Best Implement to trench/bury 6" Poly Pipe

[MtnViewRanch]

9" wide at the bottom, 20" deep. Less than 2 minutes to do 100'. Now I know that the ground has to be just right and to get the full 20" deep the bottom does need to be crumbed out. I have done several hundred feet like this. I have a Case 580 BH and a Parsons 9" wide chain trencher. Neither can even come close to the speed that my ditcher can do for an 18"-20" deep trench.

Doesn't work for everyone, but if the conditions are right, it is the way to go.

For your situation, I would go with a back hoe.

 

[trailbuilder]

Mini Excavator with a narrow bucket, They are cheap and easy to find to rent.

 

[Pete Judd]

When I had to dig the trench for the power and phone I used a narrow walk behind rototiller to losen things up and then shoveled it out then repeated until I was down to depth. We have hard clay under the first couple inches of soil, but it worked well.

 

[PoorPlowboy]

I dug mine by hand w/ a 4" spade, only 70' long though. I couldn't have used a machine b/c it was only about 18" away from the house - water dripped off of the roof into the french drain. No machine I looked at was narrow enough. Believe me, I wanted to rent something.

I don't follow... I lay french drains all the time with a mini track hoe type excavator. I can go all the way to the edge of the slab. Just offset the boom and start digging.

 

[mjncad]

I vote for the mini-excavator.

 

[herd]

Only 80' and 18" deep. You can go cheap by ripping the ditch with a plow,subsoiler,middle buster,or a boxblade with one ripper and finish with a shovel. Good exercise and character builder.

Or, a little more work but you could use a tiller. Just keep running it down your trench line, stop, shovel out the loose soil, and then run it down again. I have dug many a good trench this way, even once (when I was very young) a 200' septic drain field.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Only 80' and 18" deep. You can go cheap by ripping the ditch with a plow,subsoiler,middle buster,or a boxblade with one ripper and finish with a shovel. Good exercise and character builder.

I did a 70' bury this way last summer, using a middle buster. It was only 1-1/2" pipe but I had to go under two stone walls and a driveway and it still only took a few hours. Go to Home Depot and get a long handle spade that is the width of the trench you want, you don't want to make the hole any wider than you need to.

A hole that is 80' by 6" by 18" is 60 cubic feet, or 2.2 yards. With dirt that has already been loosened I figure I can dig about a cubic yard an hour. That's a rate of filling a 5 gallon bucket about every 90 seconds, which is brisk but not killing yourself.

The advantage of a hand-dug hole is that it is much neater when it comes time to fill it.

 

[Baby Grand]

Depends on the soil. If not terribly rocky, I'd use a subsoiler followed by a grub hoe & shovel. Go to work on Monday with some blisters to show for your weekend.

 

[NICKB304]

Mini excavators are one of my favorite toys! I would buy one of those over a backhoe attachment if I ever have the extra cash. I need to rent one again to finish up a project at my place. My vote goes for one of those.

 

[Redneck in training]

Maximum length 80 feet & maximum depth 18 inches. I could dig that with a spade in the time it would take to go rent a trencher and return it. My dad talks about the old days when they would tile entire fields by hand. The guy in the bottom of the trench was often over his head.

Second that. I just did about 150 ft of 3" diameter 10 -12" deep drain in wet clay in about one afternoon. Wet clay leaves nice clean trench that doesn't collapse back so it was possible to dig it first, lay the pipe and cover it with gravel.