Best way to cut/maintain ditches?

[geneM]

Can someone suggest what implement I could use behind a New Holland 2120 4WD for cutting ditches. I have maybe as much as 1000' of drainage ditch to cut and maintain. I'm just trying to control surface run off, not cut irrigation ditches so they don't need to be too deep or wide.

Thanks

 

[Cliff_Johns]

I'm thinking a dirt scoop would do the job for you. Your local TSC or Blaine's Farm & Fleet would have one, or Northern. They aren't very expensive, but they won't dig very deep either. You may have to break up the ground by making a run with a couple rippers down on your box blade to loosen things up first, then scoup out the dirt.

I've always thought there was a market for a two foot wide FEL with a deep bucket.

Cliff

 

[johnk]

Depending what you want to do I used a middle buster to lay in 4" corragated drain. I dug a ditch for a 100' in about 20 minutes. Check out the pics.

http://users.adelphia.net/~gizmo/tracpics.html

 

[kuby]

I used a rear blade swiveld and tilted to the max. This cut a deep ditch in no time. It is nicly sloped and now planted to grass.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

<font color="blue"> I used a rear blade swiveld and tilted to the max. This cut a deep ditch in no time. It is nicly sloped and now planted to grass </font>

I've recut some of my ditch, never done it from scratch, but I followed this same method. Angle the blade & tilt it, let the cutting edge engage the ground so that the corner of the blade makes the cut. I will say that the ditch work I did was started with an inexpensive swivel only blade and having to work in the ditch is what inspired me to switch to a much beefier tilt/swivel/offset blade from Corriher. Having the right blade made the job go much easier.

If the ditch is basically a dry ditch and only is wet during/after a rain, it should be tapered enough that you can grow grass on it and mow through it so once it is done, you shouldn't really have to maintain it other than mowing.

 

[8561]

I have the same Corriher blade as Bob and have used it the same way to cut ditches. At the risk of getting slapped by the safety guys, I have been known to stand on the blade for extra weight while my father drives the tractor.