Building Lake Corona

[bindian]

It will take a very large excavator to dig a pond 50ft across.

Nay. 20 ton CAT 318s reach out 28 feet. It just depends how deep you wanna go at the end of that 28 feet. That 28 feet equates to 56 foot of dig and dump radius.
20 ton machines are the most used size excavators for toking around. Heck, my 7.5 ton CAT can reach out 13 feet. It can go in muck and leave a lighter footprint than me walking in the same muck. Compact track loaders tend to have lower bellies that are easier to get suction stuck in muck, then excavators.
hugs, Brandi

 

[jk96]

The OP has offered us a perfect example of how you deal with a wet pond hole. I'm pretty sure he's drained his twice, maybe more, and still able to excavate with his CTL.

It will take a very large excavator to dig a pond 50ft across.

Pond has been drained 3 times now. Here's a short clip getting the muck out of the bottom. A wheel machine would have been useless in this. Hardest part was figuring out where to go with it. Ended up spreading it out and then scooping back up later when it dried to move to the backside of the dam.

Video - click for link


Pond_1


Also starting to get a pretty good collection of rocks.

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Yuck, I hate clay! Is that the material all over on the bottom of your pond? I suppose that is good for holding water though. We only get streaks of mucky clay. Mostly around here it is glacial till. Lots of small round rocks in silty/sandy soil under the rich acidic topsoil composted over years of evergreen forest growth. Drains extremely well.

The only bad thing about the clay is working in it when its wet. It gums up inside the tracks and then turns extremely hard when it dries. To the point that once it dries the tracks will start to overheat where they run against the clay if you don't clean it out. Only way to clean is with a pressure washer and you can plan on half of it being on you when your finished.

 

[dragoneggs]

The only bad thing about the clay is working in it when its wet. It gums up inside the tracks and then turns extremely hard when it dries. To the point that once it dries the tracks will start to overheat where they run against the clay if you don't clean it out. Only way to clean is with a pressure washer and you can plan on half of it being on you when your finished.

Yep... I HATE CLAY! Maybe if I were a pottery person???

 

[two_bit_score]

That’s what most people use up here. You can go a lot deeper that way. I know of ponds which have been dug 40 feet deep... hard doing that with a dozer.

Are you sure that wasn’t a dragline?

 

[dodge man]

Threw my job as a surveyor, I致e done quite a bit of work on earthwork jobs and yes you can go 40 feet deep with a large tracked backhoe. You can go until you hit rock. If you are building a big pond, you would need a way to haul the dirt off. I致e seen lakes and lagoons built, you dig down with the excavator, load the off-road trucks, work your way across, then go down another layer and so on. The other method would be scrapers with push dozers.

 

[deezler]

A long reach excavator would be ideal! (sorry for huge pic)

But yeah you dont have to reach all the way from the final bank to the middle of the pond, you go in a couple stages. If you can reach 15 ft, than you can already turn and dump in a 30 foot diameter. IE, you never have to re-move spoils until the pond is done, if you don't want to. But hey, if I had a tracked skid steer, I'd be in there digging like JK, too. Use what you got, if it works.

 

[ovrszd]

JK96, love your rocks!!! I save every rock I dig up on my farm. We use them for decoration. I'm always interested in looking at them and imagining how they were formed and where they've been. We are at the Southern edge of Glacier drift here so we see a large variety of rock types.

 

[jk96]

JK96, love your rocks!!! I save every rock I dig up on my farm. We use them for decoration. I'm always interested in looking at them and imagining how they were formed and where they've been. We are at the Southern edge of Glacier drift here so we see a large variety of rock types.

Finding most of these in one area right at the bottom of where I'm dighing. Pretty sure I would find a lot if I dug down a few more feet.

 

[ovrszd]

Finding most of these in one area right at the bottom of where I'm dighing. Pretty sure I would find a lot if I dug down a few more feet.

They are awesome. My wife would love them. Perfect size for small flowerbeds.

Really perks my interest and imagination.

 

[jk96]

We missed yesterday's rain. Probably because my weather app was still set to Lake of the Ozarks from a trip a few days prior. Didn't realize it until the radio had a completely different forcast. Worked for an hour this morning before some light rain set in. Shouldn't be enough to cause any runoff. Really making good progress now that I'm only moving dirt and not dealing with rocks, trees, etc. Just over 50 hours on the ctl so far on this project. Here's a comparison pic of the progress made the last two days on the dam.

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