I my BX too heavy?

[DGS]

I have just finished paying $700 to repair some broken tile in my septic bed
The fellow who did the repair said that my BX1830 may be too heavy to cut grass over my bed (clay tiles)
All I use is my 54'' mid mount mower with nothing else on the tractor.No FEL.back weight
Is he right?
The bed is over 50yrs old and I have been here the last 33 with no trouble
Tank gets pumped every 3yrs and although it is a bit small (400gal) the pump guy said it is good enough for 2 people
I had a Cub Cadet 1650 hydro with 60" belly mower before selling it to buy my BX and it was no lightweight garden tractor (mostly cast iron and steel)
Anyone's ideas will be gratefully appreciated
DGS

 

[timswi]

I find that one hard to believe..The BX has pretty good weight distribution. How deep was the pipe, that could be part of the problem.

I've run skid loaders and loaded pickups over mine with no issues at all.

 

[brin]

It could be that it just happened over time..the tiles got aged and weak and maybe you ran over them when the ground was soft from rain otherwise you have to ask...if not your tractor then what ? What caused it if not your tractor...I am very careful moving around our septic and lines to it..I try to just back the rear mounted finish mower over it from all sides instead of driving over it wirth the tractor and for sure never stop or go slow over the tank itself or the lines (tiles) feeding into it..

 

[radioman]

BX too heavy for septic?! I find that bunch of you know what. Not to sound dismissive but don't you think it was just the timing of it all ? like other poster- how deep were those old tiles ? what do you have there now after it was repaired ?

 

[powerstroke444e]

You should be able to drive anything over the them light trucks, backhoes and excavators as in our area they have to be 36" to keep from freezing. But I have seen some break that don't have anything driven over them.

 

[timswi]

My guess is that the clay pipe just failed and the plumber was looking for a reason. That stuff has a finite life span and is very brittle.

 

[Couple of Achers]

I have what is called an "at grade" system. The drain field pipes are roughly 12" deep. I was warned never to drive anything other than a lawn mower over the drain field area or it would be possible to crush the pipes. I guess in your case it would depend on how deep your pipes are, and then add to that the age of the clay tiles, I would say it may be possible the BX was a little too heavy.

 

[TripleR]

I agree with everyone else, I have driven, my BX, trucks and even my Case CX80 over my tank and leach field without problems. If it was installed properly, you should have no problems with a BX. When I had a new field installed at one of my houses, the installer used his backhoe to fill the lines in and drove over them repeatedly backfilling; no problems and it was even pretty muddy.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Drive over mine all the time with BX, B and did when I had the L. Don't believe BX had anything to do with it unless you've got really powdery dirt and the lines are almost on the surface which I would not expect in Canada. Clay tiles are very fragile especially over time and will fail because of ground freezing and thawing movement.

 

[bp fick]

Drive over mine all the time with BX, B and did when I had the L. Don't believe BX had anything to do with it unless you've got really powdery dirt and the lines are almost on the surface which I would not expect in Canada. Clay tiles are very fragile especially over time and will fail because of ground freezing and thawing movement.

Agreed. Clay tile are an organic material and this quite likely just natural decay. Our first house was built in the 1930's and had clay tile for perimeter french drain around the foundation. Had to excavate and replace with plastic perf.