Ideas for moving lots of dirt

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I'm working on building a pond and I was not forward thinking enough to seperate the shale for a project later. I have a 20 ton track hoe now and will be getting a 10 ton dozer again this weekend. The plan is to save the shale and smooth out the rest of the dirt.

Do I keep shoveling it in front of me like I'm doing, or do I wait on the dozer so i can push it together? There are maybe 60 loads of shale and half again that much dirt to spread.

 

[ovrszd]

Each tool has a job it does best. If you are getting a dozer, I'd wait to move that material with it. But then, I'm not quite sure what the goal is here? Great pics.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

The goal for the shale is just to get the shale all together and out of the way so I can spread the good dirt out. Shale will be used later to build a driveway base and as fill for my new house pad. I will be doing block and fill for my house.

I'm using the good dirt right now to build up the lower area in the back of the property. Just knocking the piles down and smoothing it out. It just seems to be a good place to go with the dirt from the pond instead of hauling it off. I just don't want to spread it around the shale so it won't drain right when the shale is gone.

 

[Fixastuff]

I've found when moving piles with an excavator it's much faster to keep moving the machine backwards and "sweep" with pile along behind you with the bucket than it is to scoop/rotate/dump repeat. If you have a wide bucket or thumb to grab a beam it speeds things up even more.

 

[fatjay]

Since you don't need the breakout force of the hoe since it's loose material, maybe find/build a considerably larger bucket for it. All you need to do is basically be able to lift the dirt so you can get a pretty big bucket.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dozer is great for spreading material. Horrible at moving material. You need tires to move material. Depending on your budget, and what you already have, a dump truck or dump trailer or pull behind scraper. All have their pros and cons, but they also will move more dirt faster and cheaper then anything on tracks. I bought a used and abused 5 yard dump truck for my place that worked great, but it was always a battle to keep it running. Bigger would of been better, but I didn't want to spend the money, and I also had concerns about getting a ten wheel dump truck in and around where I need to put the dirt. Mine is a Ford F600 gas engine that cost $3,500 My neighbor just bought a dump trailer for his place that he pulls with his 80 hp tractor and loads with his backhoe. He has moved a lot of dirt with it, but it takes two tractors to be effective. I like my dump truck better then his dump trailer, but that's just me.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I'll try to get a drone photo of the area. It will make more sense if you can see the whole thing. I agree about the trucks but I don't have free access to one. I did hire trucks to get the material all moved from the pond as I was digging. All the piles I'm trying to consolidate are actually touching and in-line. But it's about a 200 foot long line 2 loads wide. Just trying to consolidate them all to a big pile at one end. I'll figure it out. I had an operator over the past couple weekends that told me "if you think about it too long you will never get done, just start working and it will come together."

This is just a 1 time project and I only have the trackhoe and dozer available to me right now. I would have to commit to 8 hours for a dump truck at over a dollar per min. I'm not planning on doing that.

 

[EddieWalker]

If you use a dozer, the most efficiant way to move dirt over any distance is to create a slot. Make your first push close to where you want the pile, then back up a little farther and push again, then back farther and push again. You want to create a long, straight path with walls on both sides so the dirt stays in the blade as you push. This will maximize how much dirt you move. When you get to the end of the pile, start pushing the sides in and down the slot from the farthest point. Then do it again, over and over again.

Caterpillar had a diagram on doing this, along with technical names for what you're doing. It made sense to me when I saw it and I used it when digging my dam. I was only pushing the dirt up from the bottom of the pond, up onto the dam, so it was never very far. Maybe 100 feet at most. But once I started doing it that way, I was a lot more efficient.

Dozer work means lots and lots of backing up!!!