Another U.K. First for U Mole in Suction Excavation

U Mole (part of the Groundforce division of Vp plc) recently supplied the first Vac-Tron LPAIR vacuum excavation unit in the United Kingdom to client Geotron UK Ltd.

Geotron works mainly in the environmental industry, with its core business being largely in the petrochemical and contaminated land investigation sectors. Much of the work being undertaken by the new LPAIR unit comprises specialist trial holes for ground sampling and testing, including audit testing of GPR (Ground Probing Radar) survey results and trial holing for civil works. The unit chosen by Geotron is the LP300AIR Trailer-mounted model.

This LPAIR system is the first of its type in the United Kingdom offering both wet and dry excavation from a trailer mounted vacuum excavation unit. The set up has a gross trailer weight of just 3,500 kg, suitable for U.K. towing with standard over-run type brakes, and is designed primarily as a dig and dump machine. This particular unit has been specifically manufactured with dumping into UK standard skips as part of the design.

The Geotron rig is fitted with a manual extending boom to support the suction hose and relieve strain on operators during operation of the machine. It also has a Chalwyn valve and a spark arrestor fitted for maximum safety during work in petrol stations, petrochemical locations, etc. where the unit is used to excavate trial pits for ongoing ground contamination measurements.

The unit features a high performance, high pressure on-board compressed air facility suitable for use with high capacity airknives, high pressure/low flow water capability, a hydraulic tipping and opening tank and retractable hose reels for both air and water supplies.

Geotron previously rented a standard PMD300 wet suction excavation system from U Mole prior to the purchase of the LPAIR system. The new purchase was in response to a decision to increase the company’s flexibility in the suction excavation sector to enable it to excavate by both water and air methods.

Equipment Range


U Mole, a division of Vp plc offers not only this type of vacuum excavation equipment but is also the direct factory distributor for Earth Tool equipment offering the company’s full range of products for trenchless installation and pipeline replacement. This range includes impact moles (earth piercing tools), pipe ramming hammers, twin capstan winches, static rod pipe bursting systems and the portable cable-based, hydraulic pipe burster range.

U Mole also supplies a full and extensive range of trenchless and limited dig equipment including: Suction/vacuum excavation systems (including MTS systems alongside the Vac-Tron systems mentioned previously) and surface coring equipment for the ‘Keyhole’ excavation of utilities and services with minimum disruption to the local area and minimum damage to the buried service. Other trenchless related equipment available includes the market leading Robbins SBU equipment, Pipe to Site coiled pipe trailer range, pipe fusion systems, Reed Tools and a complete range of accessories such as Cobra flexible rodding, towing heads, cable socks, pipe pigs, swivels, breakaway connectors etc.

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