Sun Treader
Member
I've been cleaning up, building, and generally moving into our 'farm' in Western Virginia for a couple of years now and its time to start setting up the utilities.
The only things coming to the site are power and data, water is from the well. There are currently two utility poles, each with transformers with only one in use. My plan is to use one pole with its transformer to bring all power to the site to a power-house adjacent to the pump house and distribute power and network from there to the house site, shed, barns, and anywhere else. There's virtually nothing on the site to reuse so I'm basically starting from scratch here. There will be power, water, and data coming from the power-house/pump-house area and distributing in all directions. The idea here to nix the overhead lines and second transformer. They're just in the way and vulnerable to trees taking them down.
So the question is the best way to trench to get everything underground. Frost depth here is 24" and being lower is better just for piece of mind. If I could get down to 30"-36" I'll feel better.
Three options are to rent a ride on ditch witch trencher, dig with tractor backhoe, or pull with tractor subsoiler.
I have a Case 495, 50+ HP, Cat 2 hitch. Some photos below of a shallow trench between two buildings. That was dug with a 9" bucket on my backhoe. The backhoe would certainly do all of this but it would be very slow going and create much larger trenches than needed.
I can rent a ride on Ditch Witch trencher that could get down to 36." I'm confident this would work but would create a bigger trench than a subsoiler and would cost about $350 for the weekend.
I can purchase a subsoiler that would get down 24" to maybe 30" for about $400 and add the tube placer myself. I'm inclined to go this route since I wouldn't be time limited by owning the attachment and I'd have it available for who knows what later.
Here's the kicker, priority 1 trenching will be about 840' with priority 2 trenches 2600'. That's a lot of trenching. I'll have some help so it won't just be me working on the project but I sort of doubt I can get the Priority 1 stuff done in a weekend rental. But I wouldn't know what the productivity would be until I give it a try. With the rented trencher I could have the backhoe ready to assist as needed. With the subsoiler I'd have to switch implements which takes forever.
With the trencher going down 36" I can lay power and water in the same trench with 12" of cover between them vertically. With the subsoiler I would have to cut twice to get separation horizontally.
So that's the conundrum, any advice or experiences to share?
A fourth option would be to rent a tracked bobcat with a trencher attachment but the expense goes way up needing to rent the machine too.
There's a photo of the triumphant tractor having excavated the site for my new machine shed. Its structural brick around the unbackfilled sides and block where there is backfill.
David
The only things coming to the site are power and data, water is from the well. There are currently two utility poles, each with transformers with only one in use. My plan is to use one pole with its transformer to bring all power to the site to a power-house adjacent to the pump house and distribute power and network from there to the house site, shed, barns, and anywhere else. There's virtually nothing on the site to reuse so I'm basically starting from scratch here. There will be power, water, and data coming from the power-house/pump-house area and distributing in all directions. The idea here to nix the overhead lines and second transformer. They're just in the way and vulnerable to trees taking them down.
So the question is the best way to trench to get everything underground. Frost depth here is 24" and being lower is better just for piece of mind. If I could get down to 30"-36" I'll feel better.
Three options are to rent a ride on ditch witch trencher, dig with tractor backhoe, or pull with tractor subsoiler.
I have a Case 495, 50+ HP, Cat 2 hitch. Some photos below of a shallow trench between two buildings. That was dug with a 9" bucket on my backhoe. The backhoe would certainly do all of this but it would be very slow going and create much larger trenches than needed.
I can rent a ride on Ditch Witch trencher that could get down to 36." I'm confident this would work but would create a bigger trench than a subsoiler and would cost about $350 for the weekend.
I can purchase a subsoiler that would get down 24" to maybe 30" for about $400 and add the tube placer myself. I'm inclined to go this route since I wouldn't be time limited by owning the attachment and I'd have it available for who knows what later.
Here's the kicker, priority 1 trenching will be about 840' with priority 2 trenches 2600'. That's a lot of trenching. I'll have some help so it won't just be me working on the project but I sort of doubt I can get the Priority 1 stuff done in a weekend rental. But I wouldn't know what the productivity would be until I give it a try. With the rented trencher I could have the backhoe ready to assist as needed. With the subsoiler I'd have to switch implements which takes forever.
With the trencher going down 36" I can lay power and water in the same trench with 12" of cover between them vertically. With the subsoiler I would have to cut twice to get separation horizontally.
So that's the conundrum, any advice or experiences to share?
A fourth option would be to rent a tracked bobcat with a trencher attachment but the expense goes way up needing to rent the machine too.
There's a photo of the triumphant tractor having excavated the site for my new machine shed. Its structural brick around the unbackfilled sides and block where there is backfill.
David
