Box Scraper Box scraper as single tine ripper?

jimmyj · Aug 2, 2009

I have to shallow bury some wire and hoses, maybe 600 feet or so. Anybody ever tried ripping a trench with one scarifier of their box scraper down? I figure I could angle the scraper to get the deepest penetration and just drive along.

Any comments or suggestions?

powergod · Aug 2, 2009

did the same thing worked fine for me actually ended up running over it twice to clean out the hole

Deadman · Aug 3, 2009

works great.

Browns329 · Aug 3, 2009

It may depend on how hard the ground is, and how heavy your box scaper is. I just bought a used United box scraper, and two of the scarifier teeth had ripped out the back of the metal frame! They may have hit something pretty hard with it, or tried pulling roots out or something.

jimmyj · Aug 3, 2009

Thanks for the replies. I'm gonna give er a go today. I'll let you know how it goes. Our ground is pretty soft and full of gravel but no big roots or rocks where I am going to be working.

J_J · Aug 3, 2009

My advise would be to make two runs in the same trench, the first one will catch anything that may impede pulling the wires. The second run will be to pull the wires. However, that is a lot of friction to pull 600 ft, and that is if the wires can stand that much pulling. If the wires are weak, may pull another steel wire along with it. You could make yourself a bullet type puller to make round hole and make some space for the wires.
It depends on the wire size, but a 3/4 bullet shaped puller should work.

You mentioned rocks, and if those wires were pulled across a large sharp rock, you could damage them.

jimmyj · Aug 3, 2009

Thanks JJ. I am going to hand push the wire and pipe into the trench vs pull it. Once I break a groove I'm OK for the rest. Good tip though as I'd not want to damage anything. When we buried the water line we had to put it into another pipe as there is so much gravel here.