I’m doing a lot of excavation work around the yard and would like to buy or build some sort of vacuum excavation system to move the dirt after I’ve loosened it with a shovel. I’m thinking along the lines of a large shop vac that can suck from one end of a long hose and discharge out the other. I’d prefer the "suck and blow" happen simultaneously, but even a simple reversible shop vac that can "blow out" it’s contents would save me a significant amount of time.
I’ve seen commercial vacuum excavation trucks, but I won’t be buying one of those for personal use around my yard. 🙂 So I’m wondering if something like this exists on a smaller, less expensive scale for homeowners (I’m thinking a grand or two)? If not, any ideas on how one might go about building one?
Update on the "Use a wheelbarrow" responses: The area to excavate is much too large. It would take at least a year’s worth of regular weekend and evening work to complete with a wheelbarrow.
I’ll probably wind up hiring a vacuum excavation team to do this work, but I was really hoping a smaller version of these huge commercial vehicles existed… I’m going to leave the question open for awhile, perhaps someone with knowledge of such a system will stumble upon it.
Why not use a wheelborrow. It is cheaper and look at the exercise you will get.
Nothing like that exists for small jobs.
Buy an extra shovel, a wheelbarrow and hire a neighbor kid who needs the exercise.