ForConstructionPros.com

It could be said, the greatest accomplishment for compact excavators in the last 10 years has been overcoming the labels of "cute" and "toy."

"Ten years ago the North American markets may have scoffed at these compact machines," says Greg Rostberg with Bobcat. "We've seen a huge amount of the market migrate from large equipment to the compact side."

Rostberg explains that compact excavators have many other advantages over larger construction equipment, such as being highly maneuverable and compact in size. They also have a larger range of motion, attachment-carrying versatility, excellent visibility of the surroundings and attachment, and better fuel economy. And compact excavators only require a small trailer and truck to transport.

"More and more customers are realizing these advantages," he says. "The market has become more open to the idea that such a small machine can perform the same tasks as their larger equipment - and sometimes perform even better."

Compact excavators may be small, but operators still expect productivity, versatility and dependability from them. As Mark Wall, product marketing manager with John Deere, says, "Customers won't sacrifice these things simply to get into a smaller, more compact piece of equipment."