The 470 TM from Badger Equipment Co. isn’t a new concept.

The truck-mounted telescoping excavator concept has been around since the 1950s. But now the mounted excavator makes it easy for municipalities and counties because it’s designed to be drive on the highway. At Better Roads press time, production was slated to start Oct. 1 for the 215 horsepower, Tier 3 machine (with Tier 4i production beginning after Jan. 1.).

The mounted excavator is a self-propelled machine, with an automatic transmission and comes in two- and four-wheel drive. “It can be driven from the upper cab or in a ‘creep mode from the back of the cab,” Paul Marxen, Badger Equipment Co. sales and marketing manager, told an Aggregates Manager and Better Roads editor at the 2011 American Public Works Association Show in Denver.