Float, Float On ….

Amphibious excavators are a curious concept, whilst fantastic in the right hands I’m sure, there does seem to be a lot of videos ‘floating’ (pun intended) around on the internet of them turning turtle in the water. However, while surfing the net looking for material on them, I came across a brand I had never heard of before.

EIK Engineering Sdn Bhd who were founded in 2006, are a Malaysian manufacturer specialising in the design and manufacturing of amphibious excavators, fabricating the track pontoon sections which form the base platform to receive excavator upper bodies from a wide range of OEM’s including Caterpillar, Komatsu, Hyundai, Volvo and a whole host of other brands which can be adapted to fit the EIK pontoon system.

The company now produces a full range of 11 models ranging from the smallest at 3.5-tonnes up to the largest at 48-tonnes, the company states that this makes them the largest manufacturer of such machines by volume, in South East Asia, and as a well-known brand in this field globally. To support these machines, the company also manufactures booms and sticks, buckets and grabs.

These extremely low ground pressure machines use EIK’s patented ‘Multi-Synchronous Direct Drive System’ which according to EIK puts them at the forefront of amphibious excavator design. These drive motors are mounted at the front and rear of the pontoon, that would really confuse the Digger Man Blogs resident sprocket man Ken Hatcher!!

This design effectively works like the 4x4 drive system on a car or truck, offering unrivalled tracktive effort.

This first video features the American dealers who had delivered a large order of these Caterpillar based machines to their customer Houston Heavy Machinery, it’s certainly an impressive line-up of kit!

In this second video, which is actually 3 years old, EIK take us on a field visit to see their AM200 (20-tonne class) and AM300 30-tonne) amphibious undercarriages in action.

I’m not sure whether I could hack running one of these, I think I might end up suffering from sea sickness, but I would be willing to give it a go if the opportunity arose one day!