Trencher or Backhoe for 1500'

[955Lincoln]

I guess if you are on the beach.. but the rest of the state is limerock... pretty much anywhere in the state you dig a hole you hit limerock and our aquifer... anywhere you find limerock.. you also find flint rock too!
if it's not rock.. it's marsh.. both are a PITA

soundguy

Yikes! bad guess, I didn't know your terrain.

 

[955Lincoln]

And as far as running the 55 over the ground to be trenched without anything in the dirt, It might compact the ground more.

My advice would be to try the trencher, but have the backhoe ready to strike if need be.

Thanks for the info and you answered my question about ripping in your previous post. I meant running the 55 over the trench path with a ripper in the ground, if I had one. These machines amaze me how gently they tread.....until you make a turn

 

[955Lincoln]

You might want to call a local trenching company you would be amazed how fast and cheap some people.
If you get a rental drop the boom and let it eat. A walkbehind could handle it but real easy to run a big trencher if there is rocks.

Probably the smartest move but you know how a DIYer can be

 

[boggen]

130 feet between shed and house. had to run eletrical, water, gas, telephone, network, security cables.

i had a little 2" wide trencher that dug down about 2 to 2.5 feet. that you had to slowly crank a wheel to pull it along a rope.

the small little trencher took for ever. and it only had a little 5hp gas engine on it. (small push lawn mower engine basicly) it was a nice little trencher and for say telephone line or short runs it would be nice vs hand digging. but....

i then got a 555c loader / backhoe. that came with 24" backhoe bucket.

it ripped everything out nice and quick. my problem was. 130 feet between house and shed with some trees near by. i didn't have much room to work. and more to the point. i couldn't run the loader/backhoe. straight down the line. instead i had to work from this and that side. which ended up making the trench much wider than needed. granted it was alot faster and much easier than the little trencher.


=============
i know i will be in a couple years having to put in some wires. 1/4 mile long. and when it comes to that. i know 90% of it, will all be a nice straight line. and if i still have the 555c loader backhoe. i will for sure go with a smaller size bucket say 8" to 10" vs the 24" a smaller bucket for straight lines would be awesome.

the one thing with a backhoe. is trying to to keep a nice smooth bottom trench. if the bottom of trench is all up and downs and you are laying in hard plastic pipe. you could crack pipes when ya go to back fill. or will require to put in sand and level the trench bottom out. before the pipe goes in.

i know for sure, i wouldn't recommend a backhoe. if it ment you had to switch seats for example a tractor that had a 3pt hitch backhoe on it. moving back and forth between seats as you moved along would be a nightmare.

================
i can't speak for other trenchers / ditch witches. never used them before. though if you didn't have a tractor. i would most likely get a ditch witch. that has the chain saw on one side, a small utitly backhoe on other side. and a small push blade on it. for pushing dirt back into the trench.

the little small utitly backhoes. could be nice running a couple trenchs from different angles. and getting a turn in, then using them to finish digging out the trench against a house wall. or like.

 

[955Lincoln]

Thanks Boggen and welcome to TBN. I put in my power request yesterday and naturally it snowed again last night. Once the system is engineered and right-of-way marked I will pick around with the 12" hoe bucket to get an idea of what I'm up against. I dug some soil probes for the septic on a different part of the property and it was tough going because of the rocks. From the feedback I got here this project may need both a bigmamma trencher and the hoe.

They do want sand or clean fill around the conduit with a level floor.

 

[boggen]

if you are the one that will be pulling wires. nice straight level piping makes it easier. if the pipe is wavy in the trench. it can make things harder for you when you go to pull the wire.

to get a nice level bottom trench, make sure the land, or rather any rough or hilly areas are level to begin with. so as the backhoe / trencher drives over the yard. it drives on a nice level area. helping ya keep a nice level bottom in the trench. call it prep work.

more level bottom of trench. = less cost in sand to level out the bottom before the pipe goes in.

found it easier. to have one person in the tractor with the loader on it. then one or 2 folks in the trench. and just kinda pulling the sand out of the bucket. spreading the sand in the trench. it allows you better control of how much sand is being put in. that and it allows the folks in trench to catch a hold of any large clods of sand that might have some rocks or like in it. from getting into the trench.

if they are requiring sand, it will also mean most likely a hand stamper will be needed to compact the sand "most local hardware stores have them" though this time of year *don't know" snow shovels may be taking up the space.

sand is fairly easy to compact. more so if it is a little wet.

double check local "machinery" rental companies you might find a small vibration / compactor machine. that you can put down in the trench. just be careful not to hit the pipe once the pipe is in the trench.

===========
forgot who mentioned it. about guys showing up to pull wire. and pipes coming up and out the ground.

plastic pipe can and will float right up out of the ground. it has happened to me a couple times.

if you get the trench dug. but you know it will take some time to get sand in to level things out. get pipe in, then put more sand in and get that all compacted down. then fill on top of that. and it rains. some were along the process there is a possibility of the pipe coming right up out of the ground. the pipe acts like a "swimming pool noodle" or swimming pool blow up raft or like. and litterly just floats right up out of the ground.

to keep this from happening, you can fill the pipe up with water (double check with electric company / wire pullers) the water will help keep the pipe in the ground were you put it. till it comes time to drain the water out of the pipe and pull the wire through. i say check with electrical company / wire pullers. due to i am out of my area of trail and error when it comes to pulling that size of wire in a pipe.

 

[955Lincoln]

10-4 on straight and level. I can also use the soil from the trench for the conduit bedding as long as there are no large rocks. The engineer suggested backfilling as I go so there won't be much open trench at the end of a work session.

I'm the one who mentioned pulling the conduit out of the ground. The power engineer said don't cheat on the depth. They pull up to 1000' of beefy 3 conductor wire and sometimes the conduit will be pulled from the ground if not at the proper depth. Expensive mistake.

 

[bigballer]

i rented a walk behind trencher for a 24" deep water line about 300ft long, little did i know my property was full of rocks ranging in size from baseball to basketball (they call it glacial till around here). when i dropped it off the next day i told the guy i never wanted to use one of them again, it was gnarly (but yes got the job done, eventually)..

here is what that glacial till looks like: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Glacial_till_exposed_in_roadcut-750px.jpg

 

[powerstroke444e]

i rented a walk behind trencher for a 24" deep water line about 300ft long, little did i know my property was full of rocks ranging in size from baseball to basketball (they call it glacial till around here). when i dropped it off the next day i told the guy i never wanted to use one of them again, it was gnarly (but yes got the job done, eventually)..

We use walkbehinds commercially and for most jobs they work great up to 48inches deep on short runs. Would I use the ones at the local rental yard not a chance unless they have a big toro trx or a 1820 ditchwitch. For big work with lots of junk in the dirt a 80 hp or bigger 4x4 is a really nice.

 

[beeforty]

I switched to a BOBCAT rider trencher after my rock hard sandy/clay dirt made the walk behind dance all over. Just rev it up to trench speed on the tach and lower the boom. Move the speed lever forward and go as fast as you can without pulling boom up, slow down for rocks and roots. Did almost 1000' of trench for gas, water and electrical in different directions, nice straight lines, and only payed for 1/2 day rental. For back filling, I put my rain pants on over my boots and walked the trenches slowly filling and compacting with my boots. I wanted packed trenches since the rainy season was coming and I had 2 trenches going down a slope. Didn't have any problem with the power company pulling my pipe out of the ground. Also pull a pull rope through as you glue your pipe together so you are ready to pull wire afterwards:thumbsup: