Best implement/attachment for digging ditches??

jeffgbook · Jan 21, 2005

Now for the really dumb question.

I haven't got my tractor yet, but how exactly do I tilt the blade? Do I adjust all the way out on one side and all the way in on the other?

Sorry for the extreme dumbness of this question, /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif but like I said I have no 3pt to look at so I just want to make sure I can do it when I get it (which will be soon, very soon /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif). Thanks. Jeff

TWINKLE_TOES · Jan 21, 2005

Jeff, maybe not "all the way" but you have the idea. I would like add to your question, how do folks handle grader ditches along side the road when you can't straddle the ditch.

SCB · Jan 21, 2005

Jeffgbook,
I can't speak for all three point hitches, but the one on My kubota has a tilt adjustment on one side only. You just raise or lower that side to create the amount of angle that you need. Someone on this board purchased an extra adjustment linkage and installed it on the other side as well and now gets twice the angle adjustment. Most standard top and tilt systems that I have seen only have a tilt cylinder on one side as well. Although I think Henro has been working on a dual cylider system.

jeffgbook · Jan 21, 2005

Good deal. Thanks a bunch. See now I'm less dumber /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif. Jeff

grandad · Jan 21, 2005

Twinkle, one of my summer jobs was working with the local township road crew back where I grew up in Ohio. We used a loader to clean out the deeper sections of ditches the road grader could not get to. So they did it one bucket load at a time. On my place today, I use a similar technique for some parts of our privately-maintained dirt road. It takes some practice to get an even profile running down the ditch. I am nowhere near as skillful as the old guy who did it for the township years ago.

We also have an 84", HD scraper blade that that tilts and can offset behind the tractor. It does a nice job of ripping open a shallow ditch furrow, particularly when the ground has some moisture in it. You need some weight and HP to handle it, however.

JimMorrissey · Jan 22, 2005

Actually a back hoe with a 36"+ "clean-out bucket" and a smooth cutting edge would be an excellent way to re-grade the ditch/swale. You could rent one and finish the job in a hurry if it becomes overwhelming for your machine. You should be able to get a clean-out for a mini-excavators too.

Jackrabbit_Slim · Jan 22, 2005

Sorry the quality of the photo isn't better.

I cut this last fall with a 5 foot box blade on my B2710. I ran the left side of the scraper lower than the right side to get an angle on the ditch. Basically, I just went around in a big loop, dumping out of the frame on the left. When I was at the depth I wanted, I ran the left wheels of the machine up on the high side and cut another angle to give me a gentler slope into the ditch. This will be a swale, but the rain started a little early last year and I couldn't finish up so I knocked some reclaimation mix on it overseeded with Fall Rye to hold things in place.

As you can see, it drains into quite a pool at the bottom. (I think I saw the "Edmund Fitzgerald" in there.) That pool is currently drained by a small relief ditch. This ditch will be widened into a swale through the trees as soon as it's dry enough to get the tractor in there.

Slim

Jackrabbit_Slim · Jan 22, 2005

This is the ditch that's draining the pool. Hard to see in this shot, but there's a shovel stuck in the ground on the left. Not exactly the way I would have liked to do this. Lots of rock and root (R&R takes on a whole new meaning in this part of the world) in this dirt making for a rather crooked effort. I'm in the process of cutting a line from the other side of this, and will pull stumps and continue the swale in the spring.

Slim