The pic Egon posted w/ 4' wideflat bottom ditch is one of the most effective ditches one can do, flat bottom bieng key. I sometime side dig w/ FEL albiet only 5' at a time & then have to do both sides, so ditch lineal ' x 2. The quickest method I have for small 10" wide flat bottom ditchesis a Rankin ripper/ w/ a middle buster blade I attach after I run the ripper thru it a couple times. I have 1000's ' of drain ditches on 6 acres here all shot with buiders level useing stakes every 20'or so. Cool thing is once the middle buster is ran thru it ones you can very easily take a flat bottom shovel to clean it up, these small ditches work great albiet my main ditches are much bigger & I run alot of water out of here on 6 acres. If one were to break or tweek loader with the wiggle bucket w/ pressure technique I would then question the quality of loader & or cylinders. Then again I dig around LARGE stumps with my FEL on small 30hp CUT, just remeber to try not to slam front end down when it lifts off ground.I also have 120 lbs tooth bar, but all the above was done w/ no tooth bar. Rankin makes a great CUT ripper w/ a riiper shank & middles buster blade for around $300.00. I also install all my colverts with FEL, works so very good. Just go slow............
Joe