Vacuum excavation has been around for a while, over 40 years in fact. It found early application in buried utility repair and maintenance through small “keyhole” pavement cuts. Most early machines used compressed air to break up soil because it’s safe around utilities and keeps fill dirt dry. Some folks also started using sewer cleaning trucks equipped with high-pressure water for digging. “Hydro-Excavation” is ideal for very large excavations where the cost to bring in clean fill and dispose of mud spoils is outweighed by the large capacity and speed offered by these powerful machines.

But there was a problem: Both Air and Hydro machines were big, heavy, and EXPENSIVE.

HDD contractors need a vacuum to clean up the drilling mud used in the process. Enter the Mud-Vac. But HDD contractors also need to expose utility lines before drilling, so some contractors added a power washer to their Mud-Vac to make a simple low cost hydro-excavator. For as little as $40,000 a simple trailer mounted mud vacuum and hydro-excavator could be had. Of course clean fill dirt had to be hauled in and spoils hauled away, and limited water supply meant limited dig time. Contactors still needed an air compressor to run a pavement breaker when utilities had to be exposed under roadways.

By the mid-1990s we were a growing utility mapping and vacuum excavation contractor with a big problem; our truck-mounted vacuum excavators couldn’t access many requested dig sites. We needed a truly portable machine. Then the insight: since a compressor is needed to run the air knife, “Why don’t we run the vacuum pump from the compressor as well? That way we can work anywhere we can run compressed air!” The Utilivac concept and Utiliscope Corp. was born. Can a $13,000 machine really replace a $180,000 VacTruck? You bet it can!

To purchase your Utilivac or for more information, contact us at 1-877-734-0402 or  Email Us!