Filling a Hundred Holes (6-feet across, 4-feet deep)

[Deleted member 314313]

My property was previously a tree farm and I have over a hundred holes where the trees were dug out, balled, and burlapped. I tried filling the holes with my Kubota L4330, but I made very little progress scraping off surrounding dirt and using that as fill. I've also tried loosening up dirt with a tiller, but that is only slightly more effective.

What type of equipment is usually used to fill holes left when removing trees? Should I rent a dozer? Or is an excavator more efficient at this task? If an excavator, is a Bobcat E-85 (20k pound machine; 36-inch bucket) big enough to get through that many holes in an 8-hour rental period?

Or should I just truck in some fill dirt and rent a backhoe?

Plows loosen up dirt pretty good for a bucket to collect and fill the holes.

 

[treeman3779]

We own & operate a tree farm. When it comes to filling tree spade holes, as the saying goes "Been there done that". I will provide suggestions & reasons for them.
Lloyd - Swartz Creek Tree Farm
810-635-0538

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

Dump the dirt straight in the dump with the excavator and don’t pile it first.

From a pile created from bull dozing? You were not putting a truck next to any excavator in these wet fields and I've never seen an excavator finish grade a field for proper run off.
I worked in dirt and ledge long before I sat on any tractor.

 

[4570Man]

From a pile created from bull dozing? You were not putting a truck next to any excavator in these wet fields and I've never seen an excavator finish grade a field for proper run off.
I worked in dirt and ledge long before I sat on any tractor.

I’ve always used excavators to rough cut a grade. Mostly because I don’t have a dozer. That’s how pretty much everyone is doing it now except the trucks and excavators are bigger.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Excavators are a great multi purpose tool. I think thats why we are seeing so many of them. For actual grade work they are no where near what I would prefer. If it was on the job and was the tool at hand, I also would be working the heck out of the excavator.

 

[4570Man]

Excavators are a great multi purpose tool. I think thats why we are seeing so many of them. For actual grade work they are no where near what I would prefer. If it was on the job and was the tool at hand, I also would be working the heck out of the excavator.

An excavator and dump truck is superior to a dozer for taking a large cut and moving it any distance at all. Bring the dozer or other grading equipment for the finish grade.

 

[nikerret]

I’m just jealous you guys can even get dirt. Since the rain started, spring of 2018, you can’t get topsoil, around here. You might get lucky, every now and then, but I do stuff commercially and have a list of people that want good black dirt. Call around. Everyone has similar lists, often with some if the same names. No one in business that would remove dirt is getting rid if it, they need it, too. Fill dirt is slightly easier to come up with, but goes very quickly.

 

[kthompson]

Few years back we did something along this line. We had a forty year old pond the dirt was dumped along the sides as it was dug. We wanted to widen the sides of the pond and general clear it up. We also had a low area of are least 1/4 acre we wanted to build up. It was as low as eight feet below grade only 60 feet away. There were two of us, we used a 9,000 pound excavator Volvo EC45, to do the digging and load a hydraulic dump trailer pulled by tractor. The trailer was 2 feet sides, 6 feet wide and 10 feet long. We could not fill the trailer for it would not handle the weight but we were filling to about 2/3 full. We got very efficient and loading and running the load to dump and back for another load. We ran from about 150 to about 800 feet one way. On the 150 feet could make the full run in 9 minutes. Knew how long it took for the trailer to dump so when to begin raising the bed before I ever got there. But we did not have to drop into holes as we were building up a large area. At the end of the day we used the blade on excavator to level the dirt if it needed it.

We have many many days in this venture. I would say at least 20 full days. Packing for us was not a problem. We were dumping, spreading and grading as we basically went. In so doing we were driving over it all the time. It has been about 10 years or more and no need to refill any where. If you are filling and grading the holes as you go then drive other them with your loads to the next holes and they will pack rather well. We did use the tractor's hydraulic over the electric over hyds of the trailer as it was much faster and easier to use while driving.

The distance you are talking about is to me way too far and way too much dirt for your front end loader. Dump trailer can be found used but as has been noted watch the price and the condition. Depending on your long term needs you might find buying excavator better option and then selling it. That is what I did but 17 years later we still have another job for the excavator and right now it has tree removal, adding to a shooting berm, two drain lines of a total of possible 1,000 feet. Well we will sell it when we no longer need it! lol.

The area we filled we were moving dirt dug many years before so the thought of keeping the topsoil sperate was not an option. The whole area has great looking lawn grass on it. Many grasses have roots much deeper than many people realize. I realize some crops really don't have the roots of grasses so top soil more important than permanent grass needs.

Do take pictures as you progress for you will be amazed as the size of the job and how well it turned out. I do like the idea of using farmer size disk and level implements once you get the holes filled. The best tool I ever used for such is large pull type box blade (on wheels) with large tractor.

But as has been said by others, you can use any size tool for moving dirt, even a bucket and shovel for children at the beach. It is the time and travel factor.

If you go to rent any machine be sure you price it not by the day but for the full estimated time you need it. Not saying you will find this now but we found to rent a machine for 3 days was same as a week and to rent for a month was about same as I think 2 1/2 weeks.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I would hook up a cover crop disc or disc plow and work up the ground. You may have to go over it a second year after the holes settle in, but it would be quick and fuel efficient.