Riverina Diggers › Plate Compactor hire

What it costs

Hire	Price	Notes
1 day	$125	8 hours, extra hours $35
Weekend	$210	Saturday and Sunday
1 week	$585	Best value on longer jobs

Where a plate beats a roller

A ride-on roller is the right machine for area. A plate compactor is the right machine for everything a roller can't physically get to: inside a trench, hard against a wall or footing, in a corner, on a narrow paving strip, around a pit or a tank.

It also fits in the back of a ute, which means no trailer, no delivery to organise if you're passing the yard, and no access problems at all.

What it's used for

• Backfilled service trenches — water, power, conduit, irrigation
• Paving and pathway base — road base or sand before pavers go down
• Small slab and footing bases — sheds, tanks, air-conditioner pads, letterbox and post footings
• Patching — reinstating a driveway or path after a trench crosses it
• Tight corners on a job the ride-on has already covered

Hire it with something else

It's the cheapest machine in the yard and it's most often added to another hire rather than booked on its own. Trenching with the excavator? Add the compactor to backfill properly. Doing a driveway with the ride-on roller? Add the plate for the edges and around the gate posts.

Using it well

Compact in layers of a few hundred millimetres rather than filling a trench and hitting the top. Material at the right moisture binds; bone dry material just moves around under the plate and saturated material pumps. If the surface is springing back at you, the layer is too thick or too wet.

Common questions

How much is a plate compactor to hire in Griffith?

$125 for a day, $210 for a weekend, $585 for a week. It's the cheapest machine we hire out.

Will it fit in my ute?

Yes — it's designed to be transported in a ute tray or box trailer, which is why plenty of people pick this one up rather than take delivery.

Is a plate compactor the same as a wacker packer?

Same thing. Wacker is a brand name that stuck, the way people say Esky or Ute. If you asked for a wacker packer, this is the machine you want.

Plate compactor or ride-on roller?

Plate for trenches, corners, paving bases and anything tight. Ride-on for shed pads, driveways and tracks where there's area to cover. Plenty of jobs want both.

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