I work for Vacuum Dig Enterprises

**erpowell** · November 25th, 2009, 02:09 PM

Hi all,

Ernest here from Vacuum Dig Enterprises. I do underground work for this company using a vacuum truck to locate the underground powerlines or cables. I hope to find out allot of information about this website and learn. Thanks

Thanks
Ernest
Vacuum Dig

**ifinditunderground** · November 25th, 2009, 03:21 PM

Welcome to the show Ernest, stop by the chat room tonight at 8pm and say hello to everyone.

**TheCableVine** · November 25th, 2009, 06:37 PM

Yes... welcome aboard and come to the chat session tonight. Nov 25th, 8:00 pm eastern.

Here is the link: http://www.thecablevine.com/index.php?pageid=Connect

**ifinditunderground** · November 25th, 2009, 07:06 PM

Thanks for the help Steve.

**yahoo** · November 25th, 2009, 07:15 PM

welcome to the vine dude!!! and ........use the force ............

**beyond help** · November 26th, 2009, 09:12 PM

Welcome to the vine

**Dave72** · November 26th, 2009, 10:53 PM

A Vac truck is my fav tool when I need someone to dig up a trouble spot !

By saying that you locate cables, it seems obvious that you also have the high-pressure water cutting etc (ie, a daylighting rig).

And yet are there not just 'vac trucks' , without the high pressure water ?.. I assume thats what I see cleaning out storm sewers and stuff.

Is there a diff name for those with and without ?

Call me confused.

**ifinditunderground** · November 27th, 2009, 09:51 AM

Dave, there are several different type of Vacuum Trucks that are used for this purpose.

The first and the biggest are the Sewer Jet trucks that you are referring to, like the Badger Units or the Vactors. These trucks are designed to clean out sewer structures and pipes but can be used effectively to locate utilities. The downfalls of those trucks are few. They are too big and heavy to get into many sites, they only excavate using jets of water which can be destructive to the utility, and can destabilize road bases. You must bring backfill material with you for each test hole, because the mud you pull out of the hole can't go back in. But, they can hold tremendous amounts of spoils and can dig holes that are nearly impossible to dig with other equipment because of the long booms supporting the vac hoses. They also have extremely powerful vacuum systems that can pull up large rocks that smaller units have to fight with. You must dig with very large holes starting at 16" square and going as large as 4 feet square.

Air/Water trucks such as the Vacmaster Units I run are much better suited for the work. We dig holes usually only 8" square and almost always use air which is safer for the utilities, the crew and road bases. The are lighter and smaller and can get into tighter spaces. You also don't have to bring gravel or dry soil to the site with you for backfilling, because you cannot recompact mud. You will really fight with extremely rocky holes as you have a much smaller vac hose to remove the spoils.

You also have Air only trucks like the Excavac that have all of the same advantages as the Air/Water Trucks but of course lack the water exavation capability that can be invaluable with extremely hard soils.

The 4th type of Vac Ex Units are called Portable units like the Air Vac 7 or Utiliscope models that run off of a towable air compressor The air from the compressor is used to dig and to also generate vacuum for the tank. These are much slower to use than the bigger trucks but can be used almost anywhere: Inside fenced areas, down steep embankments, in the middle of the woods, inside buildings, etc. You keep your tank right next to your test hole while digging and don't have to haul the soil long distances back to your test hle for backfilling. You typically cannot dig deeper than 10 feet or so with these units. THey lack the power of the big trucks, but are invaluable when you can't get a big vac unit anywhere near your hole.

The last type of units that are frequently used by Contractors are the Mud/Slurry Vac like Vermeer, etc. These are vacuum only units that require the soil to be loosened by hand and sucked out of the hole. They are well sited at sucking mud/bentonite/slurry, but aren't much good for digging holes.

Hope this explanation helps Dave, ask more questions if you need to.

**Dave72** · November 27th, 2009, 08:31 PM

Great explanation, thanks.
We hire a badger truck often for digups. Im always impressed with how these guys can dig me a worksite .. say about 200 cuft through nearly rock solid frozen dirt. The only other option is jackhammers. In the summertime, we use them mainly for areas of congestion, pretty much no utility has problems with you exposing their plant using a badger, but tight rules about using a hoe/etc within x feet.