Ditchbanks and Ponds need Mowed

[JimmyO]

WOW! I figured it would be a little pricey, but was not prepared for that price. Would be betteroff buying a backhoe and a hydraulic mower and figuring out how to connect the two. What I really need is to find a deal like you found. That I would jump on.

Fishman, that makes two of us. Paul could have at least warned us to sit down first. LOL

Jimmy

 

[PaulinSD]

Sorry guys to blast you out of the water like that!! In our commercial mowing business, I check out a lot of products and sift through the junk piles of equipment dealers. Every once in a while I'll find something to haul home and fix up. Now I'm out looking for a bigger version of the boom flail, I need to reach out about 18' and down 10' to mow railroad right of way ditches which some idiot filled with rip rap. I'll keep lookin' and siftin'!! I don't like new equipment prices either.

Paul

 

[PaulinSD]

While out surfing, I came across a dealer who has (2) 3 point hitch boom mounted flails, like my JD 90. Both are under $3000. Check out Wengers.com in the farm equipment section, mowers.

Paul

 

[Paul_in_CT]

Paul I dont understand why you dont like the rip rap in the ditches? Around here the state and many towns put rip rap in the roadside ditches

 

[HalseyGreen]

About those road side ditches, I weed-wacked mine for 2 years, then got the idea to rework them, Checked with the local VDOT (Virginia) and they said they did not care if I reshaped them as long as the water did not pool in the road and if it washed out my drive, that it was my problem. So I proceeded to fill them in and reshaped them so that I could mow them with the tractor. The edge of the road now slopes off about 5 feet to the new bottom about a foot lower than the road, and slopes equally up from the new bottom to drain the water off, reworked the culvert under my drive and did the same to the other side to let the water just run off into my woods, no ditch. Looks better than the old ditch, there is nothing to tear a car up if they run off the road, and I can get to anythere on my road right-of-way by just driving off the road where I want to be. Best of all, no more weed-wacking along the road. Caught a little flack from one of the inspector, but since the resident engineer had given me the Okay, not much he could do. Wasn't much he could do anyway, the guy just enjoys giving people a hard time.

 

[PaulinSD]

It's tough to mow the bottom of the ditches with rip-rap in them. Hard on mowers and blades. Some I mow as close as I can get, then weed wack the grass growing up out of the rip rap. Really labor and time intensive. A nice clean ditch is a breeze to mow.

Paul

 

[TresCrows]

The rip rap is unsigtly and makes mowing diffucult and dangerous to both tractor, operator and passersby. They put some in my ditch and so I covered it up. They did it while I was not home because they knew I would not like it. I filled over with gravel and then soil and it has a good stand of grass. I smoothed it out and contoured it so water runs nicely and it is attractive and easy to mow. The "township" man came out and asked who said I could do that and I told him no one. He said I could not do that to his ditch so I told him his ditch was in my yard and causing erosion and would likely result in a suit if I was injured in it left the way they did it. He became all puffed up and the veins stuck out in his neck and that is when I told him I think I would visit the next township meeting if he could not see fit to behave. He left, that was a year ago, I guess he decided he liked it afterall.
Yes, a smooth, clean ditch that is easy to maintain is the way to go. J

 

[Paul_in_CT]

Any of you guys have pics? I`m about to rework my ditches. I have to maintain a right of way that is entirely on my property. Annoying that I dont get much help from neighbors (thats another story)...I was considering making rip rap bowls at the end of the runs to trap any dirt before it runs into the lake. Then I figure I could dig out the bowls once a year or so. But I`m undecied on what to do with the road side ditches. I own about 10 feet on either side of the road. Most of the road is paved (Friends and I did that about 4-5 yrs ago). However on one side of the road for about 40-50 feet a hill banks up rather quickly and I dont think I would be able to taper the ditch out enough to mow. Any ideas are welcome . I have found that a combining many people`s ideas usually results in the best solution. If anyone has trouble understanding my run-on sentences let me know and i will try to make more sense /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif . I will find my pics and scan them or take some more

 

[mikim]

OK guys --- I'm stupid - what the heck is rip-rap? I'm assuming from the posts that it's like speed bumps in a ditch?? and what are they suppose to accomplish? Keep in mind that here in the gulf basin we have trouble getting enough slope on our sewers 'cause ya have to go 100 miles inland to get over 30' above sea level. --- sp we use lift stations a lot.
mike

 

[HalseyGreen]

From Luck Stone Web Site - "Rip rap is the largest size stone available. It provides superior erosion control and serves to control stream flow. This product is also used in retaining walls, for slopes, and in filling large areas, as well as in landscaping applications and for architectural stone" Around here they are usually in the 6x6x6 to 12x12x12 size and work great to slow the speed of water to lessen eroision. Your concept of speed bumps is great. Hope this helps.