The gully to pond project

[ronjhall]

I don't know if I'll have it finished by the spring, but that first erosion swale should be filled by then. I figured you might want some stick time on the LB75.

You know me. Doing tractor work is fun work.

 

[EddieWalker]

... I also have a mountain of material that was dug out of my pond. I called it pond silt at the time, but it is quite water tight and I will cover the top layer of the dam with this. ...

From what I understand, by definition, clay soil is made up of silt.

I forget how big that dump trailer of yours is. Will you be loading it with the backhoe and hauling it with your other tractor?

Eddie

 

[jinman]

I forget how big that dump trailer of yours is. Will you be loading it with the backhoe and hauling it with your other tractor?

Eddie

Eddie, I will probably use the dump trailer to haul the silt across mostly level terrain, but currently I think I can work faster with the tractor's bucket since the place I'm moving dirt to is about 200 feet or less from where I'm getting it. Also, the TC45D with loader weighs about 5,000 lb. With the trailer loaded with over 4 yards, the TC spins all four wheels and can't pull it up hills like the severe inclines going into and out of the gullies. You just don't realize how steep an incline it is until you try to pull a 10k lb trailer up the slope. Since I can load 1-1/2 yards in the LB75's bucket, I can run it up the incline and dump it where I need the dirt as fast as using the dump trailer.

BTW: I'm a little down today because I went to put fuel into the LB75 and saw something dripping underneath. When I pulled the side panel to the engine, I saw the drip, drip, drip from the injector pump. In the few days I've had the tractor, the injector pump has started leaking. The dealership is coming to pick it up. To quote Wroughtn-Harv, "Darn! Double DARN!" I'm sure you know the feeling well. Sigh. . . .

 

[ArtMech]

Hi jinman,
You indeed have a conception how to work out Your task, but wouldn't You like to think about the hiring of the big caterpillar dozer and to do Your job much faster? I guess even after dozer''s work You'll have a lot to do with Your machines.

 

[EddieWalker]

Since I can load 1-1/2 yards in the LB75's bucket,(

That's impressive. Mine will only hold a yard. Heaped, I'm rated for 1.13 yards, but that's it. I thought you had to go up to the 100 plus HP backhoes like the JD 710 and the LB115 to get a yard and a half.

Eddie

 

[gotrocks]

Jim, I wish you well with this project. Just took a few minutes and made you a merge of the four pics you posted.
Did not get sky to match but was the best I could do on short notice.

Hope you don't mind.

 

[jinman]

The LB115 bucket is 1.15 cu meters = 1.96 cu yd. I'd say that's close enough to 2 cu yd that you could call it that.

You guys are really cuttin' me some slack. 1.15 cu meters = 1.5 cu yd. Nobody corrected me. You gotta keep an eye on me.

 

[jinman]

Did not get sky to match but was the best I could do on short notice.

Hope you don't mind.

Thanks Norris; I don't mind at all.:thumbsup: I was going to merge the photos but noticed the last one had white sky. I don't know why. It sure adds a lot to the picture to be merged like that.

 

[ronjhall]

Jim, I wish you well with this project. Just took a few minutes and made you a merge of the four pics you posted.
Did not get sky to match but was the best I could do on short notice.

Hope you don't mind.

View attachment 182330

The pictures do not show the true terrain of Jim's land. Some areas around his excavations cannot be crossed with his Mule. Would be very hard to walk. :confused2:

 

[jinman]

I had to send the tractor back to my dealers "clinic" for some healing by the service manager. The injector pump developed a leak at the outlet manifold (see attachment) and while it was in the shop, they found the tractor sometimes would not start due to the shuttle switch being worn. They fixed the injector pump and put in a new $270 shuttle switch for me at no cost as well as gave me a new $50 air filter. They are really "steppin' up" to their promise to make this tractor work ready. All of this was done at no cost to me because I didn't haggle on the asking price. My best deal was to have the assurance of a well-working used tractor. I'm glad I did it that way. I know they made some money, but I have a good tractor and the good will of my dealership anytime I need service. That cannot be a bad thing. I'm very pleased.:thumbsup:

Now, it's back to the gullies next week to move some dirt. More pictures will follow to document my progress.

 

[Thomas]

"More pictures will follow to document my progress."

Good to read your down time at end,and blue ox going to work you.

 

[hobie]

Thanks for posting this project. You have a nice looking place there, and it will look, and be even nicer as you complete each stage of your project. I know what you mean about your relationship with your dealer. I bought a ZTR mower from the closest dealer, because my brother wanted to use them, and thought giving them a lot of business would motivate them to do right by us. Big mistake. I am now using the next closest, and much happier with their service. Having people you can really count on is worth a lot! Keep the pics coming. Brian

 

[jinman]

I got back to digging on my pond basin yesterday. I'm into a layer of caliche that is tough going. It took me all afternoon to dig out about 50 yards of material. Where normally I can loosen dirt very rapidly with the hoe and then scoop it up with the loader for removal, yesterday it was a fight scraping through this tough caliche semi-hard layer. I found that rather than digging in a conventional way, if I could undercut a layer and lift upwards, I can peel off big chunks of caliche and then it just crumbles. Fun stuff! Here are some pictures.

 

[rd_macgregor]

I read about these great waterworks projects and wonder if you all live where the bureaucrats have been run out of town. Here, various government regulations make it nearly impossible (certainly unaffordable) to work in or with an existing watercourse.
Sure, I could dig a pond in the middle of a field, but I'd run into hassles if I tried to tap into a stream to fill it...OR let any overflow go back into a stream.

I wanted to dredge out a silted-in pond near our house and (among other things) the Govt. enviro folks wanted me to build a by-pass channel for the stream first...basically, pipe the water past the pond until I was done dredging...several hundred feet of 3' or 4' conduit is way too costly an undertaking for me.

Congratulations to those of you who face less onerous regulations (or less vigilant regulators?).

BOB

 

[ArtMech]

I got back to digging on my pond basin yesterday. I'm into a layer of caliche that is tough going. It took me all afternoon to dig out about 50 yards of material. Where normally I can loosen dirt very rapidly with the hoe and then scoop it up with the loader for removal, yesterday it was a fight scraping through this tough caliche semi-hard layer. I found that rather than digging in a conventional way, if I could undercut a layer and lift upwards, I can peel off big chunks of caliche and then it just crumbles. Fun stuff! Here are some pictures.

Aren't these pics taken from Apollo project? :confused2:

 

[EddieWalker]

What are you going to do with the cliche? Do you even need it for roads? I sure wish I had that here!!!!!!!!!

Eddie

 

[gotrocks]

Jim, here's another pano without white sky.
Keep on diggin!

 

[jinman]

Aren't these pics taken from Apollo project? :confused2:

:laughing::laughing::laughing: The way I was bouncing around, I felt like I was on a Moon Rover for sure. You are sure right that it looks like the lunar surface.

 

[jinman]

What are you going to do with the cliche? Do you even need it for roads? I sure wish I had that here!!!!!!!!!

Eddie

Eddie: This caliche is not hard enough to crush for gravel. It pulverizes into dust under pressure. I can run over a big "rock" with a tractor wheel and it just crumbles. When it is in a solid layer, it requires the rock teeth on the bucket to scrape off chunks, but once the chunks are unsupported, they pulverize under minimum pressure. It would make good filler for road base, but you'd want a good layer of crushed rock on top to mix with the caliche.

BTW: On a side note, does your 555 front axle pivot like to take grease? I have removed the zerks on my 4wd front axle carrier and pivot to clean out the hard grease and still can't get them to take grease. I guess I'll have to hit it with heat or buy one of those "rejuvenator" attachments. These are the only two zerks on my tractor that won't take grease. All the drive shaft u-joints are well greased and the loader and backhoe have fresh grease oozing out of every joint, but the darn front axle pivot is giving me heck.

Norris: You are working much too hard on this, but doing a beautiful job. Thanks! I have moved probably another 100 yards of material and will take some updated photos this weekend. I think the bottom of my ponds is going to be solid caliche rock. I sure hope it will hold water, but if it seeps out, that will be fine. These ponds are designed to catch and hold water so that my other ponds don't flood and overflow with big rains. If they slowly leak out and keep the other ponds full, I can live with that, but I suspect the hard caliche will end up giving me a very clear blue pond. We'll see.

 

[EddieWalker]

My front axle at the pivot takes grease real easy. Both the front and back fittings. The place that I struggle with grease is where the wheels turn on the axle. There are two fittings, one is easy, the other is always a battle. Of course, I'm 2wd, so it's probably totally different then what you have.

Eddie