If you can get it in, the mini is the machine you want. At 1.5 tonne it digs to 2.4m, shifts spoil in bigger bites, and gets through a day of footings in the time a micro takes to do half. The cab is enclosed, which makes a wet Tuesday in February a completely different experience.
The catch is width. At 980mm across the tracks it will not go through a standard timber side gate, so this is a machine for anywhere with driveway access, double gates or an open frontage. If your only way in is a passage between two houses you want the micro digger, and we would rather tell you that on the phone than turn up with the wrong machine.
Mini or micro?
The test is the narrowest point on the route in, not the size of the hole. At 980mm the mini needs roughly a metre of clear width, which in practice means a driveway or double gates. The micro digger is 690mm and clears a standard 900mm side gate.
If you have the access, take the mini every time. More reach, more depth, more weight behind the bucket and a door on the cab. People downsize because of the gate, not because of the job.
The numbers
Mini Digger specification
Weight0kg
Width0mm
Dig depth0.0m
Against a side gate
980mmSide gate 900mm
80mm wider than a standard side gate, so it needs double gates or a drive.
Measure the tightest point of the whole route in, not just the gate. The mini digger is one of the machines it fits past.
The rest of the sheet
Hire type
Dry hire
Getting it there
Collect or delivered
Ring the yard if a figure matters to your job and we will check it against the machine before you travel.
What comes with it
Three buckets as standard: a ditcher and two trenching
Fuelled and ready to work when you take it
Delivery to site, or collect it from the Etruria yard
Off hire from the day you ring, not the day it comes back
What you will need
Someone who can run it safely. We hire the machine, not an operator
Roughly a metre of clear width on the whole route in
A trailer and a licence that covers the weight, if you are collecting
Dry hireCollect or deliveredServiced between hiresSame day when we have it
What people hire it for
The jobs it actually gets used on
Six of the jobs the mini digger goes out on most. Keep scrolling and they stack.
01/ 06
Footings and foundations
Extensions, garages, garden rooms. 2.4m covers domestic footings comfortably, and the extra weight means it is not bouncing off compacted ground.
02/ 06
Digging out a driveway
Stripping a drive to full depth before the hardcore goes in. Enough bucket to make it a day rather than a weekend.
03/ 06
Drainage and soakaways
Deeper runs where a micro runs out of reach, and soakaway pits that need real depth to work properly.
04/ 06
Site clearance
Roots, rubble, old bases and slabs. The dozer blade is as useful as the bucket for levelling as you go.
05/ 06
Ponds and pool digs
Anything where the volume of spoil is the real work rather than the hole itself.
06/ 06
Landscaping and levelling
Pulling a garden to level, terracing a slope, cutting in for retaining walls.
How it works
Hiring the mini digger start to finish
01
Ring, message or send the details
Tell us the job and the dates. We will say whether it is in, when it is back if it is out, and whether it is the right machine for what you are doing.
02
Collect it, or we run it out
Pick it up from the yard on Brick Kiln Lane in Etruria, or we will deliver it to site. If you ring early enough and it is free, it can often go out the same day.
03
Ring when you are done
We off hire it from the day you ring rather than the day it happens to come back, and collect it from site if we delivered it.
Before you book
What you need to know
Mini Digger, in the yard on Brick Kiln Lane, Etruria.
01
It is dry hire
You get the machine on its own. We do not supply an operator and we do not take on the digging, so you or someone on your team needs to run it competently and safely.
02
Getting it to site
At 1.5 tonne this needs a proper plant trailer and a vehicle rated to tow it. Check your licence covers the combined weight before you plan on collecting. We hire plant trailers, and if it is easier we will deliver.
03
Ground and tracking
Rubber tracks spread the load and are far kinder to a lawn or a block drive than wheels, but 1.5 tonne on saturated clay still leaves a mark. Board the route out if the ground is wet.
04
Buckets, and a breaker if you want one
Three buckets go out as standard, a ditcher and two trenching, and we add whatever else suits the job. We can put a breaker attachment on it as well, which is worth asking about before you hire a separate breaker and a machine to carry it.
05
How long you need it
A day, a weekend, a week or longer. Ring when the job is done and we will off hire it from that point rather than from the day you happen to bring it back.
06
Need it today
Most of what we hire can go out same day if you ring early enough and it is not already booked out. Worth a call rather than an assumption either way.
From the Google profile
Fantastic experience with Elite Plant Hire! I hired a mini digger and a tracked dumper, and both were top-quality, modern, and reliable machines…
Emma Heaney · Mini digger & tracked dumper
Used Elite for the first time after using other companies before, wow what a breath of fresh air, prompt replies to messages, Cameron dropped the micro digger off and what a credit to the company he is…
The yard is on Brick Kiln Lane in Etruria, a couple of minutes off the A500, so most of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme is a short run either way. Collect it yourself if you have something that can carry or tow it, or we will deliver it to site and collect it when you are finished.
Ours are Takeuchi TB216 and TB217 class machines at 980mm across the tracks. That will not clear a standard 900mm timber side gate, so it needs driveway access, double gates or an open frontage. If your only route in is a passage, the 690mm micro digger is the machine you want.
There is no legal licence requirement to hire one for use on private domestic ground, but you do need to be competent and to work safely. Commercial sites will usually want a CPCS or NPORS card, so check with whoever runs the site.
Only if your vehicle and your licence cover the combined weight. At 1.5 tonne plus the trailer you are past what a standard category B licence allows on many vehicles. Check before you plan on collecting, and if there is any doubt we will deliver it.
2.4m, which covers domestic footings, drainage runs and soakaways. If you need more than that, ring the yard and tell us what the job is.
Get it booked
Tell us the job. We will tell you the machine.
Ring the yard and you get a straight answer on whether the mini digger is available, when it is back if it is out on hire, and whether it is the right thing for what you are doing. If it is not, we will say so.
