Thinking about building a drain field tile and gravel laying tool

[mx842]

Dang just my luck! We had been looking around for over a year for one to show up so we decided to just build one. All I had to go by was a old picture but I had a general idea of what it needed. It's hard to build something like this and have it work as it was designed to. Especially the running gear and getting that to put down the proper depth of gravel under and over the pipe. Hopefully the numbers I have in my head will do the job.

My understanding is that the guy that was building these things passed and his family wont give up the patent # so others can start to build them again.

This one on CL looks like a copy of the original and I can see by these pics that the one I'm working on is way over built. I already have more in materials, and I already had a {lot of stuff on hand} than the guy wants for this one.OH WELL....

 

[3Lfarms]

That thing you are building looks **** for stout.
I think I know what it does, but I am not sure. Can you explain how it works?

 

[mx842]

That thing you are building looks **** for stout.
I think I know what it does, but I am not sure. Can you explain how it works?

It's a simple device that you run the drain tile pipe through the black iron pipe at the bottom of the spreader and out into a already dug 10' section of ditch. Once the drain tile is in place you fill the spreader hopper full of gravel. at that point you already have 8' of the ditch complete. Then you dig another 8' to 10' section of ditch and once done you hook a bucket tooth into the pull chain hooked to the front of the box and drag the whole thing through the already dug ditch until you get up to where you left off, add more gravel if needed then dig the next 10' and so on, until that ditch is complete.

This one I'm building is set up for a 36" wide ditch but you could build it for any width you needed by changing how wide the main part of the unit opens up into the rear spreader chamber.

 

[davedj1]

So does it disperse gravel under the pipe as well as over the pipe? What about fabric? I don't see the benefit to this as to just digging the ditch and then putting the stone in then the pipe then more stone then the fabric (this is how we do it here)

ETA: maybe it's due to clay soil and the ditch will collapse?

 

[mx842]

Yes it put gravel under and over the tile. This one is set up to put down roughly 6" under the tile and around 4" over top of the tile. It can be built to any spec you need but the amount under the tile would be hard to adjust. But since most drain fields require 6" under the tile or will work properly at 6", most are set up this way. I'm pretty sure that you could make the amount of gravel over the pipe adjustable by adding an adjustment plate to the rear of the spreader box. I'm not sure about that but it's something I'm going to look at when I get to that part of the build. It looks to me that it could be adjusted to where it lays down where it just covers the tile or up to around 6" over it. Most systems will require at least 4" or up to 6" over the top of the tile.

As far as the paper or fabric that goes on top of the gravel if it is in roll form I'm thinking you could add some type of roller system to the rear also. Something like a paper towel holder but to a little larger scale. That's something I'm also going to work on as well. I'm also thinking about adding some sort of roller system to the front where you can load a whole roll of tile and feed it out off the roller rather than cutting it to the length of the ditch and having it lay off to the side of the ditch as you move along. I'll keep you updated on the progression as I go along. Right now I have to bring this project to a halt because we are going on a short vacation for a week. I was hopping to have it done before then but with all the other chores that have popped up it ain't going to happen.