It was realized long ago that there had to be an easier and more efficient way to dig those short, shallow trenches in confined areas. So in 1949 contractors had their first look at a compact trencher, called the Ditch Witch, that combined the capabilities of a large trencher with the ease of use and maneuverability of an everyday lawnmower.

Those early versions later became known as pedestrian or walk-behind trenchers, as the machines evolved to where seats were added — making even easier work of many of the larger projects. Today, there is an even wider range of choices available, but pedestrians have maintained a steady place in the market. Through a strong presence in rental applications, the market has capitalized on the machine’s small size and convenience of use, giving customers more opportunities to use it in a wider variety of applications.

“We still view the pedestrian trencher market as our core market,” says Brent Bolay, trencher product manager for The Charles Machine Works Inc., manufacturer of Ditch Witch equipment. “This class is where [Ditch Witch] started and where compact trenchers in general started. Now there are a lot of units out in the marketplace, and there are more manufacturers in that category than anything else. So there is just a high enough usage out there that it has been a very strong market for a long time.”

A Pedestrian Market
Since the first compact trenchers were unveiled, the machines have ridden the highs and lows of the housing industry. After a decline in residential construction in 2001, compact trenchers were subject to the same rollercoaster ride as nearly every other segment of the construction industry. But it wasn’t long before that too passed, and the market has continued its upward trek ever since.

“The trencher market has been good and it’s definitely on the upswing — with 2004 showing an improvement over 2003, and 2003 was already better than 2002,” says Bob Wren, trencher product manager for Astec Underground. “For a while, the market was almost saturated with machines, but now it’s back on the upswing. It had all depended on the housing market, because that affects everything — gas, water, electric, cable television, telephone. So if the housing market stays good, utility contractors are going to keep working.”

According to manufacturers, pedestrian trenchers (in terms of number of units) are still one of the biggest markets to be had, comprising roughly 50 percent of
the compact trencher market. This is due in large part to the fact that walk-behinds are considerably less expensive than a riding trencher — usually about one-third the initial cost of even the smallest riding machine. In addition, the vast number of potential rental outlets has become a primary driver of the pedestrian market.

With more rental opportunities, created by the need for smaller machines that can be used in more applications, about 65 percent of pedestrians find their way into the rental industry. The balance is shared by small contractors, landscapers and a smaller category comprised by a variety of customers including homeowners. And because rental drives so much of the market, pedestrian trencher manufacturers try to offer customers just the right machine based on as many factors as possible — from large contractors to the do-it-yourself homeowners.

“In a lot of those examples, with the homeowners and the smaller contractors, transportation will become a big consideration,” notes Bolay. “Those customers need to be able to get that trencher on a trailer that’s small enough to go behind a smaller vehicle. Then you have the area where you’re working — a lot of people have shrubs, trees, fences, concrete walls and other obstructions that they need to get around. So the size of the machine to get in and do the job can be a fairly large determining factor. Granted, how the rental yard has the machine priced on a per-day rental might sway people just as much as size.”

Lose the Seat
The advantages of a pedestrian trencher become fairly evident as soon as you see one. They’re small, easy to get into tight spaces and you can move them around relatively easily. Engines typically range from 30 hp and down, providing enough capability to dig trenches up to 36 in. deep and 4 to 6 in. wide. And while a riding trencher will provide more horsepower and thus more capability, they usually cater to a much more dedicated type of user.

“Pedestrians are mostly used for shallow work, short runs of 30 to 100 ft, while the riding machines are used for the utilities from 30 up to 110 hp,” explains Wren. “It really depends on how much work a customer is going to do and what kind of business he’s into. If he’s only in service work and he doesn’t dig a lot of footage every day, a smaller machine is going to be fine.”

Regardless of their size or whether it has a seat, the basic concept of opening up a trench in the ground stays the same throughout any manufacturer’s product line. The primary component is the digging chain, which actually excavates the dirt. The operator fits that chain with just the right ratio of cup teeth and carbide bits, by either welding or bolting them on. Then, the capability of the machine is a simple matter of the amount of horsepower imparted to the digging chain.

The operation of the units, on the other hand, is quite different. While the trencher booms on the first generations of trenchers had to be raised and lowered manually, modern pedestrians have evolved into having hydraulics on the machines to raise and lower the boom. Modern pedestrians have a natural and intuitive operating routine, which also tends to cater more to the rental market than the riding machines might.

“Small pedestrians are maneuvered around by the operator by engaging or disengaging one of the drive tires — you want it engaged where both are pulling while you are trenching, then you disengage one, and use that to your advantage for steering the machine around the jobsite,” explains Bolay. “An operator who gets behind a pedestrian might not have ever run a trencher before, but he’s probably run a lawnmower, a tiller or some other garden tool, so from that standpoint, a pedestrian has similar characteristics in terms of how it functions and responds. The larger machines will even use the hydraulic capability for steering of the drive tires to maneuver around.”

Riding units also have the capability of a backfill blade, which adds functionality by allowing operators to quickly and easily return the spoils back into the trench when they are done. But on the downside, the bulkier design might not allow entry into the tighter, more confined worksites. Manufacturers say the bigger the job, the deeper you’re digging, the larger the amount of spoil you are going to have to deal with. So as jobs get bigger, the more likely a customer will be to lean toward a riding machine.

“The capability provided by a backfill blade can be a deciding factor for some customers, but again, that ties into the size of job they’re doing,” says Bolay. “If you’re talking about a relatively small job around your house with a fairly shallow trench, you can backfill with just a shovel and get along ok. However, if you are doing more than a couple hundred feet of that, it can become a pretty major project.”

Drive Systems
For years, mechanical ground drives were the standard on trenchers of every size and shape. Using gear boxes, shafts, pulleys, chains and sprockets to drive the digging chain, mechanical drives gave the most power and efficiency in a wide range of ground conditions. But since hydrostatics came out in 1979, years of improvements, superior reliability and lower maintenance have closed the gap in the riding market considerably.

The same has started to happen in the pedestrian market. Now, most manufacturers offer both types of drives throughout their product lines. Ditch Witch’s 1030 and 1230, for example, are both mechanical drives, while its 1330 uses hydrostatics. The larger 1820 is still a mechanical drive to the digging chain, but in all of those machines, hydraulic drives have at least been incorporated to the ground drive. According to Bolay, this progression has resulted in a more reliable and easy to take care of machine for most customers.

“Particularly down in the smaller horsepowers, you only have so much available horsepower to begin with, so the mechanical drive is still the most efficient transfer of power,” he says. “We are just trying to take advantage of that to provide a machine for that customer who is really focused on productivity. And at the same time, we offer machines that offer a little more convenience in the hydraulic drives.”

Manufacturers say one of the biggest advantages of a hydrostatic drive is the ability to reverse the digging chain. If an operator comes across a tree root or a large rock in the ground with a mechanical drive, the options become relatively limited. A hydraulic drive, on the other hand, allows the operators to reverse the digger chain and either cut their way through or resort to hand digging.

Astec Underground features both hydrostatic ground drive and hydraulic boom raise and lower in its Astec RT60 walk-behind, in addition to offering the only planetary drive pedestrian on the market. The Astec RT160 is a 24-hp pedestrian trencher with hydrostatic ground drive, steerable axles and a hydraulic boom lift, as well as an exclusive parking brake operator presence safety system.

Vermeer’s 270-lb RT60 has a patent-pending ground drive assist, which helps operators trench a straight line and reduce physical labor. The company’s larger RT100 and RT200 both feature hydrostatic ground and trencher drives, further helping to eliminate moving parts and reduce maintenance costs.

“Since hydrostatics have evolved over the years and that technology has become more affordable, manufacturers have started putting them in their walk-behind trenchers,” says Todd Roorda, product specialist for the rubber tire division of Vermeer Mfg. Co. “Over the past couple of years, the market has accepted hydrostatic walk-behinds and they have really taken over. Their reliability is stronger, the longevity is better, they are easier to maintain and they are less expensive to operate, which really improves a rental store’s return on investment.”

Hydrostatics have also increased in popularity because of safety. Old mechanical trenchers were designed with a hand-crank to raise and lower the boom — requiring the operator to maneuver around the trencher boom to lay the material in the trench. But with hydrostatics, manufacturers can make the machines safer to use by incorporating electric over hydraulic operator presence systems.

“Nowadays, manufacturers are really attempting to keep the operator at the operator station,” says Wren. “Manufacturers are not building the machines they were 20 years ago. Contractors used to think of a trencher as a tool that wore out quickly and was essentially a throwaway unit. Today they are built much better by all manufacturers, and I think the utility contractors are keeping them longer because they last longer — they are not such a self-destruct item as they used to be.”

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Choosing the right trencher for your application and your work setting can be tough. According to manufacturers, a pedestrian will technically perform many jobs that a riding unit can. However, it comes down to a balance between the amount of money you want to spend on your rental and how much time you want to spend on the job. Since a riding unit has more horsepower and more weight, it will dig your trench faster, but from a financial aspect, it will cost more to rent that machine than it would a walk-behind trencher.

“You also have to look at the amount of product you have to install in the ground, and the amount of space you have to work in,” says Roorda. “If a ride-on trencher is going to be hard to move around or if there are a lot of trees in the way or if you have to go through a gate to access the backyard, those are all things you need to look at. Some people will choose to rent a pedestrian machine simply because of the fact that they don’t want take down a fence. But those sorts of things can make the
difference.”

Your rental store will, of course, help make the decision easier. Even before you walk in, the stores in your area will know what types of ground conditions their customers encounter. The harder the conditions, the more weight and horsepower it will take to do the job. Plus, they will know their customer base — more homeowners will rent walk-behind trenchers vs. ride-on trenchers, where it’s typically the opposite for contractors, simply because the jobs are bigger.

“It always comes back to the application — how much work you have to do, how deep do you have to go, how wide of a ditch do you have to put in the ground and how many feet are you going to put in?” says Wren. “The less work there is to do, the smaller the machine can be... and the more work there is to do, the bigger it has to be. Most pedestrians are just for short runs and not over 3 ft deep. Of course, some customers would like to have a walk-behind that will go 10 in. wide and 4 ft deep, but that’s asking a little bit much for a machine that only weighs about 1,600 lbs.”

Nick Zubko is associate editor of Compact Equipment.