Subsoiler, middle-buster or ditch witch?

snmhanson · May 6, 2004

I am going to be needing to do some trenching pretty soon for about 2500 feet of sprinkler line. I am going to lay 1 1/4" schedule 40 pipe and I want it to be at least 12" down and preferably a little deeper than that. I am trying to remove any rocks I can find with my box blade but I'm sure I'll run into a few that I missed. Any ideas on how well a subsoiler would work for this? Would it move the dirt out of the ditch or just loosed it up in which case I would need to shovel it out? How wide of a trench would I end up with? If not a subsoiler, would a middle-buster work better? Or maybe a combination of the two? If neither of those would work well I will just rent a ditch witch but for what it would cost to rent for a day I could buy a subsoiler or middle-buster. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Matt

Glenn9643 · May 6, 2004

You're putting down 2500 ft of sprinkler line, so I'm guessing you're working within your "yard" area. I would rent a trencher because it makes a much neater ditch that won't be nearly as difficult to fill/level back out. The sub-soiler is designed to break the hard-pan 16-20" deep and not really open a trench. The middle-buster will throw a trench open but you'll have to clean it out with a shovel, and depending on the buster design and your tractor it may not be 12" deep. Generally a lot of clods and turf to try to level back out. I put in a 3/4" water line about 300' to my garden area a couple of weeks ago with a middle-buster and still have a ways to go to level it back out.

Slamfire · May 7, 2004

If you use the flexable plastic tubing that comes in rolls and put a pipe on the back of a sub soiler so the tubing is pulled through the pipe down to the bottom of the ditch as you move forward you won't have to clean out the ditch. You pay the tubing out in front of the tractor and guide it over the top of the rops, or figure out a way to pull it of a roll as you drive. You might need a different point on the subsoiler than the chisel tooth. I've seen this done but didn't get to examine the equipment.

_RaT_ · May 7, 2004

Rent a trencher! You mention 1 1/4" PVC sch 40. Do your homework on pipe sizing. RainBird has charts that show PSI drop for every 100' based on pipe size, sch or class and GPM. For my system with 3 or 4 - 18 GPM heads, 1 1/4" was not nearly big enough. I have my supply coming in from the source which is a 4" which is tied into a 18". My 2" is about 1600' long and by the time I feed the last valves running about 45 GPM, my pressure drops by about 30lbs. It all boils down to water velocity, the higher it is, the more damage it can do.

snmhanson · May 7, 2004

Thanks for the advice. It seems that renting a ditcher is going to be my best course. That sucks, I wanted an excuse to buy another toy /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif, I mean tool /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif, for my tractor. Schedule 40 is a rigid pipe so I can't pull it through the subsoiler mechanism. Maybe I will still need a subsoiler to pull the underground fence for my dogs and other underground low voltage wires. As far as pipe size goes I think I've got it right. I found a website that gives really detailed instructions on planning a sprinkler system. ( http://www.irrigationtutorial.com if anyone's interested) My situatio calls for ten 1.6 GPM heads in each of the largest zones due to the number of zones I can have and the water output from our township hookup. I wish I could go with larger heads but I'm maxed out at eight zones as it is and I don't want to add more right now. I guess I'll just have to run each zone a little longer to accomodate the smaller water quantity. At least our water pressure is good at 90psi at the spigot. Thanks again for all of the help.

Matt

_RaT_ · May 7, 2004

Sounds like you got it understood then Matt, good job. Rat.

The trencher does a very clean job.

For connecting my heads, I like to use what is called flexible PVC. It comes in 3' lengths in 1/2", 3/4", or 1" sizes. Slips right into existing PVC fittings, just prime and glue. It's black in color, very tough and very flexible. I once used swing joints or flexible poly with barbed fittings, now it's all flexible
PVC. Typically available at spinkler supply type places, not Home Depot, Lowes etc.