Kennards expands hire of vacuum excavators

Kennards Hire has introduced more trailer-mounted, non-destructive vacuum excavators following very positive feedback from customers.

These versatile units can now be hired in Queensland, Victoria and NSW, and the company plans to introduce them into other areas in the future.

They employ high-pressure water blasting to break up the soil, and a high-flow vacuum system to extract it from the excavation area.

Small, deep, precisely-controlled holes can be dug quickly to uncover buried utilities without the risk posed by a backhoe or excavator.

A major power supplier hired one of the units while upgrading the electrical system in an area following the construction of a 132,000V substation.

The work included installing a 240mm 4 core XPL cable beneath a pad-mounted substation, which had terracotta water pipes beneath it.

“Old terracotta pipes are very fragile, but by using the ‘Gerni’ to dig a tunnel for the new cable, we minimised the risk of damage,” the project supervisor said.

“This unit is ideal for us because we can tow it from site to site behind a small tipper, and unhook it when it’s not needed.

“Truck-mounted vacuum excavators are about four times as big, so you can’t get them into the sort of area where this work took place.”

The Kennards’ unit has a 946 litre tank for spoil and 378 litre water tank with attached hose and wand for jet blasting. It has a 575cfm pump and is powered by a 25hp Kubota diesel engine with electric start and throttle.