There’s no doubt that construction industry has some very impressively sized and powerful machines out there and unfortunately not many of us get to actually use them. Since most of will never be able to drive one of these, we can at least marvel at videos of them. Youtuber JD Rock recently put together a video compilation of the 10 largest construction machines in the world, which you can find at the bottom of this post. To help you understand just how big these things are, the descriptions of each will be listed directly below this paragraph.
#10 Komatsu D575A Dozer
Primarily used by mine operators in the US, Canada, and Australia, Komatsu’s D575A is the largest bulldozer in production and has been since its inception in 1991. It boasts a 1,150 horsepower engine and is able to move 90 cubic yards per pass.
#9 P&H L-2350 Loader
The 160,000 pound L-2350 holds the Guinness World Record for Biggest Earth Mover with its lifting payload of 72 tons. The massive loader has a standard bucket of 40.52 cubic meters and a 2300 horsepower engine.
#8 Liebherr 9800 Mining Excavator
The always impressive Liebherr, manufacturer of some very impressive cranes, also boats one of the largest bucket excavators with their R 9800. Another machine typically used for mining, the 9800 weighs in at 1,785,700 pounds and have a bucket capacity of 62 cubic yards. That could save a lot of time digging out the pool for the back yard.
#7 Belaz 75710
The Belaz 75710 actually recently supplanted the CAT 797F dump truck (which you can see being assembled from start to finish here) as the world’s largest. Standing 26 feet tall, the 450 ton haul truck is powered by two separate 65-litre engines, each with 2300 horsepower.
#6 CAT 6090 Hydrualic Shovel (Hitachi EX8000 shown in video)
Though the Hitachi EX8000 is shown in the video, the CAT 6090 is actually slightly bigger. With an operating weight of 1,080 tons, the 6090 is powered by a massive 4,500 horsepower engine.
#5 P&H 4100XPC Electric Rope Shovel
Electric rope shovels are built to be able to remove large amounts of overburden and ore more efficiently that other loaders. The 109 ton 4100XPC sits 48 feet tall and can haul up to 82 cubic yards
#4 Bucyrus 2570W Walking Dragline
Weighing in at a whopping 10.4 million pounds, the 2570W can dig to a depth of 140 feet and has a boom length of 310 feet. It’s certainly not a speedster though, with top walking speeds clocking in at 0.15 mph. It certainly won’t be stealing any bases soon.
#3 NASA Crawler-Transporter
The 50 year old crawler transporter are actually being modified in 2015 to assist in the launching of the space shuttle that will take us to Mars. These massive 131 feet long and 114 feet wide weigh in at greater than 6 million pounds and carry NASA rockets from site to site…at 1 mph. One of the two crawlers in existence has traveled 2,207 miles in its lifetime, which, if my math is correct, took 2,207 hours.
#2 TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine)
The title of world’s largest tunnel boring machine is actually held by “Big Bertha,” which is 57 feet in diameter. It was specifically built to dig underneath the city of Seattle, Washington for a 2 mile roadway, but broke down in the middle of the project. It's estimated that it will take another 2-3 years to make the necessary repairs.
#1 Bagger 293 Bucket Wheel Excavator
The Bagger 293 is not only the largest excavator, but also holds the record for the largest land vehicle in the history of the world. At 310 feet tall and 721 feet long, the 4 year old German machine can move 100,000 cubic yards of dirt per day with the use of its 20 rotating buckets.
