How to get rid of ruts?

[Rowski]

I just completeed a portion of a large project of recovering/exposing rocks. These rocks were pushed into a wave line by a dozer many years ago. It was over grown with brush and small trees. I could not bring the one ton 4x4 dump truck to the project, it was way to wet. So I had to use the FEL and drive the roots, grass, stumps, etc. thru the wet spot. I wasn't bottomless mud nor was it soupy mud basically soft ground. The stretch is about 125ish feet long. I used the backhoe to smooth it out using the bucket bottom and using down pressure along with swinging the boom side to side. It seem to work very well but is time consuming. I tried the front bucket and backing with down pressure and in float position. I tried this with both the heel of the bucket and the toothbar. Didn't seem to do much. Seems like the more I worked it with the FEL the worse it got. Most likely because I was driving across it. I didn't have my rake nor my rear blade at the job to give it a try. I don't think they would work either.

Does anybody have any other ideas on how to get rid of those ruts? Is the backhoe the best way. This is a feild that gets rotary cut once a year, it is not a lawn.

Attached is a picture before it got all broken up. It is the begining of the ruts.

 

[Rowski]

Attached picture is the final smoothing of the ruts. This is just to top section.

 

[Thomas]

Maybe set of harrows or spring tooth rake might help.

 

[beenthere]

I would wait for the area to dry, and preferably wait until after the ground has frozen (helps if there is clay) like in the spring (but then it may be too wet). If neither of the above is possible, I would sow grass seed this fall, let the grass get established, and then use a heavy roller to smooth out the ruts. The freeze/thaw process will do a lot to even out the ruts over time. Sounds from your description that the area will likely stay wet all the time. If this is a problem that you want to overcome, then consider putting in some tile to drain the area. Just ideas for thought, as knowing exactly what to do is not possible without being there.

 

[Woody1]

take your rear blade and angle it. Get down to the level of the BOTOM of the ruts, scrape the excess off to the side. Is the only way to get rid of these nasty lil devils

 

[cj7]

I would try a rear blade like what was said or do you have any extra soil? Maybe just bring some in with the FEL and fill them in. It is hard to tell with out being there. But it is an idea. Or wait until it dries up and add the soil?

 

[Rowski]

Well... Mother Nature made me do it a little different. We were expecting rain the previous weekend so I decided to "ditch it" very lightly. It slopes gentle downhill so I figured that it would be able to drain a little better. I did not have my other implements with me at this job, I don't have a trailer. So I went to look at it after week after last weekends rain and it looks pretty well. Still very wet but a lot less standing water. I think that the drian tile from the house drains to this area and causes it to be even more wet. So this Friday we had the monson rain storm so I don't even dare to go near it. I think at this point I'll try to talk them into installing drain tile. If they don't I'll just use the rear blade and smoothen it as good as possible. I'm sure disc harrows will work very well to cut up the wet clumps of sod. The disc harrow is added to the ever growing implement wish list. Anyways...Thanks for the help.

Attached is a picture. You can see at the bottom of the picture is where it was smoothened out with the backhoe. In the center of the picture you can see the ditch.

 

[Rowski]

The attachment is looking up the gentle slope.

 

[Rowski]

Just one shot of the good veiw /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

 

[Kodiak]

What a beautiful house and excellent veiw. Do you think we could see some more shots of the house from different angles?