How deep can I plow a ditch.

[Pooh_Bear]

1949 8n tractor, 16inch bottom plow.

I want to lay some 4inch corrogated drain pipe.
I need to lay about 400 ft of this stuff.
Can I plow a deep furrow to put the pipe in and then cover it over.
Can I get it deep enough to mow over it with the tractor.

Have no idea what it would cost to have this done or rent a ditch witch.

Whatchya'll think about it.

Pooh Bear

 

[beenthere]

You might get a 6" furrow with the one bottom plow, but with some adjusting, maybe a bit deeper. Likely that 6" depth will have to be on the second pass, where the right wheel is dropped in the furrow left from the first pass. If the plowing is easy, maybe more but 6" might be okay to cover the 4" pipe. Depends on how you think 2" of dirt on top will work.

 

[Cabinholler]

Pooh Bear

My dad had a John Deere 16 inch plow on a 600 Ford tractor that he could plow 12 inches deep with this plow in fescue sod on our farm. If your ground is hard, you might not be able to plow that deep on the first round, but you can make more than one round to get the ditch deeper.

Cabinholler

 

[cwarrix]

Hey Pooh Bear, here in Central Ohio I rented a ditch witch a few weeks ago. It was about $80 for 4 hours or $120 for 24 hours. I only had about 150 feet to do, so I got it for 4 hours. The one I rented was a three wheeled setup that you walk behind. It worked pretty good for about half of what I needed done, but it started to rain and it got too muddy towards the end. About 30 feet or so from the finish line, I got it stuck in the mud (actually muck) and tried to pull it out with my Cub Cadet. Then got the Cub stuck too, and had to pull them both out with my 4WD truck. Ever seen a brown Cub Cadet? I should have taken pictures, but I was too mad at the time.

The one I rented will dig up to 24 inches deep, maybe a tad more. But if it's muddy, I'll warn ya, it just stirs that stuff up like mama's mixer and makes a nice thick mucky milk shake /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif In case you're interested, the 4WD Silverado dug a nice 6 inch trench... actually two of them /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif So that's yet another option if you only need to go 6 inches or so /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif And in 2WD, it may have went a little deeper yet!

 

[Pooh_Bear]

LOL, been stuck like that a few times myself.

I have very easy to plow soil.
I imagine I could plow 10 inches deep no problem.
When I plowed the garden I was getting 6-8 inches easy.
Two are 3 passes in the same furrow would put me pretty deep.

It is a two bottom plow. I took one of the bottoms off it to plow with.
I would use the plow in the middle of the tractor for ditching.
For plowing I use the one near the rear tire.

I'll try to get pictures when I do this.

Thanks.

Pooh Bear

 

[KiotiJohn]

I'm not sure just how deep you'd have to go to have the soil protect the pipe from tractor mowing, but I'd certainly think there would have to be at least 12" of dirt on top of the pipe. The dirt will settle around the pipe and give it supporting pressure to keep it from collapsing. After you backfill, you may want to wet it down good to assure that the pipe is really surrounded well by the soil.
Maybe someone else can say just how deep it needs to go for the best protection.
John

 

[Shadow_River]

If it were me I would rent the Ditch Witch. That way you can easily get deep enough to lay the 4 inch pipe and cover it with with 8 or 10 or whatever inches of soil. I have a backhoe on my tractor and I would still rather use the Ditch Witch because of the speed and smaller width trench line. Get one that will cut a 4 inch trench probably the ride on type. The Ditch witch will make short work of your task. Plowing with a single plow or small pull type ditcher just don't work that great, especially if you want to get deep enough to get the pipe really buried well. Just my two cents worth. Anyways, Best of Luck.

azzxx

 

[Egon]

Ditch Witch for sure.

Egon

 

[Moon]

No doubt a ditch witch is the best tool for the job. But ....I used a middle buster (aka potato plow) to bury 4" drain pipe and it worked fine. It will dig down about 12 inches after a few passes. If you don't already have one, you can buy a middle buster for the price of renting a ditch witch ..about 80 bucks.

Moon of Ohio

 

[cwarrix]

Another point about the ditch witch is that it breaks the dirt up really nice, which means easier to fill back in. In my case, before it started to rain, it was almost powder like. I could easily push it around with my foot, no big clumps. I've never used a plow before, but I envision it as pulling up big clumps of sod and dirt, but not really sure.

I let mine sit too long before I filled it back in so a lot of it got hard and clumped up. I was able to straddle the ditch with my tractor and tiller and just one quick pass broke it all back up again. A few more passes with a box blade and the ditch is gone. Now it's safe to walk through the back yard at night again! Don't ask /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif