by Nick Drew | Thu 27 Apr 2017
Blade to the back or to the front?
One of the topics on the social media channels which is always one to get people talking is the blade to the back or blade to the front when digging debate, the issue was raised once again on the Digger Man Blog Facebook page this past weekend and I thought it would be worthy of a post on the stand alone blog.
For me personally on any excavator up to and including 8/9tonne models, when digging I will always have the blade to the rear. Not only does it act as an anchor preventing the machine tipping back as you apply pressure in the dig, but it also allows you significantly improved visibility down into the trench, which is especially helpful when working in close proximity to live services.
Of course old school thinking and indeed most manufacturer’s manuals recommend working with the blade to the front and not digging over the final drives, however it was interesting to see that in this 2015 video from Caterpillar they suggest that the blade is best at the rear on smaller mini excavators as we see so often out on sites in the real world.
This argument will probably roll and roll on social media in the same way that the clean cab, dirty cab disagreements do but as a general rule, I think it’s best to do whatever suits you as an individual as long as it’s safe practice, at the end of the day we all have different way's of doing things.