Grading How do you dig a driveway drainage ditch next to an earthen bank?

[fried1765]

Stuff like this is why I got rid of the fairly useless tractor backhoe I had, and bought a small, well used, rubber track mini-excavator.

It will climb right down in that ditch, or set up in the road, swing sideways and use the offset swing of the boom to keep it fairly parallel to the road. 2 handles right in front of you allow it to move down the road as you work without jumping out of one seat, into another, move the tractor a little, then back into the backhoe seat.

I don't miss that backhoe unit at all.

Have to disagree with this.
I cannot imagine getting rid of my Kubota L48 TLB for a tracked excavator, that crawls at a snails pace.
The 11' dig Kubota backhoe is far from being "useless".
The L48 is a way more versatile machine than any mini excavator ever could be.
I would certainly trade my L48 for an L59,..... but never for a mini.
A mini is a one trick pony!
It can dig!

 

[4570Man]

Have to disagree with this.
I cannot imagine getting rid of my Kubota L48 TLB for a tracked excavator, that crawls at a snails pace.
The 11' dig Kubota backhoe is far from being "useless".
The L48 is a way more versatile machine than any mini excavator ever could be.
I would certainly trade my L48 for an L59,..... but never for a mini.
A mini is a one trick pony!
It can dig!

Minis are way overrated IMO. A real backhoe doesn’t get enough credit. Our TLBs are a lot different than a tractor backhoe though.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Every road is different and you have to make compromises sometimes. I put in a ditch similar to what you need. I used a offsetable blade and the tire was right in the ditch. A lot of water comes of the hay field on the high side where the ditch is. The road slopes down hill and lower down the ditch depth and width gets restricted because of some ledge. So I decided to minimize the water in the high side ditch to that coming off the field by grading the road with a flat pitch to the low side rather than a crown in this section. In my case I do not find that the flat pitch section needs any more maintenance than the crowned sections. In either case you have to keep the water from channeling down two wheel tracks. The water does have to travel further across on the flat pitch but unless the road is very steep it is not a problem. I also put in a broad based dip to insure to much water flow did not accumulate running across and down the road. The grading picture is several years after the ditch was cut.





gg

 

[nyone]

Have to disagree with this.
I cannot imagine getting rid of my Kubota L48 TLB for a tracked excavator, that crawls at a snails pace.
The 11' dig Kubota backhoe is far from being "useless".
The L48 is a way more versatile machine than any mini excavator ever could be.
I would certainly trade my L48 for an L59,..... but never for a mini.
A mini is a one trick pony!
It can dig!

They can be a one trick pony. Depends how you use them and what most of your needs are. I find moving logs easier with my mini than tractor with forks. I have also gone places no wheeled machine could. This year I built a rock solid driveway through a swamp. I was forced to use logs to even get the machine across. Having a 360* swing really helps when digging ditches in tight spots or else your moving the machine alot.

Second pic is the final product. A well packed crowned driveway with ditches on both sides and a culvert in one area. I pushed 80yrds of stone with just the blade that I had made side wings on. It acts like a box blade.

 

[4570Man]

A mini definitely had some advantages over a backhoe but they’re not the greatest thing ever like most people imply. They dig marginally better but suck at anything else. The backhoe makes up a lot of time while your driving at 2mph and screwing around with something the loader bucket is way better at.

 

[L47TLBwannabe]

Backhoe's have their place but this isn't one of them. At my work we do a lot of ditching for municipalities and a local conservation district as well for private concerns. We usually center the machine in the ditch itself as its much easier to pull your back slope and front slope and usually with our ditches you can't reach the back slope from the road. This also helps keep the continuity of the ditch and keep it straight. On a job like this a mini with a wrist bucket or tilt bucket is your best bet that way you can shape your back slope with the mini around any trees or other obstacles and make a flat bottom rather than a 'V' bottom which would help with erosion and make it easier to mow after the grass has a chance to grow back. But cutting back that back slope so you don't have a slope failure and so you can mow it will also look better in the end.

 

[4570Man]

A thumb is a nice luxury here in the states. There’s hardly any of the tilt/rotators. Excavators no doubt are better dedicated diggers.

 

[/pine]

Use your bucket at right. Angles to the road.

OR...use the back blade...

This works best with a hydraulic top & tilt...I have to maintain ditches I've dug where there is a steep bank (actually a mountain) adjacent to the side of the lane where runoff is pitched to...this technique allows me to clear/dig/scoop out etc. 6' of ditch at a time...

I position the tractor perpendicular to the lane and back the blade to the far side of the ditch...setting the blade with the top link fully retracted...lower the 3PH and while slowly pulling forward extend the top link...this creates a scooping action...as the near side of the ditch is reached start raising the 3ph to deposit the material on the inside shoulder of the ditch to be removed with the loader...
...re position the tractor and repeat...

 

[L47TLBwannabe]

I didn't say tilt-rotator. I said tilt bucket I'd love a tilt-rotator it would make life much easier and its much more versatile than a stick mounted thumb.

Hydraulic Tilt Ditch Cleaning Bucket - AMI Attachments

 

[Gordon Gould]

OR...use the back blade...

This works best with a hydraulic top & tilt...I have to maintain ditches I've dug where there is a steep bank (actually a mountain) adjacent to the side of the lane where runoff is pitched to...this technique allows me to clear/dig/scoop out etc. 6' of ditch at a time...

I position the tractor perpendicular to the lane and back the blade to the far side of the ditch...setting the blade with the top link fully retracted...lower the 3PH and while slowly pulling forward extend the top link...this creates a scooping action...as the near side of the ditch is reached start raising the 3ph to deposit the material on the inside shoulder of the ditch to be removed with the loader...
...re position the tractor and repeat...

That's probably the best way with a small blade and is the way I wanted to do mine. But the road wasn't wide enough. The front tires were down over the steep bank on the far side before I got started.

gg

 

[Diggin It]

Best thing I've seen for clearing ditches is a rotating grinder head (sort of like a stump grinder or flail mower) on the end of an Ex boom. Spins so that the expelled debris goes up onto the bank. No idea what it's called, how it works, what it costs, or if it's available to the public.

 

[nyone]

Backhoe's have their place but this isn't one of them. At my work we do a lot of ditching for municipalities and a local conservation district as well for private concerns. We usually center the machine in the ditch itself as its much easier to pull your back slope and front slope and usually with our ditches you can't reach the back slope from the road. This also helps keep the continuity of the ditch and keep it straight. On a job like this a mini with a wrist bucket or tilt bucket is your best bet that way you can shape your back slope with the mini around any trees or other obstacles and make a flat bottom rather than a 'V' bottom which would help with erosion and make it easier to mow after the grass has a chance to grow back. But cutting back that back slope so you don't have a slope failure and so you can mow it will also look better in the end.

I'm with you on cutting that bank way down. It looks like they removed less than the bare minimal amount of material to make that driveway.

 

[jgoodma1]

OR...use the back blade...

This works best with a hydraulic top & tilt...I have to maintain ditches I've dug where there is a steep bank (actually a mountain) adjacent to the side of the lane where runoff is pitched to...this technique allows me to clear/dig/scoop out etc. 6' of ditch at a time...

I position the tractor perpendicular to the lane and back the blade to the far side of the ditch...setting the blade with the top link fully retracted...lower the 3PH and while slowly pulling forward extend the top link...this creates a scooping action...as the near side of the ditch is reached start raising the 3ph to deposit the material on the inside shoulder of the ditch to be removed with the loader...
...re position the tractor and repeat...

Thanks for that suggestion. I don’t have a top n tilt but I’m going to give that a shot and see if I can control the up and down of the 3PH to maybe scoop out a ditch. My little JD 670 has a manual gear box and in 1st gear in low range I can poke along at about 1/20th of a mph with no slop in the drivetrain, so if I can dial in my up and down control of the 3PH, I might be able to pull it off.

 

[jgoodma1]

Backhoe's have their place but this isn't one of them. At my work we do a lot of ditching for municipalities and a local conservation district as well for private concerns. We usually center the machine in the ditch itself as its much easier to pull your back slope and front slope and usually with our ditches you can't reach the back slope from the road. This also helps keep the continuity of the ditch and keep it straight. On a job like this a mini with a wrist bucket or tilt bucket is your best bet that way you can shape your back slope with the mini around any trees or other obstacles and make a flat bottom rather than a 'V' bottom which would help with erosion and make it easier to mow after the grass has a chance to grow back. But cutting back that back slope so you don't have a slope failure and so you can mow it will also look better in the end.

That part of the drive is on the property line. The slope is my neighbor’s property, so I can’t dig that away unfortunately.

 

[Egon]

Try a Gradall, that should work.

 

[airbiscuit]

I have a 1/2 mile long driveway. I don't have ditches exactly, but a reasonable crown on all but about 40 yards. On the 40 yards, it is right next to my neighbor's yard, so that section slopes slightly across the roadbed to the down hill side. Other tnan that, the crown drains the water off to the side of the road and drains away at the bottom of small hills.

In a couple of cases there was no bottom of hill depression for the water to drain, so I dug out a "swale" that gave the water a place to drain and soak away. There was a longer hill where the water drained of the road well, but gained too much velocity running down the side of the road and caused erosion. I cut a swale on each side of the road about 1/3 of the way down the hill to give the water an off ramp so that it wouldn't continue to pick up speed.

The crown and the swales have worked very well.

 

[Imold]

This is what I would use next to a bank down to road to get a ditch in.

 

[eng23ine]

I use a box blade with the 3pt lift arms adjusted so its lower on one side.
It takes a few passes, but each pass gets you deeper as long as your wheels are in the ditch you're cutting.

 

[LouNY]

A back blade with offset tilt and angle,
swing the offset over to behind the wheel, run the tilt all the way to lower the corner behind the wheel and rotate the angle forward to bring the cutting point close to the tire, set the blade down to the depth you want or less if you do not have the power to pull it thru in one pass. If need be just take an inch or two each pass to you have achieved the depth you want.
This also brings the ditch cleanings out onto your roadway.
After the final depth has been achieved, lessen the angle and pull the loose dirt futher out into your road, leaving it in a windrow.
Finish up by scooping up and cleaning off your road.