Putting drain pipe underground with a middle buster

[teg]

Wanted to redirect the down spouts to the side of the hill. I had to make several dozen passes to dig down enough... had to add extra weight and my middle buster has two sets of hole so I could drop it down an extra 6" (which is a good thing )

My boss was dogging me all day and checking up on my work... Got it buried a good foot down. I filled the hole with a rake so that I could pack it down as I went. Finished up packing it with the front tire with a bucket full of gravel.

Project went pretty smooth and with out a hitch...

 

[radioman]

very nice! I am surprised how straight the row was.

 

[SandburRanch]

Good work teg. :thumbsup: Here's hoping it never gets plugged. That would take a real long snake.

 

[Kyle241]

Nicely done. I also say no fair as your soil looks so nice compared to mine which includes a lot of stones. I don't think the MB would work for me even though I think it's a nice simple way of laying some pipe. Backhoe is solution up this way but i am jealous as that looks like an easier solution.

A question though. I notice a 'road' that you went under/through, isn't load on that going to crush the pipe? I've been thinking how far down I should go with the drainage lines I have and am concerning my tractor will crush it as it weighs approx. 7000lbs. If I only go 12", I would imagine the pipe would crush so I was thinking more like 24-36" in my case.

 

[teg]

I'll let you know the next time I get gravel dropped off there!!! I'm sure I'm going to have to deal with it at some point... I am planning someday to reduce the grade of that "road" just beyond this point and this is the first time I thought about how close that pipe is!!! :mur:

To fill the road section I mainly used "crush and run" gravel to pack the pipe in. I've driven over it during "wet" times and there weren't *any* depressions (but we do have "light" vehicles )

I was very pleasantly surprised that I didn't hit a "project stopping" rock! One of our garden locations, we hit a mother about 6" down and had to move the location. We have dozen of piles of rock around the farm, this one by the cabin is a small one, there's at least 8-10 more piles within 25 yards.

 

[clemsonfor]

Nicely done. I also say no fair as your soil looks so nice compared to mine which includes a lot of stones. I don't think the MB would work for me even though I think it's a nice simple way of laying some pipe. Backhoe is solution up this way but i am jealous as that looks like an easier solution.

A question though. I notice a 'road' that you went under/through, isn't load on that going to crush the pipe? I've been thinking how far down I should go with the drainage lines I have and am concerning my tractor will crush it as it weighs approx. 7000lbs. If I only go 12", I would imagine the pipe would crush so I was thinking more like 24-36" in my case.

Unless your drive was so watter logged it was mush i dont think you will crush it short of driving a big truck in there. The soil on each side is not disturbed so your full weight is not really on the spot totally.

Also im a forester and oversee many miles of virgin road construction to haul wood out. This includes low water crossings (rock in a creek and you actually drive through it and also pipe installation up to 5ft diameter ones in my case. The rule of thumb is atleast 1/2 the diameter of fill dirt over the pipe packed down. So if that is a 6" diameter drain line you really only need 3", but that will likely deform as that is thin pipe. Imthe normal case we have a 2ft pipe and put 1 ft of fill on it at least, the packed dirt wedges the weight against the dirt around the pipe. Anyway i think that pipe is deep enough unless your drive is super soft.

Like i said if we put a 3ft pipe in a creek we just roll it in or dig it in a bit and then in that case put atleast 1.5 ft of dirt on it, but usually closer to 2ft. Never really had any pipe more than deform about 20% (due to not packing it in) and im driving 100,000lb trucks over them, to the tune of hundreds of loads before we move on.

 

[tpulley]

Was that a store bought middle buster or a home made one? I need something exactly like this.

 

[k0ua]

Nice write-up Teg, and good photo's. Not fair though, you have dirt!

James K0UA

 

[tpulley]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention I thought it did a great job too.

 

[teg]

Some more photos of the Middle Buster can be found here:
Using a subsoiler as a ditch digger - TractorByNet.com

Like the other thread says, it was a close-out at Agri-Supply. They were switching over to the Fixed / solid non-adjustable ones like King Kutter (actually, it might *have* been KK).

When I bought it, there were a half dozen of these and about the same number of Sub-Soilers that looked almost exactly like this (adjustable). They sold out and I've not seen them again...

 

[teg]

Was that a store bought middle buster or a home made one? I need something exactly like this.

I just looked it up on Agri-Supply and it's still listed but for $129... No photo there
3-Point Hitch Middlebuster - Agri Supply

 

[JD230511]

I was looking in a northern tool catalog I have, they have a middle buster like that in it. It is adjustable.

 

[teg]

"...Digging depth can be adjusted from 6in. to 8in..."
"...Working Depth (in.) 6 - 8..."
Is this the one you are talking about???

NorTrac Middle Buster | 3-Point Category 1 Implements | Northern Tool + Equipment

I know the one I got was at least twice that depth... and the adjustment was closer to 6" deeper. Not even sure why you would make an adjustable one only to make it two inch longer???

This one is more money and is fixed but closer to the depth of mine ~14"
HawkLine by Behlen Country Middle Buster Subsoiler — Category 0, Model# 80111700ORG | 3-Point Category 0 Implements | Northern Tool + Equipment

PS. I looked at Agri-supply and they didn't have any useful information about the digging depth.

 

[Bob77064]

Good job teg.

 

[JD230511]

Yeah that would be the one. I didn't see the working depth. I have been looking at them trying to find one I like. I have read the write up about the drain pipe, I have some to put in and think that a middle buster will do the job digging the trench.

 

[teg]

I would go ahead and take a closer look at the Northern Tool one... Looking at the photo... I think their measurements might be out of whack. If that blade is 10" wide... the working depth has got to be more than 6-8". I would call the store near you and see if they have any you can look at... Mine is the red one below, it might be the same one...

 

[JD230511]

I live in Indiana. I don't think there is one in Indiana. I have looked at them at rural king and tsc.

 

[easeup]

thanks for posting. I believe I need to get one of those and dig a ditch.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I purchased the NorTrac model. Is there anything you guys need to know about it?

My application is surface ditch digging (rain gutters).

My tractor has about 40HP to the ground (65HP at the engine but it is Hydraulic).

The Nortrac seems OK on the build. I did not sense it was over built, nor that it was cheap in construction. The pins worry me, but they appear to be identical in build to more expensive models.

The blade looks a bit light but I have NOTHING to compare this to, just pictures.

I got this model because they have a potato digger / moldboard that you can also bolt on as I intend to pull underground cable with it this spring.

 

[tpulley]

It looks like to me that from the 3 pt hitch arms to the furrow tip is about 8 inches is this about what you have? The other one TEG found lists it as 14" . I am thinking for a few extra $$$ that 6-8 inches more mar come in handy.