Ditching job

[Hay Dude]

3 days on a dozer is a pretty big deal. That’s at least a grand a day.

That JD 450 I rented 2 weeks ago was only $285/day.
No way we can use a dozer in the ditches, it would tear them up too much.

This task has to be done surgically and with care to the property.
Cant be a cowboy on a D-9 on this one.

Im only in bidding phase of it now and looking for suggestions. I appreciate everyone’s help so far. Well, almost everyone…. Lol

 

[dodge man]

In my experience a larger excavator will not tear the ground up any deeper, the tracks are wider so no more ground pressure. They are bigger so obviously the area will be bigger. I’ve seen the large off road dump trucks leave ruts that are 3 feet deep, so that’s a problem. Your tractor running over the ground over and over a few hundred times is also going to damage the ground.

I’d say get the equipment you think you need to complete the job and fix the damage to the ground afterwards. To big, to small? Like most things there is no right or wrong answer.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thinking about renting ground mats

 

[workinonit]

How are your grading skills with a hoe running a cleanout bucket. Are you planning on using a laser system? Grades are tough to get right from the side. Much easier if you can straddle.

 

[Hay Dude]

How are your grading skills with a hoe running a cleanout bucket. Are you planning on using a laser system? Grades are tough to get right from the side. Much easier if you can straddle.

Pretty good. I grew up on machinery. Presently I farm, do custom mowing and some land clearing & snow plowing. Seems like i spend half my life in an operators seat, but its always something different.
If I had to straddle, I’d be in the ditch. I cant find a mini with a wrist.
Spoke with customer later last night and we may be expanding into a crawler carrier for the ditch work and maybe shuttling some rocks out to their dam. They have a river dammed-up and a mill race that needs some attention, too.
Should be an interesting job, IF I get it.

 

[workinonit]

Yea, if you straddle you would need a large machine. I have a Kumatsu PC 220 LC. Something like that works well for the width your talking about.

 

[Hay Dude]

Man that would be a huge machine. Ditches are 15’ wide. Or maybe Im misunderstanding.

 

[workinonit]

What I saw in the pics, those look more like swales than ditches. My machine has a 12' span whic is obviously to narrow if you have to have 15' but the ground I see in the pics I could definartely straddle ditch with my machine. It might run down in the edges a bit but it would work. A winged bucket would be needed as well. But you said a heavy machine won't stand up so it's really not a discussion.

 

[LD1]

Agree.

2 miles, 15 feet wide, 3 feet deep in the center. I'll calculate that as having a constant slope that would yield an average of 18" depth. That is 8,800 cubic yards of material or 587 full to the top 15 yard dump truck loads. That would take a long time with a loader.

I may be bad off on what I am thinking in my head, without being able to see it though. Also, it's easy to play devil's advocate behind a computer screen . I'm not trying to pee in anyone's Cheerios.

Maybe I'm reading this all wrong. I'm thinking you are creating the ditches. If you are just cleaning them out, what I just did will not be even close to accurate, and you are probably on track with using an X but I would get a big one. It's still a lot of material.

I think the math is a little off, and certainly not reflective of the pictures.

I read it as a mile, give or take, of total ditch. He said double if you count both sides.

Maybe I am wrong.....But I took that to only mean a mile total. And with a small 3 ton machine with limited reach.....he was figuring on doing one side.....from bottom of ditch up to grade (half the 15' width of the ditch) then coming down the other side. So either 1 mile of 15' wide ditch.....or two miles of 1/2 a ditch width.

So that said.....ditch is like a triangle.....15' x 3'. and 5280' long. So Im only coming up with 4400yds of material.

BUT.......the ditches are already there. This isnt a new ditch cut into flat ground....rather its reshaping of existing ditches. So alot of the material is already moved. Without measuring it....Id venture a guess that half the material is already removed.

So I think that puts it ~2200 or so yards still needing moved. Still alot for sure.

And I agree that transporting material 1/2 mile is gonna be the slow down. Keep the mini moving....pile dirt.....the tractor is more than capable of loading a full scoop from piles and doesnt need to be spoon-fed by the mini operator.

I have no answers for moving the dirt faster given the conditions. Maybe get the ditches mucked out then wait on dry conditions to load and use dump trucks?

 

[Hay Dude]

Total ditch length approximately 1/2 mile.
Figured on working both sides, total of one mile, with small machine to minimize ground compaction