The size and weight of the machine are important

Transport an excavator with a tractor incurs the lowest costs. In principle, you only need a trailer weighing about three tonnes for transport, making the total weight about 11 tonnes. The tractor must be in at least the 100-horse power performance category; the required minimum weight of the tractor is then complied with. With a trailer without brake, the tractor must have half of the mass to be towed. Kuva: Arto Turpeinen

The measured operating weights of the machines were quite different from the official figures. Only the Komatsu and the Kubota remained below nine tonnes in operating weight. The operating weight of the ECM with steel tracks was more than 10 tonnes.

The size of the machine is a deciding factor when considering transport costs. Of course, the most common solution for transporting small and medium-sized machines is a removable loader. When it comes to eight-tonne machines, the key question is: is a two-axle truck sufficient? It is not worth driving an unnecessarily large truck.

For small projects, you can also use a removable loader for several purposes, so the same vehicle that brings the machine to the construction site can also assume other transport tasks. In garden work, for example, transport requirements are usually quite low, and a twoaxle vehicle is a sensible choice.

With rubber tracks, the machines in this test can accommodate a two-axle removable loader, which has a gross vehicle weight of at least 16 tonnes. The dead weight of a twoaxle removable loader of this class is usually 7-9 tonnes, to which a normal open container adds at least 1.5 tonnes. If you have additional permissible total weight which is one to two tonnes higher, you can load an eight-tonne machine with accessories. Transporting the ECM with steel chains with a two-axle vehicle is probably difficult.

The weight limits for new trucks provide a gross vehicle weight of 20 tonnes for two-axle vehicles - the load capacity is of course sufficient. There are virtually no second-hand vehicles approved for 20 tonnes, which means that a realistic alternative would be to purchase a three-axle truck. Then you could fit out the vehicle with a sufficiently powerful crane.

Some vehicle manufacturers have made undercarriage models with a low dead weight, where the payload is greater than that of the standard version. The Volvo FS7 is a good example of this type of vehicle. With a pull-rope dump truck, its dead weight remains under 7 tonnes and the maximum total weight is 19 tonnes. Unfortunately, the production of this vehicle was discontinued in 1996. Among the current models, the vehicles of the FE series have a corresponding gross vehicle weight.