Whether you work in plumbing, landscaping, residential or commercial building, agriculture or any range of other outdoor industries, chances are a Cat Mini Excavator could be one of your most valuable work tools.
Coupled with the right attachments, your Mini Excavator becomes even more useful. And for fast changes as you or your operators move from one task to the next, a Quick Coupler could help to maximise your investment, allowing rapid swapping from one attachment to another as the job dictates.
Many of these attachments are suitable for applications across other equipment you may have in your fleet, such as Skid Steer Loaders, Multi Terrain Loaders, Compact Track Loaders, Backhoe Loaders – and of course your Mini Excavator.
WesTrac has compiled details on some of the most popular and useful attachments to help you make the most of your Cat equipment.
Cat Utility Thumbs increase machine productivity as they enable the machine operator to use the bucket and thumb like a hand. When not in use, the thumb folds back and can be easily and quickly activated. A shut-off valve enables the use of other hydro mechanical work tools while keeping the thumb retracted.
The Cat hydraulic pin-on thumb can maintain its relationship with the rotation of the bucket and is engineered to match the bucket tip radius, width and spacing of the teeth to enable it to mesh perfectly.
Cat Hydraulic Thumbs come in a two tine configuration and meshes with Cat mini excavator buckets 457mm & larger. All provide wide compatibility with machines, buckets and couplers.
Whether completing site clean-up, moving pipes, blocks, rocks or bricks into place, carting logs or any number of other tasks, Cat Utility Thumbs are versatile and highly practical for use in plumbing, landscaping, general construction, farming and a host of everyday Mini Excavator tasks.
Cat® Augers are the perfect work tool for drilling holes for footings, fencing, signs, trees and shrubs in construction, agricultural and landscaping applications. They deliver the torque required for maximum productivity in a broad range of soil types. Quicker and safer than manual digging or using hand-held augers, the Cat Auger drives are designed with Cat machine weight, power, system pressure and flow rates matched to provide the best performance. The standard 2-inch hexagon shaft across all the drives uses six sides to drive the auger into the ground, providing more torque than a round shaft and improved wear life in tougher digging conditions. All Cat Auger drives have a two-year parts and labour warranty.*
We’ve already mentioned the benefits of Quick Couplers, but there’s no attachment that’s more versatile for a Mini Excavator than the Cat Tilt Rotate Coupler.
These are work tools designed to significantly reduce the time and need to constantly reposition the machine. The Tilt Rotate Coupler provides revolutionary 360 degrees of continuous rotation and 40 degrees of tilt. The The S-Type Tilt Rotate Coupler models can be fitted with the optional familiar red grapple while the Cat Pin-Grabber style Tilt Rotate Couplers will pick up all of the standard cat buckets & attachments without having to change pickups. Offering exceptional productivity, the Tilt Rotate coupler functionality is integrated into the Cat Next Gen Mini Excavator Advanced Display (no secondary screen required) to select and control the functions and features of the Cat TRS (Tilt Rotate System) while the optional RPS (Tilt Rotator Positioning Solution) for TRS6 and TRS8 provides high precision, exact positioning in real time from the coupler if you want to connect 2D or 3D systems.
For plumbers, landscapers, earthworks contractors and anyone needing to backfill trenches or compact cohesive and clay soils, Cat® Compaction Wheels for Mini Excavators are a low-cost attachment option. They use the weight of the machine and applied downward force to compact soil, with 6-10 passes typically adequate to achieve compaction in normal soil conditions, dependent on the required compaction levels. Cat Compaction Wheels are a great choice for soils where vibration compactors may not achieve good compaction. The open rim design allows the wheel to penetrate through the fill and compact the soil from the bottom up.
Cat® Vibratory Plate Compactors are designed to be used for general construction duties, from compacting soil, sand and gravel in preparation for pouring concrete or laying asphalt, to slope compaction and other site preparation activities. Their low cost makes them a popular choice among pavers, general contractors and utility contractors in residential, commercial or industrial applications. The integrated pressure flow control – included in every Cat compaction plate as standard – protects the tool from rapid increase to pressure flow and enhances reliability. No case drain is required on the machine. It includes enhanced hose routing to minimise damage to the attachment’s hoses and bearings are designed to be lubricated in a continual oil bath.
OPERATING TIP: Use the compactor in 10-second bursts. The Cat® Vibratory Plate Compactor is not like a hammer and does not require much downward force to work effectively. The movement of the plate up and down provides sufficient compaction so the plate only needs to make contact with the ground. In fact, if excessive downward force is applied, the motor can experience higher than normal reaction forces as the plate does not have adequate room to move up and down. Comes with a two-year parts and labour warranty*.
Cat® Contractors’ Grapples for 7-9 ton Mini Excavators easily handle small and large material and debris. The two over three tine configuration gives these grapples a large enough surface area for material handling and demolition work. Interlocking tines grasp and hold more material securely when sorting or loading into a truck or at ground level. A slightly curved lower jaw profile is designed to optimise penetration and facilitate ease and speed when unloading the grapple. Long tine design and wide spacing increases visibility of the material while connectivity of the stiff arm to the machine is simplified using the existing thumb bracket on the Cat Mini Excavator stick.
Cat® Hammers are high performance breakers, designed for maximum performance on demolition, construction and road work. Whether you are breaking concrete slabs or driveways, pavements, roads, masonry or brickwork, breaking ground for utility repairs or just carrying out general site prep and landscaping, they are touch tough &, versatile work tools. The Cat B Series Silenced Hammers use a simple design that ensures reliability, versatility, ease of use and maintenance. As a package solution, the matching Caterpillar designed hydraulic kits are also supplied and the best fit for Cat® machines - providing customers a hammer package with superior design and benefits. All hammers come with a two-year parts and labour warranty*.
With heavy rains and bushfires a common issue in Australia, clearing land around properties is a priority.
he Cat HM210 Mulcher is designed for high-performance cutting and mulching of vegetation and undergrowth. These hydraulic mulchers reduce saplings, shrubs and trees into mulched material, making them ideal for environmental maintenance, such as creating firebreaks or removal of invasive plants. The first pass removes plant materials while a second pass, with the door closed mulches the material down from a maximum thickness of around 300mm to 50mm, enabling faster decomposition and providing a layer of protection to the ground to prevent drying out and erosion.
Pairing the mulcher with the Cat 309 Next Gen Mini Excavator, which has an attachment dedicated high-flow pump, enables stick/boom and travel movement without compromising flow to the mulcher. The most powerful and efficient combination is achieved using the stick steer travel, cruise control and continuous flow on the Cat 309 with the Cat HM210 Mulcher – it is a favourite of councils and landscaping contractors, often running rings around larger machines.
Oldfields Australia recently purchased a Cat HM315C Mulcher and used it to pivot their business.
While it didn't make the top eight cut, there is one more work tool that’s well worth adding to your Mini Excavator toolkit and that's a Cat Ripper. These versatile tools are ideal for landscaping, land clearing, demolition, picking apart debris or lifting slabs and site preparation in hard soils or rock. Rippers can be used with a pin grabber coupler, paired in a coupler and thumb combination, or as a pin-on individual attachment.
Whether you’re in the market for a second excavator attachment or a sixth, WesTrac is your primary source in NSW, ACT and WA. We carry a wide assortment of Cat attachments from this list and more, all engineered to optimise your Cat compact equipment. If you need advice on choosing or installing a new attachment, ask our experts today.
