Minimum width culvert pipe for a small stream crossing

[new jersey mike]

Thank you everyone for you input. Jinman I look forward to your pics. MossRoad I did not even think of the area loss due to slope.

I have a lot of soil and heavy rock available to me and I plan on setting it up so with the top acting like a wash for next months 100 year storm.

If anyone else has input please feel free to post.

 

[moeh1]

If you are buying 20 footers, the come with a regular end and a bell end. You can pick the width you what, cut one out and piece the second one together, still leaving you a long piece leftover for another spot ( or use the two ends somewhere else if you dont want a joint here. We had a 10' culvert across a straight shot and it was still a pain, we have a 20 footer there now. I think your 13 or 14 foot with rock ends is a reasonable plan. That would still leave you a 12 or 14' piece for somewhere else.

 

[jinman]

Here are the photos I took this morning. This is 2x20'x12" culverts. Please excuse all the grass and weeds. I'm letting them grow because of the wildflowers. . . That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[new jersey mike]

Hello everyone who responded, I decided to go with your suggestions of wider is better. The pipe had to be installed on a slight angle to the crossing so that needed to be considered, then any extra pieced together would have been too small for additional projects.

This was the first time using the tooth bar I purchased 2 years ago and I am glad I did the soil is very rocky and some of the previous owners in an earlier century piled up rocks as they plowed and created fields and I would never would have been able to get under and scoop with just the straight edge.

My T1530 and 250 loader have their limitations and that was a learning curve.

Could you tell me I know the PTO is best run at 540 aprox 2400rpm's but when I was using the loader I ran it at 2000rpm was that sufficient or should I have run it faster for more power?

I still have more work to do to finish making the pass wider due to lack of time and available rock and soil but I am able to ride over it now so that's a good start.

 

[bcp]

In my experience it seems that above idle, engine speed has little to do with hydraulic power, just speed of action. I've never been able to lift something I couldn't, just by raising RPM's.

Bruce

 

[Egon]

How long?

Decide how wide the road, set the side slope and take into consideration the amount of fill required over the culvert and you have an answere.

 

[k0ua]

Jim your pictures made your argument for the wider culvert very impressive. I guess the backslope just eats up more than you would first think. The case of the incredible shrinking culvert!

James K0UA

 

[jinman]

I think you made the right decision, Mike. You probably saved yourself doing the job twice and a lot of cutting of culverts. I have one place in a pond dam where I connected two 16"x20' culverts for a total width of 40'. I thought it would be huge, but it turned out perfect for the job. A good culvert like you are doing will handle water flow and not silt in. They are far more hassle-free than the shorter ones.

James, thanks for the compliment. My culverts have to work because my soil erodes so easily.

 

[new jersey mike]

How long?

Decide how wide the road, set the side slope and take into consideration the amount of fill required over the culvert and you have an answere.

Oh, I used 2-18" x 20' side by side it is currently 10' wide I will continue the job mid October.

 

[MossRoad]

....
Could you tell me I know the PTO is best run at 540 aprox 2400rpm's but when I was using the loader I ran it at 2000rpm was that sufficient or should I have run it faster for more power?

...

What does your operator's manual tell you?
On my old IH2500b (50pto hp hydro tractor loader) the manual specifically states to run the tractor at the PTO rpm for maximum performance AND safety. That RPM supplies the most power to the hydraulics and the transmission. It also assists with braking. For that matter, it had a foot accellerator pedal to go even more RPM if the tractor started to bog under load at the PTO rpm.