Hydrovac Trucks

Transwest has powerful and durable hydrovac trucks for sale, plus rent and rent-to-own options through our sister company, DigVac Rentals.

View all Hydrovac Trucks

About Hydrovac Trucks

Rugged, high-quality, hydrovac trucks are available to meet your business needs. Foremost and Rival bodies paired with our Western Star and Freightliner chassis ensure that your hydrovac is the right size, of the utmost quality, and contains value-added features. Options to purchase, finance, or rent long-term make it easier than ever to purchase a hydrovac.

Hydrovac trucks use pressurized water to break up the ground surface and are equipped with a vacuum that sucks up the debris into tanks, exposing infrastructure beneath the ground and facilitating trenching or tunneling. The entire process is non-destructive, meaning it can be done with high precision without damaging crucial infrastructure beneath the ground. Hydrovac trucks are often used by utility companies for maintenance and repairs and the oil and gas industry for digging or tunneling into the ground.

The Transwest sales team is here to make sure that you choose the right hydrovac for your budget and application. All hydrovacs come standard with highly engineered features, as well as a suite of additional winterization options.

Because Transwest has been in the business of selling and servicing hydrovac trucks for years, our team knows which truck is best suited to your job. We get to know you and your business so that we can advise you on the rental or ownership options. We’ll explain the pros and cons of rentals versus a purchase, how quickly you’ll see a return on your investment, and what brand of truck we recommend.

How do I decide whether to rent or buy a hydrovac truck?

The decision between renting and purchasing a hydrovac truck depends on each business’s particular scenario. Get in touch with one of our team members, who will layout the cost differences and discuss aspects of your decision such as payback period, maintenance costs, and projected long-term use in the field. Having all these details in front of you will make the decision much easier.

Transwest also has very flexible rent-to-purchase (RPO) options to help you get on the road to purchasing a vehicle, with some equity. Transwest and our finance company, Trans Lease, work closely to ensure you have the best finance, RPO, and purchase options available.

How long are hydrovac truck rentals for?

Transwest provides flexible options for hydrovac truck rentals. As a company, we pride ourselves on delivering personalized service to each and every one of our customers. A member of our team will work with you to decide on the length of the rental and the right equipment for the job.

Typically, the shortest rental is a six-month period. The average rental term we see is 12-24 months; and occasionally, we have provided rentals of up to five years. If a customer wants a longer-term, we’ll suggest they do an RPO, to maximize business profits.

What insurance is required when I rent a hydrovac?

Commercial truck insurance is required when driving a hydrovac truck, even for a rental. Be sure to speak to your commercial automotive insurance provider to discuss the unique needs that a hydrovac truck has for insurance. Ideally, you should make sure that the insurance provider has experience with hydrovac trucks, as the size of the vehicle may require additional liability coverages.

If you have more than one hydrovac truck in your fleet, consider the benefits of an umbrella policy for all of them combined, which could be more cost-effective.

What is a hydrovac used for?

As the name hints, hydrovac trucks are used to excavate using a vacuum (“vac”) and pressurized hot water (“hydro”). Hydrovacs are used to carefully remove earth, clay, soil, ice, gravel, or dirt from an area using a non-destructive process, meaning that all underground fixtures and infrastructure are left undamaged. Additionally, hydrovac trucks are safer and more efficient, environmentally-friendly, and precise than traditional digging methods such as a backhoe or large equipment.

Hydrovacs are used extensively by utility companies, construction companies, the oil and gas industry, and utility providers to accurately dig and tunnel into the ground. In the construction industry, hydrovacs are used for operations including potholing/daylighting, exposing utility crossings, utility locates, slot trenching, open trenching, pole casings, excavation and bore pits. In the oil and gas industry, hydrovacs are used for spill cleanups, facility work, frac and rig cleans, pipelines, and daylighting.

How many gallons does a hydrovac truck hold?

Because of the many different industries that hydrovac trucks serve, capacities vary quite a bit. For larger-scale operations, such as those in the oil and gas industry, the capacity of the hydrovac truck tanks can be upwards of 1600 gallons with a debris tank that can hold 13 cubic yards.

But for other applications, such as in municipal areas where utilities and construction companies are operating, a smaller capacity hydrovac truck is likely to be used. For example, the Rival T7 hydrovacs are equipped with an 800-gallon water tank and a 7 cubic yard debris tank. The larger Rival T10 hydrovac trucks have four 300 gal water tanks and a 10 cubic yard debris tank.

Transwest saw the need to supply smaller hydrovac trucks to municipalities, allowing us to run within the regulations, but much more cost-effectively.

Dan Rumple, Colorado Utilities, Grand Junction, CO

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The Transwest Difference

When it comes to choosing a trusted resource for purchasing a commercial truck, Transwest has been a reliable partner for over 30 years. At Transwest, we focus on providing quality solutions throughout the entire process of purchasing or renting commercial trucks. Our sales teams are trained to efficiently walk you through your options and match your specific needs to the ideal vehicle. We pride ourselves on our transparent approach to the purchasing, financing, and complete sales process. Whether you are purchasing one truck for a specific task or a whole fleet of trucks for your business, we can assist you with everything you need.

We partner with the top makes in the industry to ensure that we are offering the best commercial truck options. This allows our customers to access the highest quality choices in commercial trucking. If you are currently looking to invest in a commercial truck, please let our team know how we can help. We always put our clients first and will work with you to find the best commercial truck for your situation. Transwest provides you with a one-stop-shop for all your commercial vehicle purchasing needs. From financing options to premium inventory, let us show you why Transwest is the trusted name for purchasing commercial trucks.

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