Cleaning Ditch

[32Ford]

My daughter has a 30 acre hobby farm. It is a combination of highland, lowland, and some wooded. There is a drainage ditch that goes thru the lowland that over many years has started to fill up with dirt. I would like to start cleaning out the ditch. I have a 30HP Farmtrac tractor with shuttle shift, FEL & 4WD.

My question is:
Do I clean out the ditch working parallel to it or do I work perpindicular to the ditch?

Thanks

 

[oliver28472]

How long and wide is this ditch? Trees grown up in the ditch? I remember back in the 60s, grandpaw hired a dozer man with a rear-facing front blade that he used to drive straight into the ditch, lower the blade and drag it out. Then the spoil had to be spread out so the surface water would drain into the cleaned out ditch. You might be better off hiring this done by someone with an excavator.

 

[dillo99]

Depends a lot on the ditch. I have found that the fastest approach with a large ditch (one your tractor fits in width wise) is to wait until the dry season and then drive in it using the fel to clean things out. This is quick and efficient. With smaller ditches or during wet season you can approach the ditch from a perpendicular perspective and scoop with the fel. This just takes time because you are constantly repositioning.

If you have a very shallow ditch you can use a tilted back blade and run along each side pulling dirt and stuff up and out. Be careful if you do it this way - must be shallow so you don't risk tipping. Good Luck!

 

[32Ford]

Depends a lot on the ditch. I have found that the fastest approach with a large ditch (one your tractor fits in width wise) is to wait until the dry season and then drive in it using the fel to clean things out. This is quick and efficient. With smaller ditches or during wet season you can approach the ditch from a perpendicular perspective and scoop with the fel. This just takes time because you are constantly repositioning.

If you have a very shallow ditch you can use a tilted back blade and run along each side pulling dirt and stuff up and out. Be careful if you do it this way - must be shallow so you don't risk tipping. Good Luck!

Thanks for the reply. The ditch originally was probably 6' wide, maybe 2' deep. I like your thought on using a rear blade tilted. I would consider this ditch to be shallow, would you agree? There are weeds growing, no trees. Would it make sense to break up the dirt in thre ditch first?

I do want to try this project rather than hiring someone, I am retired and bought the tractor to play with this type of project in mind.

Thanks

 

[pat32rf]

The object is to remove the dirt. I would either get down in the ditch with the FEL and scoop it out or approach from the side and do the same.
Don't leave the sides too steep or they will collapse back in and try to get some grass growing on the sides to minimize erosion.
Up here the township tends to do their ditch cleaning in the fall, removing any sod that has grown during the summer. Then the dirt washes back in which means that they have to do it all over next year..Job security...

 

[skipmarcy]

Your ditch sounds like it could be done with your blade just fine as long as there aren't any larger roots or stumps/rocks etc. in it. I normally drag the ditch with the boxblade tilted as far as I can until I get a good box full, stop and drop it, get it out with the loader, get back in the ditch and continue on. When you get down to the final grading you'll be able to drag a long way before having to use the loader to remove the pile. Your tires will help pack the very bottom of the ditch as you go too, then you can seed or rock your ditch as necessary for your situation. The max. tilt on most boxblades will give you a nice, gradual swale so it won't erode so quickly. If you need a deeper/steeper ditch due to space limitations or whatever it will be a little more tedious but do-able with your loader. I have used my loader to dig some pretty large holes and run some ditches in the past but it takes patience & practice on your loader to make a consistent ditch working perpendicular to it. Since your ditch is only about 3' or 4' wide on one side, it will be real tough getting in the ditch parallel and getting the proper angle of your bucket for digging, it will greatly widen the ditch in the long run.I'd just experiment some and see what works best for you.

 

[Thomas]

I clean out one of my ditches other day almost same condition you want to do..60' long by foot an half wide by 2' deep.

I 45 scraper blade made four passes to loosen dirt than bucket the ditch,than use bucket to smooth banks follow by driving slowly half of tractor in ditch to pack the bottom...didn't come out to bad.

 

[Egon]

Making a ditch.

 

[Thomas]

Egon.
Hope the right arm didn't ache to much.

 

[Egon]

Not no more Thomas!

 

[Johndeere3720]

I clean my ditch with the loader bucket, put it down as far as it can and scoop out the weeds. It takes a while when you have a certain place to put the weeds. I dont know if this helps but good luck anyway.

 

[dillo99]

Thanks for the reply. The ditch originally was probably 6' wide, maybe 2' deep. I like your thought on using a rear blade tilted. I would consider this ditch to be shallow, would you agree? There are weeds growing, no trees. Would it make sense to break up the dirt in thre ditch first?

I do want to try this project rather than hiring someone, I am retired and bought the tractor to play with this type of project in mind.

Thanks

Yes, I would consider this shallow - and it is nice and wide.

With this wide of a ditch I would wait until things were fairly dry and then I would run the tractor right down in there - scraping with the loader. Once I had most of the material out I would finish with an angled back blade or box blade. This should give you a nice finish and even everything out.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Some advice I learned early on from my dad when I was younger and he first started me out on heavy equipment. When clearing a ditch like that make sure the silted in bottom is strong enought to hold the ditch side of the machine . Iv almost rolled a TLB over that way and got many a dozer hung. You can start out good then one side will fall out of sight. I dig a little dip first to check out the dampness and hardness of the silt. Some times this determines if I need to go in perpendiculr to the ditch if Im usinfg a loader type machine. if its dry enough Ill go in perpendicular with a loader and scoop out a sectoin wide as my machiine is long so I can keep my swale angle. I usually dump my spoils on the go so they could be spread out a bit. sometimes I leave it in central piles it its good tops soil so I can use it later. My next suggestion is before the end of each day Id sow bag of wild birdseed on my dressed up slope. This will come up in a few days and make a nice grassed water way to save you from having to deal with erosion and plugging for a while.