Dozer Rental Question? Need to Cut V ditch.

[coastalguy]

C. Guy Before you diss the last contractor, lets see how you do with a level!

Good point! And yes there are plenty of great contractors out there, though where I live he is the only one.

I wasnt asking for perfection just the fact that I wanted the culvert inverts below the start of the swale which I dont believe is unreasonable.

More description.....

250 road, approx. 10 ft wide. I dont tie into a county road. I tie into a private ingress / egress easement, which means I own to the middle of another dirt road (in bad shape as well - another story) that runs in front of my house. Essentially all work will have to be completed on my dollar.

I know the bulldozer is risky but I would rather not maintain a ditch. That is why I was leaning towards a deep swale.

 

[Dirthog]

You are going to have to have a lazer or something first to see if you have enough fall to keep the water flowing toward one end of the road or other to keep 1/8 fall along the full length of the ditch you will need 31" of drop of course then 1/16 would be 16" you will have to be real good with a dozer to keep that grade the full length.

 

[coastalguy]

I have 2 feet of fall. The ditch or swale is really more to drop the water level by the road and improve the subsurface drainage, which hopefully will reduce the rutting.

 

[Dozernut]

coastalguy I misread your post about putting the spoils on your dirt road and not the public road, sorry! A motor grader would do the job in short order but you are going to have a hard time getting a contractor to do such a small job. A hoe is not the best piece of equipment for gentle slope ditching, it can be done but it requires some talent and time. A Grade-all would be better but not too many contractors have them, they are mostly owned by government agencies for ditching. If you do it yourself you will need a transit to put the correct slope on the ditch to keep it draining or it will simply be a shallow pond. A rental store should have them. $500 will buy an awfully nice back blade for your tractor if you have one and when done you can keep the blade.

 

[coastalguy]

I already have level. The only reason I was stuck on the dozer (80 HP) was that I could build up the road while creating drainge in one operation and it would look so much better than 2 long ditches that I would have to weed eat each summer. As far as my skill level, There would be basically 4 dozer paths the way I saw it (2 for each swale, 1 per side). It wasn't like I was trying to move 300 CY of material 500 ft, just cut and discharge to the side with the 6 way blade. The dozer rental is about $500 per day and the mini excavator is $250 per day.

Taking into account my skills and the cost, I guess I will go with the mini excavator, throw the excavated material onto the road and hope I can get it smooth.

Ah, my dreams of having the perfectly crowned driveway are out the door!! What could have been!

 

[LoneCowboy]

I know how you can do this, I've done it.
It's been bugging me all day

Get a skid steer.
Start in the road, turn 90 degrees, angle in, take out a scoop, put it away from you on the road and then move forward one skid length, do ti again
Repeat on other side
Then go in the lawn side and dig in from that side.

I've done exactly this in front of a house with a big ditch and it jsut collected crap so we turned it into a swale.
Skid steers are like $200 a day or so and it should take a day (maybe two, not sure of the length) and you can use the skid to level out your driveway.

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

Forget bucketing the dirt. My dealer rents ASV-100,(100H.P. tracked skid) Should be able to rent one in your area and renting it with a dozer blade should be right up your alley. Once your done digging you can smooth the driveway ar whatever else strikes your fancy. At my dealer there is a major price break for a week rental over a coulpe of days. Line your work up and you could have a skid for a week. I know it's not a dozer but I think a good compremise(spell) between a heavy dozer and a light tractor. I know from having a 100 myself they are extremely strong and I think you could pull this off. Robbie

 

[coastalguy]

Who's the winner?
1. Backhoe
2. Dozer
3. Compact Excavator
4. Skid steer

 

[BTDT]

Who's the winner?
1. Backhoe
2. Dozer
3. Compact Excavator
4. Skid steer

I won't know till you post and tell us what you did. Each has made good arguments.

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

Decisions Decisions

We have definitly run the gontlet(i can't spell)

Given you need to smooth and operate on an incline I think it's down to the dozer and skid. From there it's between your wallet, what you feel you could operate the most effecient, and time constrants.

So were back to who's the winner again????? Let us know the outcome!!!