Best ground breaking method?

[browns40]

Hey smokedtires,

Most cost-effective route (which would garner a multipurpose implement) would be a nice heavy box blade...

loosen up the material with the scarifiers, the scoop it up with your bucket...

I nearly excavated a pond using this method... 18-24 inches of soil, and 36 of clay & rock in the deepest point... used the "fill" to dam up the sides of the stream bed...

Not the fastest or easiest method... but what fun "working the pit"

once the frost is out I'll finish it up & have my backyard pond... my boy will have frogs in the summer & skating in the winter! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[3RRL]

browns40,
I agree with you. Many useful applications for the boxblade. In addition to scooping the dirt out with the FEL, I also drag a boxblade full of dirt out at the same time. Doubling the amount of dirt moved each pass.

 

[flusher]

Not far. Just spread it around the front yard by FEL backblading. With 10 acres, I have space for a lot of excavated dirt.

 

[RalphVa]

When they back-filled dirt around my carriage house basement, they used a Bob Cat on tracks. He has some extra time on the machine that my contractor had paid for. So, he asked me if I had any other dirt to be moved. I showed him the back end of the slope from my swimming pool. Could he remove it wide enough for me to drive my tractor through? This was before I had the JD 4010, only had a Gravely.

He dug it out, even though the ground was dry. Don't think there's any way I could do that now with my 4010 and 410 loader, even with the Markham toothbar on it, especially in the dry when he did it.

You can rent Bob Cats around here. That is maybe the quickest way to go. Think they'll need the tracks if the ground is dry at all.

Ralph

 

[Farwell]

I live in Mid Michigan and find that there are 1 bottom and 2 bottom plows all over the place but they are used as yard decorations instead of farm implements. Must be a message in that somewhere.
Farwell

 

[GeneD14]

About 2.5 years ago I put in a 120 foot long driveway in hard clay soil. I dug it down about 6" deep using a box scraper and a Markham tooth bar in less than 3 hours. The tractor was an Agco ST35 which is about 33 hp.
With a toothbar and a plow or box blade with scrarifers I wouldn't hesitate to use your JD tractor.

 

[ibuildcars4u]

ever use a power rake? these work extremily well for any hard surface that contains rocks, etc.. it will bust up the ground faster than any rotertiller, and it will not beat you and the attachment up

 

[smokedtires]

It looks like I'll be getting a boxblade for the job. I would love a tiller, but I can get a boxblade, rearblade, and landscape rack for about the same price. My local Tractor Supply Co carries a boxblade in stock that I'll probably get it from. I haven't seen much locally available in the used equipment section.

I have 7 acres of old farm pasture so I have a lot of area that I can move to the dirt to /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks for all the advice, I truely appreciate it.