Moving Dirt

[nazbom2]

Ok so am working on rebuilding the back portion of my house due to the result of a car coming off the road and smashing into it. Long story short I had to demolish and and rebuilding the back part. After permits and all we dug the foundation this week, Shrink-swell soils mean I am digging footers 4' deep! Needless to say this is generating a lot of dirt to try and find something to do with. We are using a Kubota L39 to excavate and hauling the spoils to my dam for my pond. Various low points on the dam have swallowed up about 10 loads from the loader bucket but this is getting time consuming on the round trip.

Any advice on a cost effective way to speed up the movement of this dirt? I havea 10 CF trailer between that and the bucket will take days to move all this dirt!!!

 

[EddieWalker]

You just found out why it's so expensive to hire out dirt work. Digging is easy, but moving it takes forever!!!!!

Renting something big enough to do it quickly can be very expensive. Probably your best bet would be to find somebody with a dump truck that will work a few hours for cash. I've also seen friends on facebook ask for help and somebody will mention they know somebody who isn't busy.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[nazbom2]

Was thinking dump truck, neighbors/friends have a 1 ton Dodge the only problem is space, the are where we are digging is so tight, guess the kubota could run it to the truck for a shorter round trip. Might worth it, thanks!

 

[crazyal]

You also have to remember dirt is heavy. If you fill up a dump truck it may not be able to get the dirt to where you need it.

 

[nazbom2]

My Brother in law and I moved half of what we needed to this weekend before the rain hit with the bucket and a 10 CF trailer, many many trips but filled and leveled the dam on my pond. Since this is basically a one time deal for me I don't feel like investing a lot of money into something I'll only use once.. I've been using a lot of elbow grease the old fashioned way with a shovel! But hey, it works!!

Anyway what are the thoughts on a dirt scoop? I have a feeling I could find other uses for that in the future and they are not overly expensive.

 

[salopez]

I believe a dirt scoop is smaller than the bucket on your bota. maybe try building some sides for the bucket to increase your capacity?

 

[bikerdib]

I've used a dirt scoop to move extra dirt each trip. I found an old 3pt scoop cheap (less than $100), paint was gone but metal was still strong other than a couple of pin holes in the bottom where it had been stored with water in it.

I use the FEL to build up a pile first. Then you can fill the scoop from the pile and secondly fill the FEL. The scoop full of dirt acts as ballast also.

 

[studor]

I have an old dirt scoop I found at auction for dirt cheap! It works well when I want to move more each trip but you might think about trying to rent a dump trailer -- much quicker