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Drilling, foundations and specialised machines

Trencher

Opening a narrow, regular trench, continuously, over a length.
At the special points, the manholes and the crossings of services, the excavator takes over again.

Other names for this machine: wheel trencher, chain trencher.

The essentials
Category
CACES R.482A category F (special machines) depending on the machine
Status
Does not carry interchangeable attachments

The whole fleet →

01 Use

What it does

Silhouette of a trencher: compact tracked carrier, and at the rear a large toothed cutting wheel lowered into the ground, leaving behind it a narrow, regular trench. Diagrammatic silhouette, without dimensions and not to scale.
What sets it apart:
the width of the slot does not depend on the driver — it is the tool that fixes it.
Diagrammatic silhouette, without dimensions and not to scale.

Opening a narrow, regular trench continuously, over a length.

What it does not do. It does not do the special points, the manholes, the crossings of services.
The excavator takes over again.

02 Fitting
A self-propelled tracked trencher opening a continuous trench along a country road, its toothed chain engaged in the ground and the spoil thrown out in a ridge to the side.
It opens and it tidies in a single pass:
the spoil is already in a ridge, ready to be pushed back.
Synthetic image.
Close-up of the pick chain of a trencher engaged in the ground, the spoil brought up along the boom.
It opens continuously and to a constant width:
an excavator digs faster, but never as straight.
Synthetic image.

What decides its use

  • The volume and the distance They are what decide whether this machine has a place on the site, or whether another will do the same work for less.
  • The room available A machine that cannot manoeuvre does not produce, whatever its capacity.
  • The rate of the neighbouring machines It is rarely calculated and often costs more than the hire:
    a machine that waits costs as much as a machine that works.
  • Transport to the worksite It governs what can actually be sent, and it is settled before everything else.
03 Reference point

One model, as a reference point

The values below hold for this model only.
They are there to give an order of magnitude to anyone who has none, not to serve as a reference.

Vermeer RTX550
Engine power
50 kW, that is 67 hp
Weight
about 2,540 kg on tyres, 3,540 kg on tracks
Attachment circuit
about 117 l/min at 350 bar
Attachments that can be fitted
trencher, vibratory plough, rear backhoe, microtrencher, rock wheel, reel carrier

Caveat. The manufacturer publishes neither trench depth nor trench width for the machine:
they depend entirely on the attachment fitted.
It is the same reasoning as on an excavator — the machine does nothing, it is the tool that works.

Caveat. Figures converted from a sheet in American units.

Source. Product page of the manufacturer Vermeer,
recorded on 1 September 2026.

These values are those of one precise model, at one precise date. They do not describe a category:
there are no characteristics of a compact loader in general, there are those of the model you have.
They change from one year to the next and never replace the data sheet of your machine.

Have your machine checked.

Give us the exact model and the work you have in mind.
We check the coupler, the flow, the pressure and the capacity on your machine, and we tell you what fits on it — and what does not.

Written study within 3 working days, complete file.

Tell us about your machine Written study within 3 working days, complete file · no obligation

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