- Guides, Tips, & Knowledge Centre
Digging Buckets and Micro Trenching Buckets
Digging a narrow trench by hand can be extremely difficult and time consuming so using an Excavator might be a better option for you! If you know anything about excavators, you'll probably recognise a Digging Bucket. Digging Buckets are the standard attachment sold or rented out with excavators and can come in a variety of shapes and sizes - but what you want to know is...
How narrow can you dig a trench? What is the narrowest bucket size?
There are a variety of Digging Buckets on the market nowadays and all have a preferred job. The Standard Digging Bucket will vary in size depending on the size of the excavator that you're using. For example, the following guide is the narrowest Standard Digging Bucket that will fit on each machine size range.
Standard Digging Bucket Smallest Size:
Machine Size |
Narrowest Digging Bucket Size |
| 1.5 Ton / 3,000 lbs | 6 Inches |
| 3 Ton / 6,000 lbs | 9 Inches |
| 5 Ton / 11,000 lbs | 12 Inches |
| 8 Ton / 18,000 lbs | 12 Inches |
| 13 Ton / 30,000 lbs | 12 Inches |
| 20 Ton / 45,000 lbs | 18 Inches |
This is just a guide - there are a few machines in each range that this won't apply to.
HOWEVER, in recent years, the Micro Trenching Bucket / Deep Dig Bucket has been manufactured. This bucket is a design that you may not have seen before...it is much longer and narrower than your Standard Digging Bucket and can vary from 3 inches to 6 inches wide.
These buckets are the perfect attachment for your excavator if you want to save time and money on digging, backfilling and reinstating surfaces. You can dig a much narrower trench in a much shorter period of time as you are digging up and putting back a lot smaller volume of material. These buckets are usually available for a depth of around 15 inches to 27 inches.
The Micro Trenching Bucket can be used for a variety of applications and projects. The most common and popular being fibre optic work but they are becoming more increasingly used for running water mains across sites and are very useful on farms for both water, cable work and also irrigation. Other places where they are commonly used are golf greens, zoos, safaris parks and other animal centres for running pipework to feeding troughs and across fields or waste land.
Micro Trenching Bucket Sizes:
Widths Available for 15" Depth |
Widths Available for 27" Depth |
| 3" wide, 15" depth | 3" wide, 27" depth |
| 4" wide, 15" depth | 4" wide, 27" depth |
| 5" wide, 15" depth | 5" wide, 27" depth |
| 6" wide, 27" depth |
