REMU Big Float

The Big Float is an amphibious excavator made by REMU of Finland for earth-moving in marshland, shallow water and waste ponds where a conventional excavator would be unsafe or unable to work. The first was built in 1994, and the design has since been refined into three models, the 10.22, 12.24 and 16.36.

Design

Each Big Float starts from the upper structure of a standard excavator of almost any major brand. Its normal boom is replaced by a long-reach boom, the counterweight is removed, and the original undercarriage is replaced by REMU's pontoon structure, attached to the excavator's own slewing ring. The pontoons carry excavator-type tracks and are divided into eight baffled compartments, each pressure-tested during manufacture. The operator can adjust the pontoon width hydraulically: about 3 m for road transport (so no special permits or cranes are needed) and up to 4.8-5.5 m for work. Ground pressure on land is only 140-160 g/cm2.

The machine drives straight into the water on its tracks without crane assistance and can be loaded onto a low-loader in about half an hour. Depending on model it works in up to 1.3-1.5 m of water unsupported, reaches 10-15 m forward and digs 4.5-9 m deep; operating weights are roughly 22, 25 and 35 tonnes. With extra pontoons, anchoring legs (1.5 m or 6 m long) and outriggers it can work steadily in open water down to 9 m, and propellers fitted to the extra pontoons, powered from the track drive, let it travel along waterways under the same controls as on land.

Applications

Typical work includes clearing vegetation from soft shorelines, cleaning industrial and waste ponds, dredging (with a standard bucket or a special suction-dredging bucket), canal cleaning, pile driving and laying cables and pipes.