Backhoe Doing some trenching with my new CUT Backhoe, any advice?

[levi333]

Planning on doing about 40ft of trench this weekend, about 18" deep for a propane line to a new 250gal tank that I will be having installed.
It appears code only requires 12"(Will be confirming this) but I plan on 18-24" deep and some sch40 PVC (2"?) as about half of it will go under my gravel driveway.
Will be burying with a tracer wire as well.

Just looking for any tips or tricks to do the job with minimal mess. I plan to pull back the gravel with the front loader in about a 6ft wide area across the driveway so i have a place to set the dirt and can hopefully re-use the gravel. My plan is also to bury the PVC under just the 20ft of driveway portion and keep the ends of the trench open to allow the inspector to see the depth before filling in the rest. Hoping this will suffice, i'm going to call the county today to see if they can confirm this will be ok, otherwise my driveway will be torn up for several days.

This will be my first time trenching, got a 9" bucket for my backhoe for these types of jobs. I realize a trencher would be quicker/easier but i'm (mostly) looking forward to the experience.
My only worry is CLAY. We do have it and I know it's a huge pain when it's sticky just getting it off a shovel.

 

[DJ54]

Basically, shave an in or two over the length of the stroke of the stick, and don't cram the material in the bucket. You should be able to fill the bucket in that length of stroke. If you cram that sticky clay in the bucket, you'll spend half your time, hammering the bucket to get it out. I have seen some of the old timers weld one, or two pieces of chain in the bucket, that somewhat prevents clay from sticking.

Shaving it. will, or should make the material into a somewhat like a crumbled material, and will make it a lot easier when filling the trench back in also. It may seem like you may not be accomplishing much not getting the bucket filled to max.capacity, but, just think of how slow it would be, if you were doing it using a #2 Razorback (Shovel).

If this is your first time trenching, I'd say you should be concentrating more on the motion of the hoe. Doing 2-3 functions smoothly at once during your dig/dump cycles. Doing 2-3 functions at once smooths out the operation, and will make you more proficient, and speed up the work. It comes with seat time... If you do it enough, at some point, it becomes second nature, and will become an extension of your arm, and hand. If you see something you want to pick up, whether a crumb of dirt, a rock that tumbles out of a bank, or even a horseshoe found while digging, you'll just reach out, and pick it up.

I did pick up a horse shoe years ago, when we were repairing a road slip. Apparently filled back in time, when they used horse's, and slip scrapers. On the previous bucket full, the shoe turned up on end, cross ways,where I was looking through the shoe. 2-3 guys (truck drivers) were standing on the bank beside me, watching me dig. They said to hold up, and they'd get it for me, because they knew I kept stuff like that I'd find. I motioned no, I'll get it. I swung back around, and in one fluid motion stuck one of the excavators teeth through the shoe, picked it up in one fluid motion, and laid it in front of them, and asked them to put it in my work truck. They just stood there and shook their heads. LOL..., that was pure luck I nailed it on the first try...

 

[kthompson]

You can oil the bucket and that will help. I have not welded pinned to my bucket using clevis and holes in the front of the bucket for side extensions. You can hook the chain around the teeth if need be. You want the chain to have enough slack to fall into the back of the bucket when digging but it pulls tight to eject the clay when the bucket is dumped. As said do not pack the clay in the be happy to have some and easy to dump rather than a bucket full you can not get out.

As DJ54 said...practice practice and yes practice. You might be well served to run your tractor at about 50% throttle for that will help in getting use to it and not so jerky motions. Honestly with my excavator often don't run it full throttle for often it is not needed.

 

[3Lfarms]

Yep. 50% throttle and practice keeping the teeth pointed into the dirt and making smooth fluid movements. Sounds obvious, but is trickier than you think.
You probably won’t even be very proficient at the end of a 40’ trench.
I found that after about 10 solid hours of digging, I could run my tractor at near full throttle and dig much faster while still making fluid 3 and 4 way movements.

 

[Jstpssng]

It will help to learn how far you can reach, to minimize the number of times that you move the tractor. On mine if I go forward just far enough to put the rear tires where the fronts were on the last dig, it's just about right. That will vary depending on the draw length of your BH.

 

[LRover]

I dug a power-line trench a little while ago and put a piece of tape on my backhoe lower arm to use a depth gauge while I was trenching. Helped me keep an even depth and might work for you. My backhoe has a sub-frame so I was able to move the tractor with the hoe which saves a lot of getting on and off the machine. The ground was not real hard and was level so I just used the front bucket to hold the tractor in place with the brake off. When I needed to move, I raised the outriggers, reached around and raised the bucket and pushed the tractor with the hoe a few feet then locked it back down with the bucket. Good luck with your project.