Innovative Attachment Awards: Celebrating the Best Implements of 2025

Every year, Compact Equipment celebrates the top compact construction, landscape and rental equipment with its Innovative Iron Awards. These prestigious awards spotlight the year’s most game-changing compact machines, attachments and technologies. Below are our picks for the top attachments for 2025.

Montabert Micro-CPA Surface Drill Line

Montabert’s Micro-CPA and Micro-CPA 360° transform compact excavators, backhoes or skid steers (9 to 15 metric tons) into remote-controlled production drills. The package delivers hole diameters from 1 to 3 in. and depths to over 10 ft, plus features like hydraulic rod centralizers, anti-jam systems and optional dust suppression. Being able to swap between drilling, breaking and digging with the same base machine slashes specialized rig costs on rock, trench and tieback work.

Cat Fleet Bucket Program

Caterpillar’s Fleet Bucket Program lets owners standardize cutting edges, adapters, tips and side protection across mixed-brand buckets, not just Cat buckets. That means one GET source (ground engaging tools), backed by Cat’s 12-month limited and unlimited breakage warranties, plus dealer parts support almost anywhere. And when your dealer uses Bucket Pro to monitor wear, changeout timing and cost-per-hour trends, you’re essentially managing bucket health like a production fleet component.

EZG Manufacturing Mini Barbwire Hog WB-BWH

EZG’s Mini Barbwire Hog WB-BWH is a barbed wire installer sized for mini skid steers and tight fence runs where you wouldn’t drag in a full skid steer. The unit can dispense up to three rolls at once, feed from either side via a pivoting arm and is compact (about 61 in. tall x 32 in. deep x 89 in. high, 604 lbs) for transport. It’s built to expedite security fence work while cutting labor.

Hilltip HTrack Fleet Technology

Hilltip’s HTrack system turns compact spreaders into connected winter assets. Through a StrikeSmart controller in the cab and two-way GPRS, contractors can remotely set application rates, geofence jobsites, record material usage and generate service reports for each client. By automating documentation, optimizing routes and logging exactly how much salt or brine was applied, HTrack helps operators cut waste, prove service and manage liability.

Blue Diamond Hydraulic Rock Rake

Blue Diamond’s Skid Steer Hydraulic Rock Rake turns finish grading and seedbed prep into a single pass. A 68-in. working width, 12 tooth bars and 484 staggered AR400 steel teeth scoop and sort rocks from 3/4 to 8 in. while leveling soil. A hydraulically opening top cover carries and dumps debris, and reversible bolt-on rake bars extend life.

SharpGrade G73 Grader Blade

The SharpGrade G73 is built for sites a full-size grader can’t touch. Its variable-width design can retract to just 31.6 in. ahead of the blade to work between pipes, columns and tight service corridors, then open to 73 in. with hydraulic wings for sidewalk and driveway finishing. A shock-absorbing Spring Plate mount, electronic load-sensing hydraulics and wireless 2D/3D machine control bring automated grade accuracy to small carriers while cutting hand work.

Vermeer MTR516 Microtrencher

Vermeer’s MTR516 microtrencher is purpose-built to cut narrow, consistent fiber trenches — 1 to 2 in. wide, up to 17 in. deep — while containing debris with a fully shrouded cutting wheel and optimized vacuum flow. Bolt-in wear plates, a dual-hinged service door and field-swappable spoil outlets simplify maintenance and hose hookup. With offset capability and tooth options for asphalt, concrete or rock, it’s engineered for clean urban installs and minimal restoration.

Star Industries 1500 Series Concrete Bucket

Star Industries’ 1500 Series Concrete Bucket is a dual-purpose pour attachment that can be lifted by crane from a center pick point or handled by forklift via locking pockets — one bucket, two delivery methods. A reduced-height profile speeds loading from ready-mix trucks, and manual, spring-loaded gate control allows clean, targeted placement through center or side discharge chutes. It’s built to current ASME standards and ships with required safety documentation.

engcon EC02 Basic Tiltrotator

The engcon EC02 Basic brings full tiltrotator functionality — infinite rotation and ±40° tilt — down to excavators as small as 1.5 to 3 metric tons. It’s a simplified, cost-focused build that still uses engcon’s proven structure but runs through the machine’s own controls, making install and daily use easier. The result is big-excavator flexibility in a package light enough (78 kg) for micro diggers.

Keith Gribbins is publisher of Compact Equipment.