Digging a Pond with a BX

[radioman]

Well -- I am quite a bit late, but here I am. The BX can do it, but question is are you willing to take a beating is the question. The BX can dig 15 feet , but that is alot of driving down and back up and dumping. Do you have any other options? other tractors with helpers and dump trailers to use?

 

[paulharvey]

Not to discourage but if you ever see an actual 15 ft deep hole you realize just how deep that really is. We are talking about basically two stories deep/3 grown men standing on each others shoulders. Your soils very well might/probably will drastically change in that depth. Another issue, and I HATE to bring up the S word, but safety becomes a concern when going much past 8 ft deep.

I would really recommend start digging a 5-6 ft deep area and see if you are actually able to do that, I'm guessing you will change the size, depth, and more once you get a single width ramp down to 6 ft deep. And to try this your only out maybe $20 in diesel, and some grass seed if you decide to fill it back in.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Not to discourage but if you ever see an actual 15 ft deep hole you realize just how deep that really is. We are talking about basically two stories deep/3 grown men standing on each others shoulders. Your soils very well might/probably will drastically change in that depth. Another issue, and I HATE to bring up the S word, but safety becomes a concern when going much past 8 ft deep.

I would really recommend start digging a 5-6 ft deep area and see if you are actually able to do that, I'm guessing you will change the size, depth, and more once you get a single width ramp down to 6 ft deep. And to try this your only out maybe $20 in diesel, and some grass seed if you decide to fill it back in.

Yes. The OP is not only hugely force and capacity limited, but limited in the ability to deal with slopes. This latter essentially dictates a strategy of starting at full planned surface size and stepping gradually inward to establish slope as you go down - while smoothing the steps from below while still in reach. This way one always is working flat even tho carrying up a ramp -- Sneaking up on it by starting small and increasing to taste would always require pushing loads down to the bottom and carrying them out up the more gradual ramp.

Either is workable if water does not become a problem as you do it. And theres going to be so much time for it to become a problem.
Here is a similar/lesser magnitude project done by a 12K# TLB.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/135413-i-finally-started-my-pond.html