Customer feedback has been instrumental in the latest improvements made to Digga’s most successful trencher range, The Bigfoot. When the decision was made to upgrade the Bigfoot Trenchers about 12 months ago, Digga says it turned to its customers — the people who use its trenchers every day.
“Digga has been designing and manufacturing trenchers for 32 years in Australia, and we are committed to continuous improvement of our products to provide greater performance and ultimately better returns for our customers,” Digga CEO Suzie Wright says. “The inspirations for the improvements are from the very people that use them — our customers. It was ultimately their help and feedback that guided our design team to achieve the results.”
Two key areas to benefit the operators were highlighted during the project scoping phase: make the trencher even easier to use; and increase trenching speed and performance. To achieve this, Digga’s in-house engineering department aimed for a major overhaul of traditional trencher design and came up with a highly visible skid foot and a new crumber design that allows for automatic starting.
To start with, operators explained they could not clearly see the foot depth control from the cab. The foot is a major feature of the trencher that ensures the operator achieves a consistent depth and prevents operators from over-engaging the trencher and spoil-auger into the ground. Operators would often use a spotter to assist them in knowing when the trencher’s foot was in the correct position.
To address this, Bigfoot’s skid foot has been redesigned to be highly visible from the cab, allowing the operator to set it in the perfect trenching position without the need for a spotter. This ensures the trench depth is accurate and even, allowing the spoil auger to work efficiently. A spoil auger which is held too far off the ground doesn’t clear the soil efficiently while one which is set too low digs into the ground, robbing the trencher of its power.
Next, significant time savings have been achieved with the design of a crumber that Digga calls both “revolutionary” and “an industry first”
The design and geometry of the Head Start crumber allows the operator to start the trench with the crumber permanently in the locked-down position, meaning the operator no longer needs to exit the machine once the trenching process has started.
In addition, Digga says the Head Start’s geometry provides even greater spoil removal, while the locked-down design has improved OH&S as the operator no longer needs to leave the machine once the process has started. The danger bar has also been increased in size by 25 percent for added durability.
The size of the redesigned spoil augers have been increased to move more spoil to the side of the trench faster, which Digga says provides “greater trenching speeds and cleaner trenches than ever before”. This, it adds, translates into greater earning potential for operators.
The Bigfoot Trencher, and its planetary gearbox, is manufactured in Australia at Digga’s 12,500 square metre facility halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It carries a five-year gearbox and three-year motor warranty.
Digga has three company owned facilities, with 186 staff, throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.digga.com.
Watch our Civenex video interview with Digga New South Wales Branch Manager Scott Reed here.
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