Backhoe Quick Backhoe Oper. Question

[CurlyDave]

The OP is in Ohio, and from this map http://www.soundfootings.com/pdf/US_Map_Frost_DepthAVG.pdf , the average frost line is certainly less than 30".

While the OP should check local codes, 48" of depth should be more than sufficient.

While flat-bottomed trenches are nice, they are really only necessary on drain lines. Water supply, gas and electric lines are not really effected by small variations in depth.

I totally agree with Eddie on going into the trench. Any trench over waist high can kill you if it collapses and pins even just your legs. Assemble whatever is going into the trench next to it and lower it in.

 

[MDM]

We took the bucket off and had just enough room to fit everything in the stock trailer. The whole purpose of this was to save my cousin some money. He is young with a new family and I had a machine to do the job, so renting was never considered. It ended up being about 100' or so. I've had the hoe for almost 2 years now and this was the biggest job I've tackled with it. It did a nice job in the heavy red clay. I made the trench about 40" deep as they still had some finish grading to do around the house in the spring. I was glad to help as this was the final project on his new house and it was done in time to get my cousin some of the tax break money for building a new house by years end. I had about 5 hrs experience on the hoe before this job, so I gained some confidence and learned a few things along the way. The BH75 really impressed everyone.

 

[BigD23]

We took the bucket off and had just enough room to fit everything in the stock trailer. The whole purpose of this was to save my cousin some money. He is young with a new family and I had a machine to do the job, so renting was never considered. It ended up being about 100' or so. I've had the hoe for almost 2 years now and this was the biggest job I've tackled with it. It did a nice job in the heavy red clay. I made the trench about 40" deep as they still had some finish grading to do around the house in the spring. I was glad to help as this was the final project on his new house and it was done in time to get my cousin some of the tax break money for building a new house by years end. I had about 5 hrs experience on the hoe before this job, so I gained some confidence and learned a few things along the way. The BH75 really impressed everyone.

Congrats on the finished job...Q, how far did you have to travel to get to the job?

Don

 

[MDM]

Congrats on the finished job...Q, how far did you have to travel to get to the job?

Don

Not sure exactly, 16-18 miles, about a 25 min drive given the snow on the roads.

 

[curtisfarmer]

Unfortantly going into the trench is unavoidable in most cases. Hooking up the backflow, slicing into existing lines, making the tap on a municipal water main, removing rocks, laying trace wires & safety tape, preparing a proper pipe bed with sand, hooking up to the house tap and so forth. Sounds good saying no one should go in but in most cases you have to. Where you guys live with the shallow depth requirement you can all probably lay down and do the work with you arms and hands in the trench, but not up here. Building Inspectors sometimes want to see the connections, backflows, and taps too. So many people have no idea how intrusive it is to dig a trench 4-5' deep.....huge piles of dirt everywhere and sometimes the soils angle of repose requires a trench which can be wider tha the machine!!! I have never used a ditch witch but as I had mentioned before I cannot see working with a skinny trench over 3' deep and doing the above mentioned tasks. I bought a 3pt post hole drill with many bits and up here it is completely useless cause of the rocks. Anyone want to buy?