DITCH WITCH Construction Equipment Upcoming Auctions

About Ditch Witch

Ditch Witch is the name to know in construction equipment for installing utilities underground. The Perry, Oklahoma, company is synonymous with trenching and trenchless machinery, including horizontal direction drills (HDDs) and asset locators, for the installation of water, sewer, and gas lines as well as telecommunications, cable TV, and fiber-optic cables.

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Ditch Witch RT125 Ride-On Trencher

The Origins Of Ditch Witch

The Ditch Witch story began in 1902 when a German immigrant named Carl Frederick Malzahn moved from the freezing winters of Minnesota southward to Perry, Oklahoma. He opened a blacksmith shop with his two sons, Gustave and Charles. The latter eventually turned the family business into Charlie's Machine Shop, which flourished by conducting repair work for oilfield equipment in the region. Charlie’s son Edwin joined the company in 1944.

Early Ditch Witch Trenchers

From 1948 to 1950, Ed Malzahn put his new mechanical engineering degree to use developing the industry’s first compact, mechanized trenching machine. Smaller than the other trenchers of the day, the new machine specifically addressed the need to dig narrow trenches for water, electric, and gas service lines between houses and the main lines under the street, and it did so faster than workers could dig them manually using picks and shovels.

Charlie and Ed made a steel prototype with a vertical conveyor chain that dug into the ground using a series of small buckets. The operator sat on a tractor seat mounted on the side, using a lever to move the trencher forward or backward on its four pneumatic tires.

Ed met with an advertising man in Tulsa, who helped him to come up with a catchier name than its working title: “Ed’s Ditcher.” The pair christened the new trencher the DWP for Ditch Witch Power, which went on the market for $750.

1950s Ditch Witch Expansion

In 1951, the company formed its first partnership with a dealer in Oklahoma City. This proved to be a crucial first step toward the widespread dealer network that would come to fuel Ditch Witch’s growth and expansion.

Ed and Charlie incorporated the company in 1958 as Charles Machine Works (CMW), the name it still bears today as the parent company of Ditch Witch. Its innovations included a vibratory plow, trencher attachments including backfill blades and a backhoe, and a versatile “combo” machine configurable with various modules.

Ditch Witch Drilling Technology

In 1987, when the nascent horizontal directional drilling technology was focused on lengthy boreholes for oil and gas company projects, Ditch Witch once again scaled its own offering down for the utility market. It introduced a compact model designed for installing smaller-diameter utility lines. The new horizontal drilling bore enabled customers to install pipes and cables under roads, creeks, and other obstructions.

Ed stepped down from his longtime role as CEO in 2003, and his granddaughter, Tiffany Sewell-Howard, took the helm. In 2015, Ditch Witch had more than 175 dealerships and branches serving customers in 195 countries. The publicly traded Toro Company acquired the privately held Charles Machine Works in 2019. Ditch Witch continues to make its products in the U.S.

Ditch Witch Product Lines

Besides trenchers, Ditch Witch sells horizontal directional drills (including large American Augers models) and all-terrain drills, which can be used in conjunction with the company’s Subsite Electronics HDD guidance systems and locating tools to give the drill operator as much information as possible while digging. The company’s trenchless machinery includes fluid management systems, pneumatic piercing tools, and HammerHead pipe bursters for pipe rehabilitation.

Ditch Witch also sells hydrovacs and vacuum excavators with multiple accessories available; walk-behind, ride-on, quad, and micro trenchers and vibratory plows; and stand-on mini skid steers in different configurations to handle digging, trenching, keyhole coring, and more.

Find The Right Ditch Witch Equipment

MachineryTrader.com hosts for-sale listings for hundreds of new and used Ditch Witch machines for sale, including directional drills, ride-on trenchers, walk-behind and stand-on trenchers, and track skid steers. Popular Ditch Witch models available on the site include Jet-Trac JT2020 Mach 1 horizontal drill, RT45 ride-on trencher, 410 walk-behind trencher, and SK800 track skid steer.