I bought a Ditch Witch !!!!

[EddieWalker]

Last Saturday I went to the local auction hoping to buy a grapple that they had there. It ended up selling for way more then a new costs, so that was a waste. While wating around for the grapple to come up, I found a Ditch Witch 3500 DD with 1,720 hours on it. The front tires are worn, but the backs look almost new. It had just been painted, so that made me nervous, and it wouldn't start. I went and looked at some other stuff, but wanted to check out the Ditch Witch again. It was gone. I looked around and found where they had moved it. So now I know it starts, I just had to figure out how. It turned out that the safter switches to be in neutral are out of adjustment and you have to get them just right for it to start. When this is right, it fired right up!! There was no smoke and everyhing worked. The chain spun, it went up and down and the blade was able to lift the front end off of the ground and keep it there. I drove it a little and couldn't find anything serioulsly wrong with it.

This wasn't and isn't something that I really need right now. I've seen similar machines sell for $8,000 to $10,000 depending on age and condition. I figured that if I could get it for half of that, I would be a fool not to buy it. At $3,000 it was me and one other bidder. At $4,000 he quit bidding and it was mine.

It has the Duetz Diesel engine, but I don't know how many HP. It's missing a few teeth, but I don't know anything about them or if it needs all of them. I've searched on ebay for a manuel, but so far haven't found one. The engine and filters were painted over, so I'm going to replace them with new ones. I have two small projects for it sometime this year, but other then that, it will just sit for a few years until I'm done with my dirtwork and ready to start installing my underground lines. Then it will be almost non stop!!!

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thank you,
Eddie

[LoneCowboy]

I've put many an hour on a 3500/3600 Ditch Witch.
Mighty fine machines.
they lose less power than the same size Vermeers since they are chain driven.

Nice buy.

[J_J]

I think I would stop by the local Ditch Witch Co. and ask if they had any extra manuals. You might even be able to go to the .com site off the Internet, and download the manuals for free. I have a Davis Mini-Sneaker with vibrating plow, and some nice person off TBN saw that I had one and offered to print a copy of his manual for me.

[AlanB]

Man, I don't know how to write it so it comes out right,,,

Hey Buuuuuuuuuddddddddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy,,,,,,

Cool deal for sure.

[Egon]

Considering the type of work you do Eddie you just may find some work for it.

[Bird]

Those things are just about worth their weight in gold if you have much ditch digging to do, so I'd consider either buying or renting one to just about be a necessity when you start building that RV park. It could be done with a backhoe, but sure will be faster and easier with that Ditch Witch.

[Jimbrown]

Wow Good find. I borrowed one just like it when I was building my house. I dug 1200 ft of trench in less than 4 hours. It had the same silly safety switches. It really made me mad that everytime I stood up to look back at the trench the thing shut down.

[SimS]

Eddie;

Great find on the Ditch Witch. I have an old J20 that I refurbished. All of the wear parts are still available. You won't be able to wipe the grin off your face when you dig your first long trench. Your drive sprocket looks fairly worn and it looks like your chain is set up with rock teeth. Don't worry it will still dig fine. Good luck.

SimS

[EddieWalker]

The big appeal for me with Ditch Witch is the dealer is just a few miles from my home. It is the very closest dealer of any brand to me!!! He said that he could get me a manual for free in a few days, so that was a very good sign. One thing that I didn't know, or realize, is that it's an air cooled diesel engine. The radiator in the front of the engine is for the hydraulic oil!!!!

I replaced all the filters for under $90. The hydraulic oil looks dirty, so that's a concern. Engine oil looks fine, but that's just a personal opinion.

Didn't know about the rock teeth and that the chain was set up for rock digging. The blades for digging clay are $14 each and I think I need 40 of them, but I'm not sure how many it's actually supposed to have and if I need to buy new bolts and spacers for each blade.

Thanks everyone for the kind words,
Eddie

[ultrarunner]

It's been on my wish list for years... They cost an arm and a leg new.

Enjoy!