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The Bagger 288 Excavator

The Bagger 288 is the biggest excavating machine in the world. It was first built by the German manufacturer, Krupp, in 1978.

The excavator was built for coal mining at the Hambach stripmine, located in Germany. It’s so powerful, it can excavate 240,000 tons of coal per day. That’s equal to a football field dug almost 100 feet deep. At 720 feet long and over 300 feet tall, the excavator requires 16.5 megawatts of electricity. The excavating head is 70 feet in diameter and has 18-20 buckets with a capacity of 9 cubic yards of material each. Roughly the equal size of a pickup truck bed.

Smaller versions have been made, such as the Bucyrus-Erie 5872-WX, which was also used for coal mining.

Due to it’s massive size, the Bagger 288 can only travel 1700 feet per hour. It is so heavy, it crushes any road or path to get to its destination. Moving the machine this way is more cost effective to repair any damages than disassemble it into components. It takes five people to operate and at least 70 men to prepare the way for any sort of traveling. The teamwork required is overwhelming, to say the least.

This humongous excavator was featured in the movie Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 2012. The main character used his super powers to ignite the wheel and buckets in flames as he used it to attack his foes.