Ditching job

[ovrszd]

One problem with something larger is going to be getting the side slope of the ditches. Say you go in with a scraper that is 6 feet wide. You end up with a ditch bottom that is 6‘ wide where maybe you only want it 2’ wide. This is one reason a smaller excavator would be better.

Takes a little practice to create a bowled or Veed ditch but it's very doable. My scraper is 7ft wide. I'd start with my right tires in the ditch. This puts the scraper cutting edge on the ditch slope. I'd probably clean both sides as I go. So 2nd pass would put my left tires in the ditch.

 

[dodge man]

Yes, if you can get the tilt going, it will work,

 

[ovrszd]

Yes, if you can get the tilt going, it will work,

To steepen the slope you put the downhill tires in the last cut each time. Friend of mine pulls a 15yd scraper with various large AG tractors. He's a master and can create or flatten almost any slope. My old scraper has a slight advantage since the cutting edge is bent and the left side cuts about half an inch below the right side.

 

[bowenskye]

I'd be looking at a 20+ ton machine for a job like that.

 

[crbearden]

Old contrctor friend ( who is no longer with us) had some Cat Challenger rubber track tractors that pulled 14yd elevating scrapers. Very little compaction and could work in soft fields...

 

[Fixastuff]

Even though my main work isn't "Pipe excavating" this book really helped me with pricing jobs. Know your buckets capacity, your machines cycle time to scoop dump and reset, then calculate the amount the amount of dirt that needs to be moved and divide it by your bucket capacity then multiple that with your cycle time. Gives you an idea of work time that isn't just a guess. It even has different percentages to factor in since you can never dig at 100% speed all the time, something is going to slow you down from time to time.

 

[OzarkChris]

I know this isn't really what you were looking for, and I'm not aware of a 15' version - I have seen doubles though, but thinking about what you are doing, wouldn't something like this work? The rice farmers 'round here use them all the time to ditch the water where it needs to be.

Maybe I'm thinking too far outside the box.

 

[workinonit]

I have 2 of those. They are trenchers, not ditchers. Used around here to get water off of crops. The Sidewinder version is really nice because the blade runs in the right tire track.

 

[daveinlittlerock]

I hope, for your sake, by ‘ you mean inches, not feet. That’s a big job, for a full-sized excavator, with a 2 cubic yard bucket. Roughly 1/4 million cubic yards, just on the main ditch.

 

[BigJack601]

Whatever price you estimate, double it.