Mini-hoe usefullness

[pajoube]

When curling the bucket towards me I use the reverse at the same time, This really works well and speeds up the digging process.
PJ

 

[Spiffy]

Sure sounds slick, now I see how you can really move some dirt with that thing! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[DHS]

Last fall I purchased a mini-hoe because. Well, it looked like everyone else was having fun with theirs. Last fall I trenched in a culvert and dug a nice mailbox post hole for my son. I need to think off a few projects this spring before my wife becomes suspicious. It is a remarkable attachment that does more than I thought it would. Did I mention it is just plain fun to use?

Dale

 

[ernemats]

Would you use the mini-hoe to dig a ditch several hundred feet long and about 2 foot deep in clay ground or would you hire someone with a regular backhoe to dig it. If you were to dig it yourself with the mini-hoe how long do you think it would take? This is one project I have in mind and there are a lot of other uses I can think of that the mini-hoe could be used for, I'm just not sure about it being practical for diging a ditch that long and how much stress the mini-hoe puts on the machine. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[DHS]

ernemats,

I would not hesitate to dig a 200 foot trench 2 feet deep with my mini-hoe in my soil. I don't have any clay but I would wait until the frost is out. I suspect very sticky clay may not easily dump from the bucket. Perhaps, someone with mini-hoe experience in clay can help.

Dale

 

[Piedmont3]

We have 6" of soil on top of 5 or 6 feet of red clay on top of about 10 feet of rock/shale. the mini hoe will dig the soil and clay out with a little time and work. Most of the work is getting the clay out of the bucket. I came up with a couple of helpful hints after the first time.
It will help if you wait until the moisture content of the clay is reasonably dry, and before you start, coat the inside of the bucket with wd-40 or wesson oil (from the kitchen, I ran out of wd-40, don't tell my wife)

 

[Phils]

I wouldn't hesitate in the least to dig a ditch that long. On my place with very little level and many large rocks/boulders hidden in the clay, I'd reserve a weekend but expect to be done in a day.

If the ditch was 6 feet deep I'd rethink the project so that I didn't have to dig that deep, as the PT wouldn't be able to do it. 4 feet deep would be the max I think and probably take 3 times as long as one 2' deep.

I've had no feeling that I was overstressing anything on the machine at any time I've used the mini-hoe. Of course, I've had no feeling of overstressing the machine with any implement. Anytime there's too much weight or resistance in the front, the rear rises into the air. That isn't even a problem as the pucker-factor lift is calculated and predictible. I've even demonstrated it for others, scooping up a large load of gravel with the FEL then 'turning' the PT to change the COG and making the rear float into the air.

My DW always doubles the time and money that I estimate for a project and more often than not she is closer to the actual time/money spent.

Phil

 

[weaver]

I tried to dig a trench for a well water line 4' deep by 35' long in connecticut with a pt 1430 mini hoe and in 3.5 hours i dug 15'. My brother keep yelling out the window" how long is this going to take" So I called my friend with a komatsu mini excavator and he came over and dug the rest in 45 min. and he cleaned out what I dug. Like Clint Eastwood would say " A man got to know his limitations"

 

[ElBubba]

I've dug a couple of trenches of up to 30 feet and can tell you its not quite as straightforward as you might hope.

First off, you'll probably tear up the ground for several feet on each side of the trench as you maneuver the PT to dump the dirt. This is especially true if you're going down several feet because the pile is going to have to be put several feet to the side.

Another issue is clay soil. I'm blessed with Virginia red and it will easily pack into the bucket. You have to be careful not to close up the bucket too much or you'll get a nice compressed slug to dig out. Basically you end up digging out less than a bucket at a time to avoid this (but keep a nice scraping stick handy).

Last of all, i always seem to need to dig the trench horizontally along a hill. When the slope gets about 10 degrees or better life can get exciting if you're not careful.

Conclusion: sure you can do it but its going to be a mess and take several days but thats what makes it fun.

 

[Beechwood]

Attached are a few pictures of a trenching project I did this past weekend to replace my rotten retaining wall. The excavation is 70' long x 4' deep x 6' wide. I used my minihoe with the 16" bucket to do about 85% of the digging. This was the first project I had to really use the minihoe and it did a great job,