Dennis Depau and his Rivard suction excavator on the Arocs 3251

Story

The gentle giant.

With the Rivard suction extension based on the Arocs 3251, Dennis Depau leaves holes nothing less than clean. And in record time at that.


When Dennis Depau arrives at the construction site, the others are on their break. The man from near Darmstadt, Germany, already gets attention from afar. “Some people stop and take a good look,” he says. The attention is, however, not directed at him – not even his tattoos, which stretch from his fingers all the way to his shaved head. What turns both passers-by’s and construction workers’ heads is the machine that Dennis is operating: the Rivard EXVAC SE.10 – a monster of a suction excavator built onto the four-axle Arocs 3251 8×4/4 NLA.



Clean and shiny, the anthracite-coloured vehicle with its green suction arm rolls into a residential area near Dieburg in Hesse on what is a drizzly Monday morning. The electrical, water, gas and internet lines have to be cleared for the structural work for a building. It’s just a quick guest appearance for Dennis and the EXVAC. Dennis backs the Arocs up into the construction site by remote control. The fourth axle steers along as well. It’s easier to manoeuvre this way, even on tight construction sites. Cameras, sensors and emergency stop buttons all around provide the necessary safety.



Accurate to within a centimetre.

The colleagues, all from Heinrich Kern Straßen- und Tiefbau GmbH, did all the preparatory work. The seven-metre-long suction arm at the rear swings out. Dennis operates it accurate to within a centimetre using the strapped on remote control. “It’s a bit like a new body part,” he says grinning. The trained truck mechanic used to operate his dad’s mini digger as a child. Four years ago, he learned how to operate the suction excavator in a different firm. Today, it’s all he does at Kern.

Dennis’ helper and passenger Patrick Gröper attaches the rigid suction pipe to the EXVAC with nimble fingers. The serrated rim can rotate when in operation, loosening the soil in the process. At the push of a button, the cast-iron industrial turbine inside the machine roars comes to life. The beast moves over 30.000 cubic metres of air per hour. That’s the contents of ten Olympic-sized swimming pools. The power for this comes from an auxiliary drive from the Arocs’ 375 kW OM 471. The suction created can easily remove mud, sand, earth and even large stones. “You can use it to lift a kerbstone with ease,” says Dennis. If necessary, even over a stretch of 100 metres.


Dennis Depau (left) and Patrick Gröper.


Fast and safe.

Despite its immense power, the suction excavator is loved for its gentleness in everyday life on the construction site. Even today. Dennis skilfully digs straight down into the ground. Bit by bit, he uncovers pipes and cables without touching them. His colleague Patrick helps between the cables and pipes and everywhere where the ground is firm with the compressed-air blowgun. The oil-free compressed air comes from the compressor in the EXVAC. Half an hour later and the suction excavator has left a clean shaft. All pipes and cables are accessible.


“With a shovel, it would have taken more than a day,” says Heiner Kern, Dennis’ boss, who is on site today. He is the fourth generation to be running the family-owned business. The suction excavator is worth it for the company. He easily saves one-and-a-half days of work per week with the machine, Kern calculates.

Not to mention the work it saves and extra safety it offers for his people. Kern has often stood in a hole with a shovel in hand himself. He knows the toil and what it’s like to have to rush out of the hole because the excavator shovel has hit a power or gas line.



Passing the test.

The firm Kern only got its first suction excavator in December 2021. The boss hesitated for a long time. For too long, as he now thinks in hindsight. Over half a million euros of investment costs should be considered carefully. He found what he was looking for at CyclonTec GmbH in Rheinberg. It doesn’t just do the sales for the French suction excavator manufacturer Rivard in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but also rents out the new equipment without an operator. “That was perfect for me,” says Kern. “That way, we could test the suction excavators in our daily work.” The test won Kern over and the rental has now been bought.

Meanwhile, Dennis and Patrick are enjoying their break on the construction site. The Arocs’ spacious BigSpace cab provides a level of comfort that you seldom experience in construction: air conditioning, a fridge, comfortable seats and a sound system. “It doesn’t get any better,” says Dennis and gazes through the cabin. Only the comfort bed with a premium mattress usually isn’t used. “We’re seldom more than half an hour away from home,” explains Patrick.


Clean work.

Before moving on to the next site, Dennis swings the EXVAC’s suction arm over to the pavement opposite. Thanks to the 180-degree range of motion, the Arocs doesn’t even have to manoeuvre to do so. Because it all went so quickly, the colleagues quickly removed a piece of paving – no bigger than a bath towel. Dennis and the EXVAC SE.10 then go on the lookout for the next gas pipe.

Sand, gravel and big stones disappear into the pipe. The trough can hold a total of 10.5 cubic metres, which is hidden away inside the machine. At the end of the day, Dennis will empty it onto the depot floor – tipped out sideways, again by remote control. Until then, six high-performance filters ensure that even the smallest grain of dust stays in the machine.

Just clean air is blown out of the top of the machine. That way, the firm Kern and the Rivard EXVAC leaves just clean holes on the construction site today – and a positive impression on the public.



Photos and video: Michael Neuhaus

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