I knowmy tractor is not a bull dozer but . . .

[Dickey]

I've built two ponds and I start by breaking the ground with a breaking plow then using a box blade rack up the dirt into piles then move the dirt with front loader. Once you get below the hardpan and the roots box blade will work fine just slow going but you can move lots of dirt given enough time. A lot depends on how far you move the dirt.

 

[lakngulf]

On a much smaller scale I use a 30hp tractor with toothbar and box blade to build this area to provide some water for wildlife.



Given enough time the box blade can move a lot of dirt, and the rippers do some serious digging. Once the water hole was dug out a bit, the box blade diggers were more effective than the FEL tooth bar.

 

[Raised on a Deere]

Overwhelming response. I took a look after an hour or so and started looking at rippers, bucket tooth bars, and boxblades with rippers. Landngulf your pond is situated about like mine and about the size Mine should be. Your soil looks to be a bit looser than mine so I am going to have to experiment with what it takes to make a run and come out with a bucket full of dirt. It may take a combination of tools to work through my soil conditions from what's on top to what is down deeper. How long did it take you to dig that thing? M

If I had a dirt scoop (going to look for a trial one or a cheep one to try) I would like to try backing into the muck in my old pond and try cleaning it out. Somehow looks impossible unless we have an extreme dry spell. Thought I would just keep backing in to different spots around the muck and try hauling it out knowing that on the next back in at a given spot would find my self in a slippery mess. But I watched my grandfather with some laborers clean out a sizable pond with mules and a scoop so somehow I should be able to do something.

But giving up on that I would be trying to dig a new pond and bury the old one.

Thanks to all for the ideas that seem encouraging. I looked at another site where larger projects tended to make it a nothing doing with Compact tractor approach.

 

[bindian]

Install a tooth bar and beef up your bucket. I dug my first pond down to four feet with just the loader bucket, then finished with my backhoe. Second pond dug down to 7 feet. I rented a Bobcat mini track loader when my front tractor tires kept sinking under the 3000 pounds of wet clay in the bucket. It can be done and have fun.
hugs, Brandi

 

[TSO]

I did this with a small Kioti CK20, using the box blade ripper method.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kioti-owning-operating/256452-diggin-pond-my-ck20s.html

Tip with clay: wait until August. Clay holds the groundwater and makes it really slick and heavy until it dries out.

 

[Gary Fowler]

You might be able to clean out the old pond if you cut the dam so all the water drains out and continues to drain. It will take a long time to dry out enough to get in with a tractor. When the muck looks dry on top it will still be a quagmire underneath. A track loader would be your best bet after letting it dry out for a couple of years.
As for your pond, a combination of box blade using scarifiers to loosen up the soil and then drag as much as you can to the dam area while at the same time filling your FEL with a full load is the most productive. It does take some coordination with the controls to work all the hydraulics. When you dump your BB load, you will have to back over it and then on your next pass, push that load up on the dam with the FEL. RINSE and REPEAT several hundred times.
If you loosen the soil with the scarifiers, you wont need a toothbar to dig since you are just gathering up the loose dirt. When you get your dam the height you want it, you will need to strike off the top so it is flat. Also the dam needs a backside (opposite the water) taper of at least 4 to 1 so it will hold the water pressure AND most importantly be able to mow it safely. The top should be flat and as wide as your tractor, then begin the taper. You may want to do the flattening and back tapering more than once before the dam gets too high. It is pretty scary trying to drive around the levee knocking down the mountain of dirt when it is 6 or more feet high and peaked up like a mountain top.
When I build my pond, I used the tractor tires to walk up and down the levee and the FEL to strike off the top several times so I could walk it down compacting the soil as I went. Then I went to the back side and did the same thing, driving to the top of the levee, lowering the FEL to flatten the top and backdragging it down the back side. When all was to the height I wanted, I walked the tractor up and down inside and out to pack down any loose dirt , then walked my smaller tractor around the top again to widen and flatten the top. It took me about 2 days and 15 engine hours to build my small pond

 

[Raised on a Deere]

Something in us always wants to try something that just can't be done. I know trying to handle the muck can be an humbling experience but I am always thinking there has to be a solution to the muck problem that is right under our noses. The old timers just laid a hand to it and got it done, not on the scale we are thinking of course. One of these days I am going to see someone doing it and I am going to be slapping my forhead so hard I go blind. The background on all that is that on my 23 acre place below the pond I dug is a 2 acre pond dug in the 1800's now silted in, that used to be part of a canning factory in the late 1800's. It has a spillway with drain pipes etc with the bank serving as a road to the other side of the swag. Bull dozer guy said because of soil condition under that thing no way would he even think of digging that thing out. others have looked at it and simply suggested I move up stream and dig. No money here for a big pond like that so just dug the one I have now.

I probably will just start digging but I will test the "waters" a bit on cleaning out the old one. Reading all your responses has emboldened me to go ahead with a box blade purchase and start watching for other items that might be useful on Craig's list. My first move will be to use the breaking plow.

Take delivery on the tractor in two days but it will be several weeks before I take it to it's home in KY. So I won't be contributing any results for a while. But WOW this thread is packed with ideas.

 

[TripleR]

Mucking out your typical old pond is much more of an undertaking than one would think. My son and I used our M8540 and L5740 a few years ago after a drought in this area. It looked and felt firm walking on it or driving across on our Rhino, but when we put the tractors in it quickly went down hill. We thought we could dig down to solid ground, but it didn't work that way. We were able to move a lot of muck, but it sure wasn't easy and we had to finally quit. If it ever gets dry again, we will rent an excavator.

 

[Raised on a Deere]

Mucking out your typical old pond is much more of an undertaking than one would think. My son and I used our M8540 and L5740 a few years ago after a drought in this area. It looked and felt firm walking on it or driving across on our Rhino, but when we put the tractors in it quickly went down hill. We thought we could dig down to solid ground, but it didn't work that way. We were able to move a lot of muck, but it sure wasn't easy and we had to finally quit. If it ever gets dry again, we will rent an excavator.

Sombody needs to invent a poor man's muck machine. I have thought about rigging up some kind of anchor point on each side of the muck pond where a winch type rig could be rigged to drag a bucket back and forth across the muck. Haven't seen any 100 HP winches laying around lately have you?

 

[jeff9366]

Sombody needs to invent a poor man's muck machine. I have thought about rigging up some kind of anchor point on each side of the muck pond where a winch type rig could be rigged to drag a bucket back and forth across the muck. Haven't seen any 100 HP winches laying around lately have you?

Here are Google LINKS to tractor powered PTO winches:

https://www.google.com/#q=tractor+PTO+winch

"Give me a fulcrum and I will move the world." (Douglas MacArthur)