Dirt Moving Ditch Witch Trench Question

[LPSteinmetz]

Hello,

Rented a Ditch Witch this weekend to trench out a 200 foot, 6" wide x 42" deep trench to lay 3" PVC so that the power company can later pull 400 amp service to my building. I had never rented a ditch witch before but everything went smoothly until near the end. The problem was that I was trenching in between two fixed points, my building and the power pole. I started at the building and trenched to about 10'-15' of the pole and then turned around and started trenching from the pole back towards my newly made trench.

Little did I know that once you start going back the other way into an OPEN trench that the auger will no longer move dirt up and out to the side and instead just keeps moving the dirt pile down the trench as you go...it is trenching but it isn't excavating the dirt. What I ended up with was a pyramid mound of dirt that was approx. 12' long at the base tapering up to the top of the trench...this is a ton of Texas gumbo that has to be hand shoveled out. Further...it ain't easy shoveling out a 42" deep, 6" wide trench as you obviously can't stand in the trench to shovel so it is all done from above with a trenching shovel and post hole digger that is only about a foot or so taller than the trench.

Am I missing a trick that people who trench all the time know that I just couldn't figure out? I was so beat by the end of yesterday that I wasn't able to finish clearing the trench and probably have easily 2-3 hours of hand trenching to go today...maybe longer, not as spry as I used to be and my body is killing me today. Thanks.

 

[LouNY]

If you can't trench past one point it takes a back hoe or a shovel.
From a building to a pole I would start at the building and trench past the pole,
then start at the pole and trench to the open trench at an angle to minimize the hand shoveling.

 

[LPSteinmetz]

If you can't trench past one point it takes a back hoe or a shovel.
From a building to a pole I would start at the building and trench past the pole,
then start at the pole and trench to the open trench at an angle to minimize the hand shoveling.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, the pole is right on a fence line with the pole being in the neighbors yard. The power company requires you to trench up to 11" from the pole and I was able to get that close even with the fence up. If the pole was on my side of the fence and off of it a bit I could have gone past the pole.

 

[LouNY]

Unfortunately those types of ditches take a bunch of hand work, I used to have a modified shovel for that use bent almost to a 90 and trimmed on the sides to just under trench width used it like an over sized hoe for clean outs.

 

[LPSteinmetz]

Unfortunately those types of ditches take a bunch of hand work, I used to have a modified shovel for that use bent almost to a 90 and trimmed on the sides to just under trench width used it like an over sized hoe for clean outs.

I have a decent trenching shovel that if it had a longer handle would make things much easier...may try to cobble something together today. I had my son over yesterday and we both felt like we were getting more dirt removed using the post hole digger than the trenching shovel but that isn't easy work either. The little things that you discover that aren't immediately obvious when you begin a project!

 

[oosik]

I helped a friend with a Ditch Witch. 120 foot trench about three feet deep. From point A to point B. As we reached point B - did exactly as you did. Became obvious - it was a problem.

Sooooo..... we turned the DW back around, back into the completed trench and continued on towards point B. We figured out a solution. We ditched on past point B by about three feet. We ditched as close to point B ( about a foot ) as possible. This left only a foot of trench we had to do by hand.

BTW - a three foot deep trench is a whole lot easier to clean up with a hand operated post hole auger than a four foot trench. Plus digging the final connection is a whole lot easier.

 

[LPSteinmetz]

I helped a friend with a Ditch Witch. 120 foot trench about three feet deep. From point A to point B. As we reached point B - did exactly as you did. Became obvious - it was a problem.

Sooooo..... we turned the DW back around, back into the completed trench and continued on towards point B. We figured out a solution. We ditched on past point B by about three feet. We ditched as close to point B ( about a foot ) as possible. This left only a foot of trench we had to do by hand.

BTW - a three foot deep trench is a whole lot easier to clean up with a hand operated post hole auger than a four foot trench. Plus digging the final connection is a whole lot easier.

I like your solution but, unfortunately, it wouldn't have worked for us. The power pole is just on the other side of the fence into the neighborç—´ property. The line from the pole to our shop is a pretty hard angle off of the pole with the added feature of being real close to the conduit run that goes to our house.

We got out there today and was able to get most of it cleaned up. I added a 10' painters pole onto a hoe that I ground down so that it would fit in the trench. I also trenched another trench 90 degrees off of the original trench so that we could pull excess dirt into the "cut out" trench...worked pretty well.

At the end of the day, I'm not too upset that we turned around and trenched the other way because at least we were pulling out broken, softened-up dirt instead of digging a good 10 feet or so into solid Texas Gumbo...hate the dirt we have...surprised ANYTHING grows here?!?

 

[MossRoad]

Dig the trench deeper than needed and then use the trencher to spread the "pyramid of dirt" back down along the bottom of the trench.

 

[DJ54]

I have several versions of this tool Seymour S5 Industrial Drain and Irrigation Channel Cleaner we've bought at farm auctions in past years, just for that job, for a few dollars each. Most people probably didn't even know what they were. Around here, they're commonly known as a tile spade. Worth their weight in gold, when you need one. The head is adjustable for the depth of the trench, giving the proper angle to make a flat bottom. Most of the time, you pull the tool into the dirt, to load it. But, is bidirectional to feather out the bottom if needed.

Around here, when digging the trench as deep you did, you'll end up with 3' to 4' long pyramid, if that, on that deep of a trench to clean out. It takes a good bit of crowd against the chain, for it to bring the dirt up & out. When you hit the point of where you stopped, and got into the fine material, it was easier for the material to be pushed ahead, instead of crowd against the trencher chain, to bring it out.

Trenchers have the advantage of making a finer back fill material, with less chance of voids, that may take longer to settle back in. And, on a trench like that for utilities, or water lines, we always shoveled about 6" of fine loose material in by hand, to avoid any rocks laying against the conduit/line.

 

[LPSteinmetz]

I have several versions of this tool Seymour S5 Industrial Drain and Irrigation Channel Cleaner we've bought at farm auctions in past years, just for that job, for a few dollars each. Most people probably didn't even know what they were. Around here, they're commonly known as a tile spade. Worth their weight in gold, when you need one. The head is adjustable for the depth of the trench, giving the proper angle to make a flat bottom. Most of the time, you pull the tool into the dirt, to load it. But, is bidirectional to feather out the bottom if needed.

Thanks for posting...that is pretty slick! I have bookmarked the page in case I need something like that at a future date. Might take a trip to eBay and Craigslist to see if I can find one.