5 Biggest Excavators Ever Built (And What They're Used For)

Excavators are useful beasts, and almost impossible to displace in many situations all over the globe. Little else is quite so effective on the job at hand, whether that be shifting material, clearing land, digging, or even demolishing old and tired structures. Essentially, an excavator is like a Swiss Army Knife — a sort of jack of all trades in the various spaces they frequent, such as construction and mining sites.

Some excavators are best made small, so that they can be nimble enough for personal use. You don't need a 20-ton machine to help landscape your neighbor's garden. For example, something smaller will be far more practical. However, at the other end of the scale there exists some truly gargantuan machines, tasked with some of the heaviest duty jobs going. Primarily, these big excavators are used in mining applications, and they can shovel their way through countless tons of earth, coal, copper, and iron ore with relative ease day-in and day-out.

However, some are designed with different purposes in mind, and with a myriad of available functions, they can excel in other fields too, such as large scale construction work. Regardless of their differences, these are five of the largest excavators out there, based on their operating weights with front shovel attached in metric tons, as stated by the manufacturers. One thing they all share in common is the fact they are ludicrously huge, each tipping the scales considerably north of 500 tons. Entries have been ranked from the smallest first, with a wild card taking the top spot.

This behemoth kicks us off, and as is generally the norm for an excavator of this size, it is mainly focused on excelling at mining work. Liebherr boasts that the R 9800 has an 80,000-hour service life, which is imperative for machines that work in such environments as this. Excavators in the mining industry work hard and in tough conditions, so not having to pull it out frequently for servicing only bolsters its overall appeal.

Powering the giant machine is a choice of two engines, well of two pairs of engines to be precise, as in both configurations the R 9800 is twin-engined. The first choice is a pair of huge Cummins engines, QSK 60 V16 engines to be precise. The 60.2-liter engines work together to produce a combined 2,984 KW of power, or just over 4,000 horsepower.

The other option for the R 9800 is a pair of Liebherr's own engines, the D9812. These are 62.0-liter V12 units, which churn out a mighty 3,000 KW of power, or 4,023 horsepower. Whichever way you look at it, this is one mean machine, and it's only the baby of our group.

This Japanese firm really does make just about everything. Hitachi used to make power tools, televisions, and just about anything else you can think of. Oh, add to that list the EX8000-7 excavator, which tips the scales at a monstrous 911 tons. Much like the aforementioned Liebherr, the EX8000-7 is very much at home in mining applications, and is durable enough to work 24/7, even in the most demanding of environments.

Despite being powered by Cummins QSK 60 engines, just as the Liebherr is, Hitachi claims that low fuel consumption is one of the EX8000-7's core focuses. Sure, it's unlikely to match a RAV4 Hybrid's highway consumption, but when you're running a machine of this size, and with engines that huge, any slight improvement in fuel consumption is likely to result in a serious saving in your pocket. Other benefits include a user-friendly cabin, design to minimize fatigue, therefore increasing operator efficiency while reducing risks from growing tired due to long hours and an unintuitive workspace.

This giant of the excavating world is relatively new on the scene, having debuted just a few short years ago in 2022. It sports a bucket capacity of 45 cubic meters, which is just 2.5 cubic meters shy of what the above R 9800 boasts. These pair of fairly closely matched, then, but from here on out, the world's biggest excavators really ramp up the numbers.

This next excavator tips the scales a full 169 U.S. tons heavier than our last entry, so as you might be able to imagine, everything about it is just, bigger. The shovel is larger, sitting at a full 50 cubic meters in capacity; for reference, the trunk of a Chevrolet Suburban is about 4.1 cubic meters with both the second and third row folded flat. So yeah, the Bucyrus RH400 would be ideal for large grocery trips, but as per the other largest excavators, it's much more at home in mining environments. When operating at full capacity — which is likely quite often — the RH400 can shift 100 tons of material with a single scoop. It has been known to move 9,900 tons in a single hour, making light work of even the most demanding of tasks.

It arrived in the late 1990s, and when it did, it claimed the top spot as the world's largest hydraulic excavator, although that title has since moved on. For motivation, the Cummins QSK 60 range steps in to manage the task at hand once again, and in this particular application the engines churn out a combined 4,400 to 4,500 horsepower. Whether it be in European, Indian, or Australian coal mines, or shifting tar sands in Canada, the Bucyrus has proven itself over the years to be an immensely valuable tool. However, there now exists an even larger tool for the job.

In 2013, the Bucyrus first hit the scene, Caterpillar released the largest hydraulic excavator to date — the 6090 FS. As you might have assumed, it boasts two engines, and both of them are from the Cummins QSK 60 family. Cummins knows a thing or two about screwing together a hard-working diesel engine, so it's no surprise to see the firm monopolizing the Goliath-sized excavator market like this.

The 6090 FS isn't heaps larger than the Bucyrus, weighing in at 22 U.S. tons heavier, and sporting a front shovel size of 52 cubic meters, but bigger is bigger, and size really does matter in the excavator world. While the numbers might not seem all that big, Caterpillar boasts that the 6,090 FS is the only excavator of its type that can fill a 400-ton Ultra Class Truck in just four passes, with a bucket payload of 100 tons. The 6,090 FS has also proven to be immensely reliable, according to Caterpillar themselves, with one model having clocked up over 100,000 operating hours. So, to clarify, this is the largest hydraulic excavator ever built, and just like the rest, its primary focus is on the mining industry. However, we promised a wildcard, and we're about to deliver on it.

That's right, the Bagger 293 tips the scales at a mind-boggling 15,650 U.S. tons, making it the heaviest land vehicle in the world. The 6,090 FS looks like a child's toy in comparison to this, but in truth, it's not really a fair comparison. That's because the Bagger 293 is a bucket-wheel excavator, rather than a typical hydraulic excavator like the others mentioned here. It can still move under its own power, though, and it can shift 240,000 cubic meters of material every single day. If this one's a little big for your desk at work, you could always consider this LEGO bucket wheel excavator instead.

It sports a total of 18 buckets, each wheel sits at 1,452 gallons in capacity, and they are each attached to a giant wheel at the front of the excavator. As the excavator spins, the buckets scoop up material, and then dump it on the conveyor belt, which whisks it away and thus removes it. In terms of dimensions, the Bagger 293 is 722 feet in length, 310 feet tall, and the bucket wheel itself is as tall as a four-story building. It takes five operators to control the machine, and it extracts around 40 million tons of lignite every single year.