Sorry, been busy with cut up of the old system and trying to keep the poly out of the landfill. I'll try to get back more often now that the old poly is cut up and I'm not running in the evenings.
I knew I could count on you guys here for some healthy discussion.
BEPCO Home Page has some info. Also search on eau pleine fish kill and you'll see what the buzz is about.
Open water buoyed deployment was my suggestion, but not sure if that will happen yet. It's getting late in the season.
Essentially, the project has been mapped out with GPS coordinates and using slots in the ice we can precisely lay the lines w/o wind issues. The issue is to cut the slot in a productive manner.
Back in 1981 they used a small dozer and a "root cutter" of some sort. Stump grinder I guess, but the width of these heads is narrow.
Ditch Witch would do it but SLOW and needs greasing every .5-1hr of cutting.
Paralell chain saws etc also being considered.
Old school saws would work, but again the paralell thing.
Me thinks the Wisconsin DNR will have something to say about this. We need three permitts jsut to go under a creek then we get to pay for a girl to watch the crew work all day. Directional borign would be the way to go. Fish finder for depth and bore away. pull HDPE back and fuse the joints. MAy get long in the rod department.
No issues with DNR permits here. They were part of the original system install and in on the new install.
If you have a hydrostatic tractor, of 20 hp or so, then a trencher like the one I built might work. It has several problems, but most of which are tied to a gear tractor pulling it faster than the teeth could stand, and them loading up and breaking shear pins. The teeth were 3" wide flatbar.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/71073-trencher-poorboys-stump-grinder.html
David from jax
That is almost exactly what I was thinking. serrate the teeth though for more chipping and less cutting.
I have 44 HP hydro (35PTO) and juiced it with 15% larger injectors for some more grunt.
