Equipment

The machines this trade actually runs, by manufacturer and model — and the crews on CrewNation who run them. Search the machine, not the job title.

Directional Drill
A horizontal directional drill bores a designed path under roads, driveways, creeks and rail, then reams the hole and pulls conduit or cable back through it. Rigs are classed by thrust and pullback and by rod length, which together decide what length and diameter of bore a crew can actually produce. Crews are typically hired on rig class rather than brand: what matters to a contractor is whether the machine can make the shot in the ground at that site.
2 manufacturers
Plow
A vibratory plow slices a narrow path and feeds conduit or direct-buried cable into it in a single pass, with no open trench to restore. Where soil and existing utilities allow it, it is the fastest placement method in the trade and plow crews are measured on daily footage. Machines are separated mainly by blade depth and by whether they are ride-on or walk-behind.
2 manufacturers
Trencher
A trencher cuts an open, graded path for conduit and cable where a bore or a plow will not serve — rock, congested utility corridors, or a design that calls for an open cut. Machines range from walk-behind units for drops up to ride-on trenchers that cut several feet deep, and the trade-off is always depth and production against restoration cost.
2 manufacturers
Mini Excavator
Mini excavators do the pit and potholing work around placement crews: drill entry and exit pits, vault and handhole excavation, and the daylighting that exposes an existing utility before anyone bores past it. They are classed by operating weight, which is what decides whether the machine fits the site and still reaches the depth required.
9 manufacturers
Hydro Excavator / Vacuum Truck
Hydro excavation — vacuum excavation — uses pressurized water and a vacuum to expose buried utilities without touching them with steel. It is the method most one-call rules and most operator specs require inside the tolerance zone around an existing facility, so a vac truck is not optional equipment on most builds. Units are separated by debris tank and water capacity, which set how long a crew can work before dumping and refilling.
3 manufacturers
Mud Mixing / Recycling System
Drilling fluid carries cuttings out of a bore, cools and lubricates the tooling, and holds the hole open. A mixing and recycling system keeps that fluid at the right properties and reclaims it instead of hauling it off, which is both a cost and a permit question on larger bores.
1 manufacturer
Utility Locator
Locating equipment does two different jobs that get talked about as one. Utility locators find and mark existing facilities from 811 tickets before anyone breaks ground. Bore-tracking locators follow a drill head in real time, reading depth, pitch and roll so the operator can keep the shot on the designed profile. Both are judged on accuracy and on depth range in the ground a crew actually works.
14 manufacturers

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Contractors on CrewNation search by machine — rig class, locator, splicer. A free profile lists what you actually run, so the right work finds you.

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Directional Drill

Plow

Trencher

Mini Excavator

Hydro Excavator / Vacuum Truck

Mud Mixing / Recycling System

Utility Locator

Put Your Iron on the Map