Trench speed

[5030tinkerer]

Does anyone know how many linear feet/hour you could expect to a trenching machine to dig at a 2 and 4' dig depth with a 6" wide trench with non-rocky, loamy soil with trace amounts of clay (Iowa soil)?

[ray66v]

2' I get about 50-75'/hr, 4' is a little less than 1/2 that.

A full 4' is going to be tough to get, because of cave in's in loose soil.

[5030tinkerer]

Can you tell me what kind of machine are you using to get that speed?

[ray66v]

Small ride on crawler, a Case, (rental).

I added a photo, of one of my guys doing a 4' trench.

[bigdad]

Ahhhh the Case/Davis 300!! What a great little machine for close quarters and general work.
Trenched in literally miles of signal cable with one of those. We used those little buggers so much we had to build up the edges of the throw auger from wear. Like a chain saw, the condition of the digging teeth is very important.

We even adapted a collapsable take-up reel that replaced the bar and auger for removing line wire from retired pole line.

I can't sing enough praises for those little 300's.

Small ride on crawler, a Case, (rental).

I added a photo, of one of my guys doing a 4' trench.