Digging a ditch

[statueman]

I have to agree with KentT on this one. I knew a couple of loggers and they would offer the homeowner cash in a suitcase right in front of their eyes. they would agree right on the spot. these guys would then log it, sell it,then sell the tops to chordwooders and double and triple their money!!!!!! Please get another qoute on your timber and if you burn wood keep the tops. My father just had his property cleared , really good bucks for the wood and we asked to keep the tops . He even brought all the tops to one clearing for us. Now thats service.

 

[Kratos]

Showing my ignorance again, but why would you want to keep the tops?

 

[statueman]

GOOD EVENING kRATOS,


all your tree tops are where your chordwood comes from if your going to sell the timber. usually the loggers don't take the small stuff.

 

[Slippy]

There are a lot of things to consider. 1st, I would wait until it is dry whether you hire or do it yourself. 2nd, if you do it yourself, get a tractor w/ backhoe or a backhoe. I think you will need both the loader and the backhoe to do the job right. But, it is difficult to say without seeing your land. The backhoe will give you a nice cut edge on the ditch and depending upon elevation, this could work very nicely. If the land will flow naturally toward the ditch, this should work becasue the the water will flow down to it, collect and drain. A swale could also work, but again depends upon your land, elevation, and room. It will be larger and can help the contour if you don't have a natural flow.

3rd, I suggest having a laser transit to check elevations unless your elevation is obvious. It is easy to get too deep and have a low place that will hold water. A cheap regular transit will work if you have two people. 2-300 bucks for a selfleveling one person transit.

I added a ditch along my drive similar to what you are talking about. On the driveway side after digging, I went in with the loader and cut and back drag the side next to the road in places to make sure the water drained away from the road. Again, your land may have large rocks that with a loader may be difficult to get out, and if so, gets your work out of contour, then you have to re-work it. A backhoe will make that part much eaiser.

Box blade can also be made to work. There are other posts with pics of people using box blade to dig swale along road. The potential problem with that is you generally have to get the tractor in the swale and it takes some time to get the nack of adjusting the box blade at the right angle and depth.

4th, and probably most important is the value of your time. I don't know what you do, but if you crunch the numbers, it might be cheaper and better to simply hire it out. However, if time is not an issue, and you just want to do it, then get a backhoe.

One more thought is a skid steer. Never done it myself, but have seen it done. Turns on a dime, gets in tight places, works fast. But will end up with more of a swale than a ditch.

Good luck.

 

[billfires]

Slippy, what kind of self leveling transit is this? The ones I looked at started at about $900 and went up from there. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bill C

 

[Slippy]

It is a LaserMark LMH. Now that I think about it, it may have been more. I bought it last summer on the internet. I will see if I can find more info for you.

 

[gemini5362]

It is a LaserMark LMH. Now that I think about it, it may have been more. I bought it last summer on the internet. I will see if I can find more info for you.

Slippy I bought a lasermark transit kit. It had the laser the detector the pole and everything it was about 300 or so. but was manual leveling. The autoleveling was about 500 to 600. I have used my manual level one quite a bit and it is not that hard to just get it roughly level and then dial in till the bubbles are centered. It works pretty good and for a job like he is doing it was perfect. I got mine at home depot but I believe most places sell one now.

 

[Obed]

My tractor has a backhoe and is about the size of your tractor. I also have a 6 ft. box blade. Since I already have the backhoe, I would use the backhoe to add one or more culverts beside your existing culverts. However, if I didn't have the backhoe, I would use the box blade. I would drag the BB across the road along the line where the culvert would go. I would end up with a 6 foot wide trench across the road. After placing the culvert I would then move the dirt back over it with the BB. You can move a lot of dirt pretty fast with the BB.

In your case, I'd vote for buying a box blade instead of renting or hiring out. After owning a BB, you're likely to find it is your favorite implement and find all kinds of uses for it. Over the long term buying the BB might be the best use of your money because you get the job done and still own the tool. However, renting a backhoe for a day might be cheaper in the short term.

Check out how I used my box blade here - CUT Box Blade Newbie - Road Pictures

Obed

 

[Kratos]

Obed,

Thanks for all of the photos. I do believe I could do the ditch with the box blade and I do have a 300 ft. gravel drive to maintain so I will definately get one. The jury is still out on the rest as I really have to decide if we want the "house in the woods" that we have now or if we want the "homestead / mini-farm" after the land is cleared for pasture. I know I will not live long enough to replace any of my probably 100+ year old trees so must make this decision right. Thanks for all of the input though. I hope I am not just considering having my acreage cleared so I can play with my tractor better.

 

[Slippy]

Gemini: I think you are about right on the price. I was doing a little searching on internet to see if I could figure out where I bought it. It really is slick. Used to have to get one on my kids out to help hold the stick. Now, just put it on tri pod, turn it on, and walk with the stick and receiver. In my opinion, it is well worth the money if you are going to do this kind of work. I used it to build dock and check grades. I have put in a number of drainage ditch and I am just not that good at judging my depth, so I periodically run the stick back the ditch to check it. It is not hard to get too deep too fast. Mine has alot more stuff on it, but I have never taken the time to learn how to use it.