EDITORIAL – Blues Magazine.
The new Del Morino RES 15 backhoe has all the typical uses of a backhoe – but with the size to work in really small areas. Found all sorts of reasons for putting off building a water feature on your block? SOTA Tractors has just taken away the biggest one: not having the right equipment.
“Water features look fantastic and are a great addition to small farming blocks,” SOTA Tractors’ Mark Crakanthorp says. “They not only beautify the homestead, but they add value too. However, most small acreage farmers don’t have the right equipment to make one easily – and that’s just way too much hand digging otherwise.”
But small acreage machinery specialists, SOTA Tractors, have come to the rescue again. In April, the company took delivery of a brand new product, the Del Morino RES 15 backhoe. “This model is the only one of its kind in Australia,” Crakanthorp says. “Nothing else is smaller.”

Creating a water feature is just one of the many uses of this fantastic piece of Italian machinery. It has all the typical uses of a backhoe – digging, maintenance, drains, trenches, construction, small demolitions, other landscaping or breaking up asphalt and paving. But the beauty is it’s small enough to work in really small areas.
“The other thing is it’s PTO driven, and can be attached to practically any small tractor – not just those that SOTA sells,” Crakanthorp adds. The RES 15 is engineered and built specifically for small tractors – from just 18hp. “That’s even smaller than the 20-50hp tractors that our RES 20 and RES 30 models are designed to work with. Not forgetting that conventional backhoes are just too heavy for compact tractors to cope with.”
“But,” says Crakanthorp, “just because it’s small, doesn’t mean it’s light on strength. As with SOTA’s larger Del Morino backhoes, standard features include a 180 degree arm rotation with side shift lock, high performance cast iron pump, case hardened rectified steel pins at all pivot points, sintered and self lubricated bushes, easy access and an ergonomic seat with adjustable working position, and stabiliser legs with locking valves. Del Morino, made in Italy, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of small acreage implements. In fact, Del Morino implements are made in Michelangelo’s home town of Caprese, so quality goes with the territory,” Crakanthorp says.
SOTA Tractors is the exclusive importer of Del Morino implements in Australia.