1.7t Mini Excavator Hire:
The Tight Access Digger With an Attachment for Every Job

Built for tight access

At 1.7 tonnes, this sits at the small end of the mini excavator range, and that’s the whole point. It’s built for access: a compact footprint, a narrow undercarriage, and a weight light enough that it won’t chew up soft or landscaped ground the way a bigger machine will.

It’s also a simple hire. No licence is required to operate it, no deposit is needed to book it, and it’s fully insured while it’s in your hands. Our Kubota U17 digs to around 2,310mm, which covers the vast majority of residential and small commercial jobs, from drainage and trenching to footings and pool surrounds.

• Narrow side access, courtyards and backyards behind the house
• Drainage, trenching and small footings
• Pool surrounds and landscaped areas where ground damage matters

Clean, consistent holes

Digging post holes and footings by hand is slow, hard work, especially in clay or compacted ground. An auger drills clean, consistent holes in a fraction of the time, and we have three sizes so the hole suits the job.

• 200mm auger — fence posts, small signs and lighter post work
• 300mm auger — deck stumps, pergola posts and general footings
• 450mm auger — larger footings, heavier posts and holes that need more width

If you’ve got a run of holes to drill at the same depth, an auger is far faster and more consistent than digging them with a bucket.

For careful digging

For careful digging around underground services, the 200mm service bucket gives you a clean, narrow cut with minimal disturbance. It’s also handy for narrow trenches, irrigation lines and cable runs where you don’t want to dig any wider than you have to.

For rock, concrete and old slabs

When the ground turns out to be rock, or you’re up against an old slab, footing or path, a bucket won’t get you far. A rock breaker turns the excavator into a demolition hammer, breaking up hard ground and concrete so you can dig it out.

• Removing old concrete paths and slabs
• Breaking out footings
• Getting through rock in a trench

For debris and clean-ups

A hydraulic grab opens and closes to pick up and carry awkward material a bucket can’t hold, like tree branches, rubble, rocks and demolition debris. It’s ideal for site clean-ups, and for loading broken concrete or timber into a trailer or skip without picking it up by hand.

For retaining wall work

If you’re building or replacing a retaining wall, the sleeper grab is the attachment that makes the job manageable. It clamps onto timber or concrete sleepers so you can lift, position and place them from the seat, turning a two or three person lift into a job one operator can handle.

Extra flexibility on site

A tilt hitch lets the attachment tilt from side to side rather than staying fixed. That’s a big help on sloping ground, batters, and when grading or digging at an angle, because you don’t have to keep repositioning the whole machine to get the bucket where you want it.

Dig, lay and compact in one hire

Once the trench is dug and the pipework or cabling is in, the backfill has to be compacted properly or it will settle later. We have two attachments for that.

Compaction wheel — rolls along the trench to compact backfill as you go, which is especially handy in narrow trenches.

Compaction plate — compacts soil, base material or backfill over a wider flat area.

Handy extras

Broom — an underrated one. It sweeps up loose material, dust and debris from hard surfaces at the end of a job, so the site gets left clean without a lot of manual sweeping.

Log splitter — got a fallen tree or a pile of timber? The log splitter attachment turns the excavator into a firewood-splitting machine, so you can break down logs quickly and safely without the sweat and risk of swinging an axe.

We service the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Logan and Ipswich, with delivery available from our Stapylton depot, or pickup if that suits your schedule better. When you book, let us know what the job involves and which attachments you want, so the right setup is on the machine before it arrives and you’re not stuck on site missing the one attachment you needed.

If you’re not sure the machine will fit, measure your tightest gate or gap and give the team a call. We’d rather confirm it before the machine is on the truck.