kk subsoiler/middle buster

[skipmarcy]

I just went out with a tape measure and looked at mine - I have both the subsoiler and the middle buster (yellow paint). The subsoiler shank is about 3" longer than the middlebusters'. The angle of attack of the foot of the subsoiler frame is shallower than the foot of the middlebuster - the middlebuster plow stands up at a higher angle. The bolt spread on the subsoiler is 2" center to center. The spread on the middlebuster is 2 1/4". If you put the plow off the middlebuster on the subsoiler it would be at too flat of an angle to do much better than the subsoiler itself. Both units have performed well for me. Most recently I busted 2, 50' ditches to bury 4" gutter drainpipes. Ran thru with the subsoiler, then plowed some out with the middlebuster and finally the good 'ol shovel to get the rest out. With the middlebuster having a shorter shank, it didn't get all the busted dirt out the subsoiler brokeup.

 

[headleyj]

what's the deepest one could go with either one of these? I need to dig a 3' deep trench ~12' long - hate to pay someone to do it when I could buy an implement and have it for life.

 

[FrogLick]

I may be wrong but I don't think any usual subsoiler/middlebuster will go 3' deep. You could rent a trencher or hire someone to do the trenching for you. It would be a relatively quick job for only 12' long and might not be very expensive to hire someone especially if you can find someone local who doesn't have to travel very far.

 

[daBear]

what's the deepest one could go with either one of these? I need to dig a 3' deep trench ~12' long - hate to pay someone to do it when I could buy an implement and have it for life.

There is not a subsoiler made for a CUT that will go down 36", nor a CUT that would pull one that deep either. Mine can get about 12-16" deep at best after several passes. I used it to put in 1" irrigation lines in my yard which worked fairly well. But, in the end I wished I had bit the bullet and rented a trencher.

 

[nate_m]

But, in the end I wished I had bit the bullet and rented a trencher.

So what are the drawbacks to trenching with a sub-soiler that can be avoided with a trencher?

 

[flusher]

Trenchers, like Ditch Witch units, have an auger feature that moves the excavated dirt out and away from the trench. A subsoiler cuts the soil, but you can expect to do work with your trenching shovel to clean out the loose dirt.

I've use both methods. I cut about 1100 feet of 24 and 30 inch deep trenches with a Ditch Witch 1330 rental from Home Depot. It's a heavy (~1000 lb) walk-behind unit that is pretty hard to steer to line up the thing at the start of a trench. But it does leave a pretty clean trench about 4" wide with only 2-3 inches of pulverized dirt in the bottom.

I used my KK subsoiler and Kubota B7510HST to cut 12" deep trenches for landscape irrigation. Got a good upper body workout with the trenching shovel.

 

[daBear]

So what are the drawbacks to trenching with a sub-soiler that can be avoided with a trencher?

I installed a 1" rigid PVC pipe sprinkler system on an acre and a half in my back and side yards, nine zones in all. When I began work on each zone I would take my subsoiler and make several passes eventually as deep as it would go. I tried making a sloping lead in trench and pulling the pipe through, but it would rise in places and almost touch the surface. Next, I put a middle buster plow on and went back and forth over the line I made with the sub soler. That way I had an open trench which I could get about 10" deep.

All in all, this worked, but it was a lot, lot of work and time which would have been made a heck of lot quicker and easier just renting a trencher and knocking it out. After I got the pipe in the trench I had to change attachments and use the box blade to cover it up.

When I was finished I had a covered up trench which was at least a foot wide and the tractor tires killed a 5 foot wide path of grass while I was running the sub soiler and middle buster back and forth.

It started like a good idea and a couple of hundred dollars savings, but it ended up with many times more work and a heck of a lot of dead grass that took two months to grow back.

Bet I am not the only one around here that has tried to save a little bit of money and shot my self in the foot.

Turned out good and sprinkles the heck out of what I wanted sprinkled, we just won't talk about the rest of the story.