Need to dig a 5x5x6-foot hole - can I do it with the grapple bucket?

[MrJimi]

Mike, let me ask you this, how many of these holes do you have to dig? I read your post as it's only one hole. Is that right and how hard is your dirt up there? If it's not that bad I would suggest a round shovel and take your time and don't let the sides cave in on you.
I don't know how old you are or anything like that but sometimes a hand shovel rules, If it takes you 2 days you should still be fine.
How is a self supporting tower hold with such a small base without guy wires?
I put a 80 foot Rohn tower in a hole about 2 foot wide and 3 feet deep with guys at 20/40 and 60 feet and it did fine for over 12 years in Florida wind and I set anchors in the concrete and bolted the tower base to it.
Jim

 

[BobRip]

Could you make the hole only two feet deep and spread it out, keeping the same total concrete? Just a thought. The bucket might do OK with that. If you got the potato plow, you could break up the soil with that and then move the dirt with the bucket.

I once use the trencher to build a small pond about 20 X 20 X4 deep. It took about 2 days.

 

[MikeOConnor]

To WoodlandFarm's point -- if you have a choice in life between being really smart and being really lucky...

wait for it...

pick "lucky"

in my case, I'm just a regular geek who just happened to find this "Internet" thing REALLY interesting back in the early '90's. A buddy of mine and I built an ISP in my basement and started selling high-speed lines (ISDN back then) to our buddies. Who knew? We wound up selling in 1999, just before the crash. Who knew?

Back in the early '90's I was also entranced by domain names (thinking of them like the call letters I used to get for the community radio stations I built in the early '70's). So I got a gaggle of them (haven.com, bar.com, television.com, place.com, etc.) before the web was invented. Sold a few of them for a boatload of money in 1999. Who knew?

Anyway, the upshot of all that is that I'm trying to be retired out here, although my friends keep asking me to help out on projects as a freelance CxO, crisis-manager, project-manager type guy. I'm kinda like Meyer in the Travis McGee novels -- semi-retired.

To MrJimi and BobRip's questions -- I just threw those dimension numbers out there. I'm planning to follow the specs from the tower manufacturer, I just didn't have them at hand. I know there's gonna be around 6-8 yards of concrete in there at a minimum. You're right, a guyed mast would require a lot smaller pad at the base. I was lobbying Marcie for a guyed mast, but that pushed her too far (I am getting a little push back from the naturalist on the team) because of the possibility of bird kills. So self-supporting it is.

A hand shovel! What a concept! Not a bad idea. Certainly would be good exercise. And think of the bragging rights!

Regarding ham radio. It's true that Skype and the Internet have removed one reason to do that hobby (talking to people far away for "free"), but there are lots of other things going on in that community. I've always wanted to be a ham -- it fits my uber-geek mindset -- but I've never had time to learn Morse code. The FCC removed that requirement about a month ago and I joined right up -- passed all three exams in one go. The ham gang is my kinda gang, and I'm proud to be a newbie member.

 

[bbabineau]

Ok, this is the nuttiest project I've taken on here at the farm -- putting up a 100' radio tower for ham-radio and microwave data antennas.

I've got me a bead on a nifty 100' self-supporting tower that needs a pretty darn substantial base -- and I'm thinking about using the PT to dig the hole.

I don't know beans about dirt work. I use the grapple bucket to move stuff around rather than dig holes. Hence my question to y'all. If you were digging a 5x5 foot hole that's six feet deep, how would you approach it? My thought is to dig it "from one side", basically making a ramp down that side and digging out the hole using the ramp to get the PT down there.

Am I on a fool's errand here? or is there a better approach? or should I just go rent a backhoe and use the proper tool for the job...

To easily dig a hole like this the perfect solution is to rent a mini excavator. You can easily dig it in a half day and the rental should be no more than $150. I used one to dig bridge piers and it was so much easier than the mini hoe on my 1430.