Backhoe in Frozen Ground?

[JHTFarmer]

If you plan on drawing down the pond, why not consider a home made syphon? With 6 inch PVC you'll be able to get that water level down faster, more efficiently, and faster than with any pump your likely to come across.

 

[bigtiller]

Put a piano on it.:laughing:

 

[2458n]

That little island is the top of a big pyramid of dirt. Draining is far cheaper- compared to bringing in a crane. This thread is very thought provoking on many levels. Thanks for providing a smile.

 

[Jstpssng]

you'd be suprised at how fast a good pump could empty a pond that size, maybe check into renting/borrow one?

Where will you put the water? If I figured correctly that's between 3.6 and 7.3 million gallons of water, depending on if it's evenly tapered from shore out to 9 feet.

 

[kcfarm]

The water will drain to a low area into a stream, so finding a place for the water is not a problem. The problem is that there is also a stream feeding the pond and it only dries out for a month or so in the summer. The most I could bring the level down to is by about 3 feet. Any more and you would be pumping against the feeding stream.

 

[Jstpssng]

The water will drain to a low area into a stream, so finding a place for the water is not a problem. The problem is that there is also a stream feeding the pond and it only dries out for a month or so in the summer. The most I could bring the level down to is by about 3 feet. Any more and you would be pumping against the feeding stream.

That shouldn't be a problem, you would just need to pump much faster than the feeding stream.

 

[simonds]

Two sticks of dynamite should take care of it real quick. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[Jstpssng]

Put a piano on it.:laughing:

Good one! :thumbsup:
It took a while to figure out what you were talking about though.

 

[BruceWard]

How far is the island from shore? A very large excavator might be able to reach out and get it.

 

[taborekle]

I can't comment on how difficult it would be to backhoe the frozen ground, but depending on where you live (your profile doesn't show it), it can get cold enough for long enough to support the tractor and digging. I use to ice fish with my father in Montana, and we would drive out onto the ice to where all the other ice fishermen were parked with their cars and trucks and ice houses and drill a hole with our hand held ice auger and fish. This is WAY out from shore. Several hundred yards. No problem if the ice is thick enough.

Naturally, you would want to go out on foot and bore hole a few holes with a ice auger to test the depth of the ice, before you would drive out.

I think that one of the things you haven't though of though, is that if the tractor is on ice, that when you try to dig with the BH, it will just be pulling the tractor around on the ice.

If the island is big enough, you could drive onto it, and then put the tractor on one edge and dig up the other. Eventually you'd reach a part where there wasn't enough island to dig from, but at least you'd have progress.