Digging a Pond with a BX

[Kyle241]

Sorry, I disagree with others and will say a BX cannot do this size of project. The mighty BX is a great machine but sorry, you would be there for months and the hard part would be moving the soil, not digging. I do understand others have stated, "it's possible" theoretically but I seriously have my doubts. The reason why is there are too many factors that could easily make it impossible for the rugged little machine and/or operator. I have considered digging a pond for fly fishing purposes, stock it with Rainbows with my MX5100 and I realize now, it would take me a while to dig, plus the amount of soil to move would not be feasible. I say hire an excavator and dozer and do the finishing with your BX.

 

[Scooby074]

I just got through digging a foundation for a paver patio. Its about 450 sqft and about 16" deep on average. This took over 8hrs in hard clay using my new 24" bucket I built. It would have been 2x as long with the stock bucket. The seat on a BX is not a comfortable place to spend 8hrs sitting in the sun, let alone 16!

Is a pond doable? I suppose. But Id hire it out and get it done quick.

 

[paulharvey]

I guess we probably overwhelmed the OP, but I think part of the probelm is how deep he says he wants it, 15 ft is no little pond, that's deeper then many many lakes in my area. I don't know what your water table is like, or if "black" clay perks, or how you would fill this pond. How about digging 36" deep, 20 ft x 20 ft, (45 CY) and building your berm with that material. You should have material then for a 24" berm, 5 ft wide all the way around, giving you a 60" deep pond. That's 2000 cf of water, or 15,000+ gallons.

Using someone earlier's numbers of .1815 CY per bucket, 5 minutes per bucket, that's 20+ continual hours. Realistically closer to 40 hours shaping pond/banks and compacting it all

Doubling your size to 40' x 40' pits you on the 160-200 hour range, as long as you don't run into harder digging then you expect. So, if yo work 8 hours per week, and nature doesn't mess you up, it could be done over 6 months. Lot of work, fair bit of fuel/wear/tear but if your determined, you can get a pond, but not 15 foot deep.

 

[tractorshopper]

As others have said, not impossible, just will take some time. 15 feet is very deep for that size and would need very steep banks. That could be dangerous. I dug one about nearly that size diameter recently, but only about 8.5' deep at the very deepest spot. Initial dig took about 16 hours and I was using a lot of spoils as I went to build the dam on one side and compact it. Looking at it that way, I was actually digging like 2/3 of it and building one side up. I did another 12 hours or so in cleanup/final shaping etc. I still have a huge dirt pile to move at some future time, which will take longer per bucket load to move any real distance. My tractor is bigger, but not a huge tractor by any stretch. If piling your spoils, it will not take 5 minutes per bucket load. Aside from having my BB on for counter weight, I hardly used it at all. As someone else stated, a toothbar is very handy to help loosen/dig. I basically peeled layers until the bucket was full and worked directionally to get in a rythm.

 

[jim_wilson]

I dug the foundation for my 28x42ft barn using my BX23. You're talking about doing something quite a bit bigger and having to move a LOT more dirt than I moved. I put 650 hours on my BX doing that and digging out a driveway leading up to the barn. All of this was on a 1/2 acre lot - and I have to say - the vast majority of the time that I spent was simply driving back and forth with buckets full of dirt.

So from my perspective the question is not whether the BX can actually do all that digging - it's how are you going to move all the dirt? How far are you going to move it? I only moved the dirt from the barn's foundation hole at most 75 - 80 feet or so. It still sucked up a LOT of the seat time I was spending.

You could get an excavator to dig the hole out faster - and still have the dirt moving problem. If you want to stick with the BX - I would spend my time investigating what you're going to do to move all the dirt. Like one of the earlier posts said: you're talking about possibly 1500 cubic yards of dirt. The bucket on the BX only takes maybe 1/3 of a yard at most?? So you're talking about 4500 trips with the tractor - just to get the dirt out of the hole?

Even being able to move 1 cubic yard of dirt at a time would make the project go a **** of a lot faster. Maybe you need one of those small Kubota or Yanmar crawler dumpers?

 

[jim_wilson]

There is middle ground, you could rent a Jd-544 from Sunbelt for a week, for ~$2200, and put some hurting on your pond 3 cubic yards at a time, but any way you look at it, it's a large pond to dig.

Although you mentioned clay, and a loader doesn't do well digging or running in clay, but if you rent a 20 ton hoe (jd-200, komatsu 200, cat 320) you will be limited to just digging and throwing as far as you can reach, a hoe can't really shuttle material.

Exactly.

He's really got two problems.

1) Digging out the pond.

2) Where to put the dirt and how to get it there

WIth a decent excavator he could dig the pond out and have all the dirt in a pile next to or around the excavation. Then at least the pond would be dug - and he'd stand a better chance of getting it done in a short enough period of time to not have to worry about the hole flooding before he could finish the digging.

Then the problem of where to put the dirt and how to get it there could be tackled separately. If all you were doing with the BX was digging into the side of a pile of excavated dirt - dumping into a dump trailer that was right there - then dragging that dump trailer off to wherever the dirt was being placed - then you probably stand a chance of getting that portion of the job done with the BX - assuming you have a dump trailer that is.

A BX could probably haul a trailer with a cubic yard of dirt in it - assuming level ground and soil that isn't saturated with water.

 

[RaydaKub]

The bucket on the BX only takes maybe 1/3 of a yard at most??

Less. My manual says my 211 bucket holds 5cf struck, 6 heaped. So that's at least 5 trips per yard because you'll never have it heaped every bucketfull.

 

[Ken45101]

How about digging 36" deep, 20 ft x 20 ft, (45 CY) and building your berm with that material. You should have material then for a 24" berm, 5 ft wide all the way around, giving you a 60" deep pond. That's 2000 cf of water, or 15,000+ gallons.

IIRC, the local soil and water people told me that 50% of a pond (locally) should be at least 8 ft deep. I believe it has to do with keeping the water cool enough to reduce algae growth. And a 3:1 maximum slope from the shoreline.

Besides the practicality issues discussed here, I highly recommend talking with the local SWCD folks to get information on pond building in your area.

 

[jim_wilson]

Less. My manual says my 211 bucket holds 5cf struck, 6 heaped. So that's at least 5 trips per yard because you'll never have it heaped every bucketfull.

Thanks - I couldn't remember what the bucket capacity was. I do remember many weekends spent moving bucket loads of dirt though when I was digging that foundation hole. If Danner wants to dig that pond - and wants to use the BX - I think he'd do a lot better thinking of ways to use the tractor with an appropriately sized dump trailer to move more dirt in each trip. You can actually move a lot of dirt with the BX - provided you're not moving it very far. Pushing piles of dirt short distances - or dragging with a box blade - you could move that dirt , short distances - without learning to curse the BX. Start trucking it even a couple hundred feet - and you'll very quickly start wishing for some alternative method.

 

[yelbike]

Thanks - I couldn't remember what the bucket capacity was. I do remember many weekends spent moving bucket loads of dirt though when I was digging that foundation hole. If Danner wants to dig that pond - and wants to use the BX - I think he'd do a lot better thinking of ways to use the tractor with an appropriately sized dump trailer to move more dirt in each trip. You can actually move a lot of dirt with the BX - provided you're not moving it very far. Pushing piles of dirt short distances - or dragging with a box blade - you could move that dirt , short distances - without learning to curse the BX. Start trucking it even a couple hundred feet - and you'll very quickly start wishing for some alternative method.

Well said. I just finish excavating for my new driveway extension. I moved quite a bit of soil out and to a low spot in the yard. The distance in between is about 100'. I would scoop a bucket full then drop the box blade and drag another buckets worth. I went down about 6" or so and the area was about 35'x55'. I never counted but I bet I was under 5 hrs on the excavation and moving. More time was spent removing 4 root balls with bh and regrading afterwards. My main tractor is only slightly larger then the op tractor. Doable but depending on budget and accessible cash, I thing you'd better off buying an older large farm tractor and scraper then resell after your done.