equipment Boys

Backhoes used to be considered toys and many of them still are. However, some of the latest models no longer fit the toy class, they are real heavy equipment machines.

A simple machine, generally with a hoe at one end and a bucket at the other, they were often seen around residential building sites digging trenches for water and other services. The big boys can now be seen digging wide and deep trenches for main water pipes, major oil and gas pipelines and sewerage pipes. This new breed of heavy equipment which, because of its versatility, is slowly replacing trench diggers on some construction sites.

While their little cousins run around residential areas, larger machines can also be found in open cut mines where they help to remove scree other lose material that the larger buckets cannot access. Heavy equipment has done a complete circle with renewed interest in this type of equipment.

Operating the larger heavy equipment range of backhoes is not to different to the smaller versions you see everyday. The major difference is simply in size with the larger machines often three or four times bigger.

Learning to operate heavy equipment is far easier than most people imagine. You can acquire basic skills in a matter of weeks, the fine tuning of those skills developed on the job. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools can provide that basic training and get you started on your career as an operator of heavy equipment such as bulldozers, graders, cranes, trucks and of course, backhoes.