, fitted with quick coupler and tilting bucket]]An excavator is an engineering vehicle consisting of an articulated arm (boom, stick), bucket and cab mounted on a pivot (a rotating platform, like a Lazy Susan) atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. Their design is a natural progression from the steam shovel. Usage Excavators are used in many roles: · Digging of trenches, holes, foundations · Material handling · Brush cutting with hydraulic attachments · · Demolition · General grading/landscaping · Heavy lift, e.g. lifting and placing of pipes · Mining, especially, but not only open-pit mining · River dredging Configurations Excavators come in a wide variety of sizes. The smaller ones are called a mini-excavator or compact excavator. One manufacturer's largest model weighs 84,980 kg (187,360 lb) and has a maximum bucket size of 4.5 m³ (5.9 yd