Some backhoes might be really, really big, but they are all dwarfed by some of the backhoe dredges that haunt our harbors. A standard backhoe rarely has a bucket capacity of more than a single m3. Not much when you compare it with the 40 m3 bucket capacity of “Vitruvius” - the biggest backhoe dredger in the world.
Backhoe dredges are used on water, while normal backhoes are used on land. Backhoe dredges are used to excavate bottom sediments in shallow water and dispose of it in a different location. Most often they are mounted on a type of small ships called dredgers.
The biggest backhoe dredge in the world is Vitruvius. It’s almost 65 meters long (including the dredger ship it’s mounted on), has a bucket capacity of up to 40 m3 and a maximum digging depth of 32 m. The owner of Vitruvius is the Belgian company Jan de Nul Group.
The second largest backhoe dredge is Il Principe which is also owned by Jan de Nul Group. Il Principe is more than 60 meters long, has a bucket capacity of 20 m3 and a digging depth of 30 m.
Third largest is New York owned by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company. It is more than 60 meters long, has a bucket capacity of 19 m3 and a digging depth of 25 m.
Jan de Nul Group have apparently ordered two more backhoe dredges similar to Vitruvius, so all of the top 3 backhoe dredges in the world will soon be owned by the same company.