From trench to swale

[gghb]

morning

i've swaled several hundred ft of pasture this year with my rototiller and box blade till ditch line than scrape it out till again scrape again mabybe 3 times than till on sides to form tilled swale than angle box blade and start working shoulders has worked well on areas not backhoe ditched on backhoe ditched i work perindicular to ditch with box blade untill i get a slope i can till than box blade and till as needed
greg

 

[kongmen]

Here are some pics in various stages (I hope the pics post).


old pics I will get some new ones.

 

[kongmen]

New pics.

 

[inveresk]

Nice work. Some grass seed in the fall and it's done.

 

[LBrown59]

If I understand things right, you want to widen out a 3' ditch to a "swale" that you can mow ?
*You will have a LOT of earth to remove. Fastest way would be with the fel if its soft enough to dig and dry enough not to get stuck. A back hoe would do it but its gonna take a long time and much maneuvering...

*Not if he installs drain pipe in the ditch and covers it then forms a smaller swale on top .

 

[Kyle241]

Good job!

 

[kongmen]

I intend to put some 12" tile in about half of the above swale (only half of it is deep enough). I was just wondering if any of you have any tips or tricks to give me before I start on this project this spring?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[DJ54]

Only as far as smoothing your slope, so as to mow.

When in the perpenducular position, when cutting the swale bank, once that cut is done, ( but since that is done...) reach back, to where the boom is at a 45 degree angle to the ditchline. You'll need to raise yourself up some one one stabilizer, to make the bucket match the slope. You'll basically be raking the slope with the bucket teeth, bucket pointed straight down, cutting off the high spots, and filling divots. That is one advantage of a RT hoe, over a track excavator, unless you have a swivel boom, such as on a Gradall, bucket tilt head, or tilting upper structure as on an 880 Case hyd. excavator.

The raking action will give you a little "cream" to work with. You can clean up, what you brought up, when you move ahead. Just takes a little practice. You can always cast aside what you don't need, when it's not worth the time to move that pile of dirt, and clean up later.

I'd guess you could work a finish with a regular 3 pt. blade, turned backwards, at somewhat of an angle. Drag it with something, even if a weighted piece of chain link fence. Seed it, then roll.

I'm not sure how much reach you have, but on anything I've operated, whether it be a RT hoe, or excavator, centering the pivot point of the boom and stick on the cut your able to make, makes cutting a 3:1 slope a LOT easier. And even with an excavator with 20' of reach, I've had to make 2 passes, depending on the depth of the swale. Equal action on the boom and stick usually makes a pretty nice slope. But that action is only good, until it reaches the point where the boom is straight up and down. At that point, you'll need to boom down.

Lots of seat time is the answer...

 

[kongmen]

Thanks for the reply.

So, I guess it's as simple as putting the tile in and covering it up with dirt? I think I have the grade as good as I can get it there wasn't much to work with from the beginning.

I do have one more question: My two options are smooth inside wall and corrugated inside wall. The corrugated inside wall is quite a bit cheaper and it will only have a zero turn mower going over it so it doesn't need to be culvert grade tile (smooth inside wall). With such little grade (maybe 1 to 1.5 foot over 300 feet) would it be advisable to go with smooth inside wall tile?

 

[crbr]

thanks for the pictures