Making a swale

[davkir]

I want to make a swale (shallow, wide ditch) to drain low spots in a pasture. It will be about 300 ft long and will only fall about 16". I will have to be able to mow over it What type of implement should I use and how do I get the correct shape? (I have a Box blade but I don't know how I would use it for this.)
Thanks

 

[KiotiJohn]

It would be a lot of work, but I think you could do it with the boxblade.

How I would do it:
Dig out the middle of your swale do the depth you want it, then angle the boxblade end with the R lift arm turnbuckle so that you can drag and cut down the sides at an angle.

You will have one side's tires in the first cut and dragging down the side going one way, turn around and drag/cut the other side. You can feather the sides so that you will be able to cut the growth in it without a lot of trouble.

I just recently did something similar albeit not nearly as long as you will go.

John

 

[Egon]

A rotatiller and then using the back blade to windrow and spread the material to either side would work.

Another method would be to expand a dead furrow using a plow.

With the attachments you have I'd use the bucket to make a wide trench and the box blade or rear blade to spead the excess material around.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[HomeBrew2]

I did the same thing recently. Though mine is more of a brow ditch than a swale as I didn't cut the other side before it started raining non-stop. Used box blade with gauge wheels to maintain nice smooth even cut for 200-300'. Box was tilted using side link and right gauge wheel was shimmed to support the tilt. (Drainage is coming from the left side only.)
Cheers!

 

[dmccarty]

davkir,

I almost built a swale with my boxblade. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Our house is sligtly downhill and with a heavy rain we would get some erosion. To fix this I angled the box blade as much as I could and made passes to cut a swale/ditch. This is near some trees so I could not rip the soil first with the box blad teeth and I could only do one side of the swale. But it works. It has stopped our erosion problem. I wish I had done it a year ago.

Our swale is a good 100 feet long.

If you don't have trees to worry about I would use the teeth on the box blade to loosen the soil from one to three widths of the box blade. Then chance the box blade to an angle and cut down one side and back up the other. This will give the same angle to the cut. Once its deep enough flatten out the blade and go down the center to connect the two edge cuts. That should make a good swale. If the edges are two sharp you can always flatten them with the box blade.

I hope that makes sense.

Later,
Dan

 

[RobJ]

In a case like this you might want to shoot an elevation to make sure you don't create another low spot. BTW best tool for this is a small dozer with a 6 way blade. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[chilibit]

That is less than 1/16 inch of fall per foot. I would find that accuracy with a box blade daunting. Actually, for me, that's impossible.

Vince