Box Scraper How to clean ditches

[Stihlrunner]

Hi

Supposedly you can use a box scraper to clean ditches...can anybody tell me how that's done? I can't get my mind around it? Do you tilt it at an extreme angle? Do you straddle the ditch or drive next to it?

I have about 600' of ditch that runs next to my driveway at the base of hill that gets full of sediment and washes over the drive. I cant straddle the ditch due to brush and uneven terrain. Any ideas? Using a FEL would be a done of work going back/forth.

Jinma 284 4x4 FEL, 5' King Kutter box scraper.

Thanks!

 

[Kays Supply]

I use a miniexcavator and smooth ditching bucket. It makes a really smooth ditch and you can dump the spoil on the other side or haul it away really easy.

 

[Dmace]

Check out this thread by 3RRL and the different uses of a box blade. He has some great pictures of creating a swale along the side of his driveway and it looks great! I am sure you could use the same technique for cleaning the ditch.

Here's a picture from his thread. :thumbsup:

Click the image for larger version.

 

[Travis_R]

Here, this might help....
How to use a box blade

Travis R

 

[jenkinsph]

This is a job better performed with either a ditching bucket as mentioned by Kay's Supply or a good rearblade with offset.
I use a rearblade with it angled and tilted sharply to pitch the materials back up on the roadway. Then respread the materials with a landplane.

Make sure the ditch has enough slope to it to carry the water away or all you will do is fill it up when it rains and repeat your problems.

 

[Johno Geo]

I hired a surveyor and he came up with an elevation survey and drainage plan to get rid of the standing water on my property.
The elvation change is about 7ft in about 750ft run.
I was supposed to get a swale with gentle slope for easy mowing.
I had culverts installed at key crossing points.
The weather turned bad after Thanksgiving and the excavator dug the ditch, but didn't finish the sides.
My question is: How do you think we can finish the ditch sides?
The excavation Contractor still has an excavator as well as a D4 Dozer.

 

[leonz]

As he has dug a channel you have a bit of a chore;

He should have been honest with you and told you
that you needed a 4 wheel drive or tracked "Gradall"
and rented one or hired one.

In order to establish any bank grade you will have to
peel both sides back to create a slope and the lower
the angle of attack the greater the slope distance
the slower erosion.


Short of filling the ditch half to three quarters full of
cobble sized limestone or gravel stone now to stabilise
the base and reduce erosion theres not not much else
you can do for now.


Late in the year when its absolutely dry after the
cobble stone has been placed you would be able
to drive the tractor on the cobblestone and use a
back blade to peel packlayers of the dirt to shave
each bank as you advance-you can forget about
back blading in a a hand full of passes as it will
take a long time; going down one side and
returning up the other peeling an half an inch
each time until you are satisfied with the slope
as you move the back blade over each half inch
while peeling the top soil away from the cobblestone base.


The lawn seeding drill will do all the work as well
as placing fetiliser with the seed to avoid any nitrogen run off.

Then you have to decide how you will be seeding
the slopes- the use of a lawn seeding grass drill
will get you your grass for the banks in the fastest
way as the seed is drilled into the soil and gives
you the fastest germination. About this; if you
find a contractor with a lawn seeding drill you
will be all set but you may have to contract
with a sod farm to pay them to seed it for
you, as this is the fastest and best way,
and has the highest rate of grass seed
germination and zero waste.

 

[Travis_R]

I hired a surveyor and he came up with an elevation survey and drainage plan to get rid of the standing water on my property.
The elvation change is about 7ft in about 750ft run.
I was supposed to get a swale with gentle slope for easy mowing.
I had culverts installed at key crossing points.
The weather turned bad after Thanksgiving and the excavator dug the ditch, but didn't finish the sides.
My question is: How do you think we can finish the ditch sides?
The excavation Contractor still has an excavator as well as a D4 Dozer.

From the pic, you need more than a boxblade. I'd say that somebody who KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING needs to sit in the seat of that excavator.

 

[djradz]

This is a job better performed with either a ditching bucket as mentioned by Kay's Supply or a good rearblade with offset.
I use a rearblade with it angled and tilted sharply to pitch the materials back up on the roadway. Then respread the materials with a landplane.

Make sure the ditch has enough slope to it to carry the water away or all you will do is fill it up when it rains and repeat your problems.

Agree. A box blade, although it will work, fills up the portion of the box which is down low and then relies on the rest just falling out to the sides, but not very far away from the resulting ditch. A properly angled rear blade, either with or without offset, will move the material further to the side and away from the ditch.

 

[davygp38]

Agree. A box blade, although it will work, fills up the portion of the box which is down low and then relies on the rest just falling out to the sides, but not very far away from the resulting ditch. A properly angled rear blade, either with or without offset, will move the material further to the side and away from the ditch.

I tried to use a box blade for a ditch, and it does work. However, it took a long time, and it will not do the job in an area with larger rocks. Unless you have a hydraulic side link, be prepared for getting off, and on the machine a lot to adjust the angle. I have a tlb, and what I have been doing now, is to dig a shallow ditch with the hoe, along the side of the road, and then grade the road, and ditch at the same time with the box blade. I can extend the crown of the road right down ito the ditch. I do this, because as mentioned before, the excess material from the box blade has no place to go sometimes, except back in the ditch. So I take some material out, including bigger rocks, then use the scraper, as sort of a planer to smooth the edges. It works.:thumbsup: