Sitting in the 1-ton range, Kubota’s all-new U10-5 mini excavator offers nearly zero tail swing – just half an inch over the tracks – a retractable undercarriage, class-leading breakout force and greater dig depth and reach.

The petite 2,646-pound workhorse made its debut at World of Concrete in Las Vegas.

“This is a great machine for working alongside a single lane of traffic, between homes or along a fence line,” says Patrick Baker, construction equipment product manager, Kubota. “You can easily fit in very confined, tight working spaces.”

The ultra-compact machine is well-suited for rental, landscape, commercial construction, residential construction and utility construction, the manufacturer says.

Hydraulic adjustable tracks can shift from 30 to 39 inches to get into narrow spaces and optimize digging performance.

“If you’re going to be doing a lot of dirt work, we recommend widening those tracks out, putting the dozer blade down and digging it out,” says Baker. “The dozer blade does also extend out. You can do a little bit of fine grading and backfilling. The blade goes a long way and sometimes gets forgotten, but it’s another very handy tool for those owner-operators.”

Kubota has updated the operator station to standardize the joystick position and pattern across all of its excavator models for consistency and productivity.

“You have the mechanical joysticks out front. These are going to help you with tracking,” says Baker. “You’re actually going to operate the boom and arm in the house of the machine with side lever joysticks. This is going to give you a more consistent digging operation and a more productive operator position because you’re going to see these same pilot-controlled side lever joysticks now from our 1-ton all the way up to our largest excavator, the KX080-4.”

The machine offers class-leading bucket breakout force in the 1-ton space at nearly 2,400 pounds per foot.

Dig depth has been increased by 3 inches from the previous generation to 5 feet 11 inches. Dig reach is 1 foot longer to 10 feet 11 inches.

Excavators aren’t typically known for speed, but the U10-5 offers a travel pedal to switch between high or low speed, with a class-leading top speed of 2.5 mph.

“When it comes to rental and you’re running back and forth all afternoon through a residential gate," Baker says, "that time adds up to another half day or full day of rental.”

The 10.3-horsepower, Stage V-compliant Kubota D722-E4-BH-3EU 3 PS E-TVCS engine is easily accessible underneath the operator’s seat for routine maintenance and inspection. Kubota’s three vortex combustion system reduces exhaust emission, noise and vibration.

Kubota says the new model will be available in the second quarter of the year.