Backhoe Digging a 1,900 foot long, 2 foot deep trench with L3200!

[PAPPASMURF]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. After careful consideration, and cost analysis I decided to see how bad this would be. After all....I did buy this neat orange toy to play with from time to time, so I figured why not test its abilities (safely and cautiously of course). I have dug about 250 feet so far and its been an easy job so far, however I havent made it to the steep part of the mountain yet. I did take the tractor on a test run down the mountain, and no, it wouldnt take much to get in a hairy situation, but after careful planning I have a route marked thats pretty safe to go down (front end first) and dig the trench. I have been suprised at how easily the BH77 has performed and I have hit big rocks and easily pulled them out of the ground without any trouble, so I'm gonna continue unless things get unsafe. I posted some pictures of my progress so far, and although the pics were taken on my phone, and kinda hard to see, it gives you an idea of how far / deep I've gone in just a few hours work. I'll keep you posted throughout the process. :thumbsup:

 

[Gary Fowler]

That sure doesnt look like it is 28" deep, but the depth perception in the photo may be fooling me.
My comment is to make sure you get your depth on the first pass as it is much harder straddling the ditch to dig more later. You may want to also install the cable after a few hundred feet is finished to hedge work completion in case it rains. I dont know what rain will do to your soil, but mine is washes it in pretty bad. I dug some 7" wide trench for a sprinkler and it rained about 1/2" before the pipe got installed. I had to re-dig about 20 feet at the low end of the hill as it had filled up completely with washed in dirt.

 

[Gary Fowler]

One other thing, unless you are putting in armored cable, you wont be able to back fill with those huge rocks and not damage the cable. The cable needs to be bedded in soft soil or sand without big or sharp rocks laying against it. You dont want them to damage your cable and put you out of business. Finding the broken section might be extremely hard also.
You might consider putting it into Schedule 40 PVC pipe if it is just regular insulated data cable.

 

[PAPPASMURF]

One other thing, unless you are putting in armored cable, you wont be able to back fill with those huge rocks and not damage the cable. The cable needs to be bedded in soft soil or sand without big or sharp rocks laying against it. You dont want them to damage your cable and put you out of business. Finding the broken section might be extremely hard also.
You might consider putting it into Schedule 40 PVC pipe if it is just regular insulated data cable.

The pictures are a little deceiving... its actually exactly 24" in most places...talked to the engineer who agreed 2 feet would be fine. The cable is already in a 2" protective sleeve, and as far as the rocks go, we are using them (collecting them as we go if you will) for another project (retainer wall) later.

 

[PAPPASMURF]

These pics might help in understanding the depth a little better.

 

[theone28351]

Good Luck looks like you got PLENTY of **Work** time to come on your tractor........And I could NOT LIVE without my Cable internet so i know exactly how you feel......

 

[PapaPerk]

I had visions of you digging a trench right through the woods down a mountain side. Pictures help a lot. Since you own the BH that's the right way to do it. Looks like easy digging! Have fun! :thumbsup:

 

[kf4uda]

I had visions of you digging a trench right through the woods down a mountain side. Pictures help a lot. Since you own the BH that's the right way to do it. Looks like easy digging! Have fun! :thumbsup:

I had the same thing envisioned. Looking at your pictures, I would dig away with your BH and enjoy it.

 

[JJZ 109]

Looks like you might have some tree roots to deal with also. I rented a mini ex this summer to bury a tank & leach line for my garage floor drain. The clay sucked enough, but a couple of not really that big tree roots were even more of a pain in the backside.

 

[crazyal]

I've trenched down so really steep hills with my backhoe. The way to do it is go down hill not up. You did the trench up to your tractor and then place the backhoe bucket at the end of the trench to keep you from rolling down the hill. Raise your out riggers just enough to move and then head down the hill using the backhoe. Once you get to the point where the backhoe is near it's limits use your fel to lift the front of the tractor as high as you can to level it out. You have to raise the backhoe as you lower the fel and vise versa when lowering the front of the tractor. It's much easier to do with just one seat. But I've gone down hills that I would never take a mini ex.