Backhoe Digging small trenches without a backhoe

[mike48130]

I welded a pipe on the back of my middlebuster, and hung 45 LB weights on if for down force. I took the blade off and welded a chain link to the rear, and buried 1" sprinkler line 6-12" deep in mostly clayish soil. Worked great.

 

[Tennsawdust]

I welded a pipe on the back of my middlebuster, and hung 45 LB weights on if for down force. I took the blade off and welded a chain link to the rear, and buried 1" sprinkler line 6-12" deep in mostly clayish soil. Worked great.

I have a furrower blade on a subsoiler (it has a longer shank than a lot of the middle busters). I can sink it 12-18" deep in most soil.

The only problem with that method for French drains is that most of the areas I need to put a drain are so wet I can't run a tractor across it without sinking out of sight.

 

[Howling]

I used a combination of mid-buster, FEL from side and forks pushed together to dig trench for french drain.

 

[Richard]

Always amazes me how creative people can be/get!!

Hat's off to all of you.

:drink:

 

[SmallChange]

I have a CountyLine "subsoiler/middlebuster", but have used my auger to drill a row of close holes and then hoe and shovel to get the remaining dirt out. You can make a pretty big trench, though making it long is a huge amount of work.

I'm not proud.

 

[dasranger]

Probably not going to help the OP, but I removed one fork from my set and it worked beautifully.

 

[tomplum]

I made this a while back to install on the frame of the back blade. Unbolt the blade and put this on with a concrete ball for a weight. I think that it could be made better, but putting in 4" flex drain was its purpose. I just needed it under enough ground to protect it from tractor traffic. The 3 forward edges are sharpened. It pretty much will take 3 passes in easy going soil. Then a quick clean with a small spade to clean the trench.

 

[shooterdon]

Digging drainage trenches with a FEL mounted shovel will be time consuming. Finding something you can pull like the subsoiler/middlebuster will be easier.

 

[DieselBound]

On larger tractors with beefier loaders you can get away with some digging/gouging of undisturbed material...but on smaller compact and sub compact tractors there is a good possibility of damaging the loader etc...front end loaders are called "loaders" for a reason...

Complete opposite for me. My B7800's loader is indestructible. The stuff that I've done with it would send many into cardiac arrest! There's little flexing with it. My NX, on the other hand, flexes a lot and feels relatively a lot less sturdy.

I've used my middle buster to create many trenches. If going shallow I'll have the plow/blade on it. If deep then I use just the shank (and shovel, or put the plow/blade back on and clean up).

This is more of a shallow ditch digging attachment:

DT35 Series Ditchers | Land Pride

 

[Texasmark]

I use my middle buster for that sort of job...?...and it is a cheap attachment.....and bury it all when done with FEL sideways to ditch. Middle buster takes some trial and error to get right angle into ground. But note you wont get deeper than a foot.

+1 and straddle the ditch with a rear blade at a good angle to cover it back up. Walk in the park.