Factory-Installable
Pivot Technology
for Tracked Excavators
A patented mechanism that turns any tracked excavator in place — without ground damage, without skid wear, without leaving the operator's seat.
Validated across 2-, 5-, and 8-ton classes. Available for OEM licensing.
See It Work
Working prototype on a Caterpillar 305 mini excavator. The same mechanism scales from 2-ton to 8-ton class machines.
An 8-ton (Cat 308) prototype is under final assembly. Detailed demonstration video available upon NDA execution.
Tracked excavators cannot turn without
causing damage and consuming themselves.
Every skid-turn shears the ground, scrubs the undercarriage, and limits the jobsites the machine can be deployed to. The cost shows up across time, money, and safety — on every operator and every job.
Surface Damage
Lawns, asphalt, pavers, and finished concrete are torn up by every rotation. Restoration is borne by the contractor.
Undercarriage Wear
Skid-turning is the #1 driver of premature track, sprocket, and roller wear — often the largest non-fuel operating cost on the machine.
Restricted Sites
Operators avoid finished surfaces, decorative hardscape, and sensitive turf — shrinking the addressable jobsite and forcing wheeled-equipment substitutes.
Liability Exposure
Property damage claims from track-tear are routine in residential, ROW, and urban infill work — and unavoidable with current track designs.
The excavator rotates itself —
using its own existing systems.
The Excavator Foot is a hydraulic plate-and-turntable assembly that mounts to the underside of the main frame. The operator triggers a four-step sequence — and the machine pivots in place on its own.
Anchor the Bucket
Boom lowers, bucket engages the ground. The cabin is now mechanically fixed relative to the earth through the boom-bucket-ground chain.
Extend the Foot
Hydraulic linkage drives the turntable assembly downward. As it contacts ground, the tracks lift clear — the entire main frame is now supported on the foot.
Rotate the Frame
With the cabin anchored by the bucket, the excavator's own rotary motor spins the main frame and tracks freely on the turntable — to any heading.
Retract and Resume
Foot retracts, tracks settle on ground at the new heading, bucket releases. Net result: a full reorientation with zero ground scrub.
Why this is hard to design around
The mechanism uses the excavator's existing rotary motor and boom — not a new powertrain. Without anchoring the cabin via the bucket, firing the rotary motor with tracks lifted simply counter-rotates cabin against tracks (Newton's third law) — net rotation: zero. The bucket-anchor step is not a design choice; it is a physical requirement of any system that uses the OEM's own rotary motor to do the work.
Any competing implementation that uses a different rotation mechanism (e.g., a driven turntable motor) adds cost, complexity, and a redundant powertrain — and still infringes the combination claim. The path of least resistance for an OEM is to license, not design around.
Three working prototypes.
2-ton to 8-ton class.
The mechanism has been built and operated across three machine classes, validating the load math, hydraulic geometry, and structural design at the sizes OEMs ship in volume.
2-ton class
Caterpillar 302 — first prototype
- Mechanism geometry validated
- Operator sequence proven
5-ton class
Caterpillar 305 — featured in public demo
- Full operational cycle on dirt and pavement
- Bucket-anchor sequence repeatable in field conditions
8-ton class
Caterpillar 308 — final assembly underway
- Production-grade machined parts
- Live demonstration available Q3 2026
Prototypes are engineering validation, not retail product. The Excavator Foot is offered for OEM integration into factory production lines.
Built to be a factory option,
not an aftermarket bolt-on.
The Excavator Foot integrates with the host machine's existing hydraulic circuit and rotary motor. It belongs on the assembly line — designed in, not strapped on.
Class-Spanning Design
One mechanism, scaled by load math, fits the 2-ton through 12-ton tracked-excavator range. A single program covers a complete product line.
Native Hydraulic Integration
Uses the host machine's existing hydraulic circuit and rotary motor. No new powertrain, no parallel pump, no redundant control surface — lower BOM impact, faster qualification, clean fit into existing assembly workflows.
Engineering Package Ready
Drawings, hydraulic schematics, load analysis, and prototype data available for evaluation under NDA. Designed to drop into existing manufacturing workflows.
Four levers. One mechanism.
Compact-equipment buyers evaluate against three levers: time, money, and safety. OEM product strategy teams optimize against a fourth your competitors don't have. The Excavator Foot moves all four.
Time
Eliminates matting-and-restoration cycles on finished-surface work. Removes the multi-point skid turn from tight-quarters jobs. Operators take more billable hours per week on the work where surface protection was previously a setup tax.
Money
Skid-turning is the dominant driver of undercarriage wear — the line item OEMs already publish operator guidance on. Eliminating it materially extends track, sprocket, and roller intervals. Surface-restoration claims drop. TCO moves down.
Safety
Eliminates ground destabilization during rotation near excavations — an OSHA 1926 Subpart P proximity issue. Removes operator dismount-to-mat as a fall hazard. Lowers the equipment-related property-damage incidence that drives liability profile.
Defensibility
The lever your competitors do not have. Apparatus claim plus combination claim plus continuation strategy. A multi-year exclusive lever in a commoditized category — design-around requires a redundant powertrain and still infringes.
And they compound.
These four levers don't just stack. Less wear means less downtime means fewer service-bay incidents. Faster turns mean less labor cost mean less late-shift fatigue. Defensibility means longer pricing power means stronger dealer-network economics.
Each lever amplifies the others — which is what separates a feature add from a category-defining capability.
Two ways to go deeper.
We're engaged in conversations with manufacturers in the tracked-excavator and compact-construction segments. The right next step depends on where you are.
Schedule a Demo
See the 308 prototype in person, walk through the mechanism, and ask engineering questions live. Best for early-stage interest.
Request a DemoRequest the Technical Package
NDA-gated access to engineering drawings, claim charts, royalty model, and manufacturing cost analysis. Best for serious evaluation.
Begin NDA Process