What Can a Dedicated Hydro Excavator Do for A Municipality?

Ramvac Hydro Excavator being used on a residential street

When many people think of traditional hydro-excavating, the industries that come to mind are typically oil, gas, and utility. However, dedicated hydro excavation services are on the rise among municipalities. A dedicated hydro excavator does hydro-excavation more efficiently and safely than a traditional combo truck with hydro-excavation capabilities.


What Functions Can Hydro Excavators Perform for the Municipal Market?

The Department of Transportation Street and Highway departments offer many opportunities for dedicated hydro excavators. The hydrovac’s high-powered vacuum successfully removes 100% of the material within a catch basin. Dedicated catch basin cleaners are trailer-mounted units that deliver power without the large footprint of a truck. The high-pressure water on a hydro excavator is an effective tool for digging holes for posts, utility poles, and street signs. Municipal needs would also require using a hydro excavator to dig trenches when installing culvert pipes or daylighting before road expansion projects.

Hydro Excavator being used in winter

Water departments also employ the services of hydro excavators in numerous ways. Valve box maintenance requires the use of high-pressure water to locate buried boxes, as well as high-pressure vacuum and water to clean the boxes. Installing new water services are a breeze with a hydrovac, eliminating the need for hand-digging and using its vacuum capabilities when working with water-filled holes. A hydro ex truck becomes very useful during a water main break to assess the damage to the pipe, especially during the winter months when hot water is needed to cut through frozen ground.

Utility departments are another municipal entity that requires a dedicated hydro excavator. Hydrovacs are used to locate underground utilities and work alongside drilling rigs, vacuuming the drilling mud. In many cases, hydro excavators can easily replace the use of old trenchers, dump trucks, equipment trailers, backhoes, and multiple pickup trucks, freeing up the workspace required on busy roadways. This is especially true when utilizing a mid-size hydro excavator, which offers debris body sizes of 3 and 6 cubic yards, allowing you to replace other expensive pieces of equipment while still limiting the working space required by a full-size hydro truck.


Crew member hosing down hydro excavator

What Machine is Right for You?

There are many hydro excavators available to you. How do you choose the right one? The RAMVAC HX truck series offers several features packaged together in the shortest truck on the market that are simple to operate and maintain. With no transfer case, RAMVAC trucks operate in neutral, allowing for vac-on-the-go as standard equipment. RAMVAC trucks have no computers or CANbus, eliminating complex trouble-shooting while requiring minimal chassis integration. The HX series offers a vacuum enhancer in conjunction with a reversible blower, allowing operators to burp the truck to clear obstructions from the boom tube and pressure offload debris from the tank. The standard Dig Deep Boom allows for 330 degrees of rotation, is rear-mounted for increased efficiency in curbside applications, can dig a 12’ hole utilizing only one 6’ dig tube, and can lower the boom hose to ground level for ease of maintenance and increased operator safety.

For more information on the RAMVAC line of vacuum trucks, please visit RAMVAC by Sewer Equipment. RAMVAC products are also available to rent through several financing programs. Visit Rock Rental to see rental and pre-owned inventory available for immediate delivery.