Closer Look: What's New on Wacker Neuson's Next-Gen ET40 Mini Excavator?

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John Dotto

So who is the fourth excavator for? We found one of the focus areas is the landscapers. Of course you've got all of your utility contractors and also just, you know, obviously general construction, it really comes down to who's looking for a little more power in a compact footprint. And that's the customer for a 14 excavator.

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Jordanne Waldschmidt

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John Dotto

Hi, my name is John Dotto. I'm with Wacker and I'm a product application training specialist. We are here live day one 2026 and we are debuting our eat 40 excavator. Our newest four ton excavator that's going to be built in Menominee Falls, Wisconsin. We've got a couple of machines out here on the show floor that are going to be brought production to Wisconsin.

00:00:46:19 - 00:01:13:13

John Dotto

So as a company, we're looking to expand within North America. We've been doing excavators since the 80s. We've been bringing them to North America for more than 20 years. And now we're starting with production in North America. So in the region for the region. So we're going to walk around this eat 40 excavator. Let's start out by hopping in the cab and taking a look at some of the new features on the east 40 from the operator's station here in the eat 40.

00:01:13:14 - 00:01:32:08

John Dotto

I'll take care of some of the echo here, because one of the first things that I love to demonstrate on wacker noise and excavators is our four position door. So you've got a ventilation position right here. If you just want a little bit of airflow, you can also just take the upper glass up. You can also just take the lower glass up.

00:01:32:08 - 00:01:57:13

John Dotto

But one of our great features is the fact that the lower glass stores in the upper glass and everything goes overhead. So now I've got a totally wide open platform for fresh air. Some of the things that we've done with this latest generation of excavators, everybody wants more technology, bigger displays and the machine to sort of be able to interact with the operator with more information.

00:01:57:13 - 00:02:22:08

John Dotto

So the eight inch color display that we've got on the 40 has all sorts of information, not only from the operator side, but from the service technician side, being able to display codes and service statuses and things like that. It's also got an integrated rear camera as well. And then when we drop the left arm for an active machine, one of the things that we've done is we've taken all of the controls.

00:02:22:08 - 00:02:44:23

John Dotto

Now onto the joysticks for the boom swivel and for our hydraulics. In the past, we've had some machines with some of those functions on the floor, and we're always talking to customers about what they want. So in response to what customers are looking for, we brought those controls up to the nice ergonomic joysticks. We've also got a new key switch pad with a keyless start here. 

00:02:44:23 - 00:03:09:12

John Dotto

So we've got just a green start button to get your machine going. Keyless. And one of the things that I like about our excavators is the mix on the dozer blade joystick. So you've just got this small electronic over hydraulic dozer control which allows you to adjust flow rates. So if you're doing some grading, work with the machine and you want to either speed up or slow down that dozer action, you can do that through the jog dial, through the display and that talks to the joystick.

00:03:09:12 - 00:03:27:14

John Dotto

So nice ergonomics, great big foot pedals really. It's just a nice well-designed cab. If you're going to spend a long time in here, you want to make sure that you're comfortable. And being comfortable also makes you safer because you make better decisions. So from that, let's take a look at some of the features on the outside of the cab.

00:03:27:15 - 00:03:51:11

John Dotto

The 40 that we've got here on the show floor is equipped with a straight blade, but you do have angle blade options. And then a few things to talk about as we look at just structures on an excavator. The key is we're looking for durability right. So we want to make sure that we've got robust structures. And also visibility comes into play here too as you design how your hoses are routed through the the swivel boom structure.

00:03:51:11 - 00:04:12:22

John Dotto

So I'm actually going to pivot around here and talk about the design of the swivel boom here. So you've got this robust casting here for the swivel boom. And just looking at the clean design of the hoses routed through the boom. When you sit in the cab, you really do get a good sense of the really nice visibility that we have, particularly to that right front track.

00:04:12:23 - 00:04:41:14

John Dotto

You want to make sure you have no obstructions to that front right corner of the machine so you don't lose your, your, your place on a job site and then looking up on the boom itself too. It's all about cleanliness of the routing of the hoses. So we make sure that we keep things as much as we can inside the sidewall structure of the boom, so that we don't have snag points outside, and then a little tough to see just based on how we've got the machine configured here.

00:04:41:14 - 00:05:05:22

John Dotto

But you do have thumb options. And then you can see your auxiliary hydraulics plumbed out there to the end of the American flag. So at the back of the machine, when we're talking about serviceability, really what you're looking for is ease of access. So you've got your main engine compartment here with a Yanmar engine here. Daily checks easy to get to, but my favorite compartment for serviceability on this machine is at the side.

00:05:05:23 - 00:05:30:26

John Dotto

So as we step around the side here we've gone to this fluid fill and check compartment on a few of our models. Now as we scale up, we started at the two and a half ton machine. And now that design comes through here on the four tonner. And you've got one compartment here in which you can get to your diesel, fill your hydraulic, fill your engine coolant, fill washer fluid.

00:05:30:27 - 00:05:48:01

John Dotto

You've got your main battery disconnect here as well, which is disconnected for the show. And then your hydraulic site glass is at the side. So from a fluid standpoint, everything's under this one compartment which is lockable. There's also a little bit of storage in there also which is nice and convenient to have.