PT technique: ditches?

[miles2go]

I'm trying to visualize how to clear a ditch along a forest road (my driveway). How is this done with a PT, in particular when the ditch is against an uphill bank? Maintaining my gravel road would be one recurring chore I'd want to do with a new tractor. Thanks!

 

[Phils]

I mentioned ditch digging in my answer to your other post and then found this thread. Last weekend I about finished re-ditching my 1/4 mile driveway. Part I did by hand since I wanted it to look "manicured", using the FEL as my "wheelbarrow" to haul away the dirt. The rest I did with the mini-hoe, straddling the ditch for some and digging from the roadway for the rest.

Digging "from the roadway" would probably be how you'd do it where there's that uphill bank. That would mean parking in the drive and digging perpendicular the the ditch. If the ditch is wide enough, you could get the machine as close as possible to the bank and dig parallel to the drive. Dunno if I'm making any sense here -- easy to do, hard to describe.

Phil

 

[miles2go]

Phil,

Makes perfect sense. Exactly my situation. Thanks!

 

[KentT]

Phil,

After digging with the mini-hoe, did you try using the dozer blade to clean up and slope the edge of the ditch? It would seem that if you angle it, and tilt it as much as possible, that it would clean it up nicely...

Kent

 

[MossRoad]

If the ditch is just a shallow trench like a gutter running parallel to the drive, I'd turn the tractor across the drive and attack it in 48" segments(the width of my large material bucket). Just scoop down near the drive while manipulating the joystick to scoop it out while driving forward. Should make a nice, uniform pattern with each 48" bite.

 

[MuncyBob]

We have a dirt road to our property that is 1/4 mile long...has drainage ditches one of which is at the base of hillside for most of the road. I have had to maintain it with both the methods described. I have only used the small rock bucket for this. The preferred method is to get the PT into the ditch with 2 wheels and the other 2 more up on the road ..this gives you a bit of a tilt to the bucket and off I go. When this is not feasable I take the 48" at a time approach...very time consuming though!

 

[Phils]

Yes, Kent. I used the LMB to scoop up dirt after breaking it loose with the minihoe. That section had a lot of rock, so I was also using the "shovel-pry" method for some of it. But the bucket made for an acceptable looking ditch.

The "manicured" ditches don't have dirt beside them... it was all hauled away. The other ditches have the excavated dirt beside them, which doesn't look as nice but you can't see it from our house /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As I mentioned earlier, not having outriggers for the mini-hoe makes it difficult to level across different heights.

On the other hand, not having outriggers means that you can grab a "hoe-full" and quickly scoot somewhere else to dump it.

Phil