Special foundations
Driving, sinking, boring — before anything comes out of the ground.
Here it is not the tool that limits:
it is what the machine can carry, at the end of the arm and at height.
This trade also covers: piles and micropiles, sheet piles and shoring, anchors, fence and barrier posts, light foundations, investigation boring.
- Common classes
- 20 t and above
- Coupler
- Depending on the equipment
- Constraint no. 1
- Stability
- Tools per job
- Two to four
What this trade demands of the tooling
A foundation attachment works upright, at the end of the arm, often high up.
Its weight is not merely carried:
it creates a moment the machine takes at every manoeuvre.
The load chart at the real reach and the bearing under the tracks therefore decide before the tool does — and they sometimes decide that it is not that machine.
It is also the trade where the excavator serves as a carrier for equipment it was not designed to carry.
You lengthen, you add weight at the end, you add what is needed to feed them.
Each of those three things shifts the balance of the machine, and none of them is dealt with after the others.
Verticality and stability come before everything else. A mast, an auger or a driving clamp are long, tall, offset masses:
what limits is no longer the hydraulic force, it is the risk of tipping over. The load chart is read at the working reach and height, with the equipment fitted and loaded — not at the foot of the machine, and not from the tool's documentation.
the pile goes down before the building goes up.
Synthetic image.
Here, it is not the tool that sets the limit: it is what the machine can carry.
Synthetic video.
The tools that matter, in the order of the job
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01 — Preparing the bearing, and holding the level
The earthmoving bucket makes the platform on which the machine will work:
it is the first work of the site, and it is what carries the machine.
The 2D guidance holds the level and the slope without making the driver get down. -
02 — Sinking without striking
Thevibratory pile driver fluidises the soil around the section, which goes down on its own — and comes back up the same way.
The sheet-pile vibratory driver applies that principle to a wall, so to shoring that will be taken out again.
The vibration travels through the soil and does not stop at the property line: that is settled with the client, before the job. -
03 — Sinking by striking
The driving hammer goes where vibration refuses:
compact ground, stony ground.
It makes a noise, and what it drives in, it does not take out again. -
04 — Boring
The hydraulic auger makes regular holes one after another;
it is the flight that is chosen on the ground, and it is what wears.
The arm-mounted drilling module adds a mast that holds the axis, where you would not bring a dedicated drilling rig.
A word of vocabulary, since the confusion exists:
the screw splitter carries the word “screw” but splits logs, and has nothing to do with a screw pile. -
05 — Reaching far, and staying in balance
The long-reach boom reaches what is not accessible otherwise;
the additional counterweight restores at the rear what the lengthening has moved forward.
They are two sides of the same problem, and they are dealt with together. -
06 — Feeding the tool, and knowing what is suspended
When the machine does not supply what the tool calls for, the on-board hydraulic power pack brings it with it — at the price of one more mass at the end of the arm.
The load cell tells, the limiter prevents :
one informs the driver, the other forbids them the manoeuvre.
Lengthening makes the load chart collapse at the end, and adding counterweight is not improvised. A mass at the rear changes the distribution, the forces on the chassis and the slew ring, the behaviour in transport, and sometimes the type approval of the machine:
that is dealt with with the manufacturer, documents in hand. If that is the answer, we will tell you so rather than sell you a mass.
What is checked before fitting out
-
The bearing under the machine
Bearing capacity, slope, recent fill, proximity of an excavation.
It is the point that is checked last, and that should have come first. -
The load chart at the working height and reach
Equipment fitted, load suspended, arm extended.
A figure read at the foot of the machine says nothing about this job. - The hydraulics available, and their continuity This equipment consumes without interruption, not in bursts. See the auxiliary line.
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What the client imposes
Permissible vibration, noise, hours, structures to be monitored around.
Those limits are given to you by them, not by an attachment supplier.
Have your fleet checked.
Give us the machine, what you have to drive in or bore — section, length, depth — and what you know of the ground.
Describe the access too and what is around it:
it is often the surroundings that settle it, not the tool.
Written study within 3 working days, complete file.
Tell us about your worksite Written study within 3 working days, complete file · no obligation
The same tool is not chosen in the same way depending on who fits it, and on what is around it.
The 12 trades
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Agriculture
Drainage, ditches, hedges, land clearing, handling.
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Pipelayer and services
Opening narrow, laying heavy, closing clean.
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Quarries and rock
Blasting out, picking up, loading a material that wears everything.
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Local authorities and roads
Roads, green spaces, winter maintenance, weed control.
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Demolition and recycling
Bringing down, separating the materials, crushing on the spot.
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Railways
The tool is the simple part; access to the track is not.
- Special foundations You are here. Drive, drill, shore — before anything comes out of the ground.
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Forestry and silviculture
Mulching, felling, extracting, stump grinding, restoring.
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Hire companies
A tool that goes on several machines earns; a dedicated tool sleeps.
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Landscaper
Getting in without damage, working the soil, maintaining.
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Recycling and waste
Sorting, gripping, separating, recovering on the spot.
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Civil engineering and roads
Opening, laying, closing, and giving the road back in good order.
Tell us what you want to do.
Your machine, your worksite, your coupler if you know it.
We tell you what
fits on it — and what does not.