Backhoe Trenching with narrow excavator attachment

[Joey100]

I am very new to this line of work, but I am looking to help a friend with procuring a narrow attachment that would fit on a Mitsubishi ME15 excavator to dig 18 inch deep trenches as narrow as possible, just enough to lay pipes. His 12 inch wide bucket is overkill for the 1 inch pipes we are laying, and trenchers and special attachments cost more than we'd like to spend. For how long I have spent looking, I feel I am missing a key word in my searches, or no such attachments exist. A ripper blade would do what Id like, but finding one is difficult. I planned on only spending 200 dollars on a little hunk of steel but I need advice and direction. We will be dealing with thick, wet Texas clay by the way, the kind that gives a cheap trencher a hard time. Please pardon my lack of knowledge. Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

[pmsmechanic]

So for the price of buying a narrow bucket that's going to be a pain to get the wet dirt out of couldn't you just rent a trencher? I don't know how far you have to trench but a small trencher would do a better job.

My son worked for an outfit this summer that installed underground sprinkler lines by pulling the pipe through the ground with a homemade ripper attachment on a mini hoe. Maybe something like that would work for you. Just bolt or weld it onto the bucket and then remove it when you are done.

 

[oosik]

I have no experience with any type mechanical trencher. However - as pmsmechanic said - all you ever hear on the TBN threads. How difficult it is to get dirt out of a narrow bucket.

I've got a heavy duty 72" bucket on my FEL. I've had trouble getting damp dirt to fall out. It's a real PITA to have to remove dirt from the bucket with a hand shovel.

I think if you find a bucket narrower than 12" it will have operational limitations. Such as - dry sand only.

Likewise - I just don't think a single tooth ripper will do you much good in the soil type you have.

I can convert my single bottom moldboard plow to a single tooth ripper. With my Kubota M6040 it has difficulty maintaining a 10" penetration in my soil. It would never go 18" and maintain that depth.

I think your best bet is to rent a chain saw like mechanical trencher.

 

[Streetcar]

Pas oosik states small ripper will not go very deep. 12inch bucket is narrow as I have seen .

 

[oosik]

A private contractor was installing some type of underground cable - out along the county road. I know it wasn't fibre optic - that's overhead. With a JD 750?? type crawler dozer and a cable laying single tooth - he was having great difficulties. They finally went to a crawler dozer with a single tooth - leading the way, breaking ground. The cable laying dozer then had an easy time of following, in the pre-broken trench.

The initial problem didn't show until they had laid about 2000 feet. The operation was so difficult - it stretched the cable and changed the transmission characteristics. I bet there were some hopping mad supervisors. I saw this cable - with the amount of protective coatings - they should have just laid it on the ground. The cows wouldn't have bothered it.

Cable laying is almost beyond possible out here. They try to be so modern and bury everything. They end up, sometime, having to jackhammer thru solid basaltic lava to get a trench. This jackhammering technique can go for miles if they happen to be in the wrong area.

This area out here, where I'm at, isn't called the Basaltic Lava Scablands because its sand.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have an 8" bucket that the original owner of my TLB made from an 18". It is a real bear to get even slightly damp soil to dump from it.
I suggest that you just use the 12" bucket to dig the trench. I have put in 3/4" PVC lines with my 8" bucket and the trench is too narrow to walk in (which you occasionally have to do for various reasons).

The 12" wide trench will also allow you to run your tracks in the trench for a bit of compaction when backfilling. I put in about halve the dirt to fill the trench then walk it in using my tractor wheels, then finish filling the trench, walk it in making several passes then use the FEL to back grade it so it is smooth on the surface.

 

[Diggin It]

His 12 inch wide bucket is overkill for the 1 inch pipes we are laying,

I'm not sure it is. You'll need some room for the pipe to flex while getting it placed in the trench. I recently laid 2 3/4" conduits side by side in a 6" trench scraped out with a subsoiler/middlebuster and I wish it had been wider. Years back, I laid 1" black poly water pipe in a 12" trench and I remember being glad I had the room to flex the pipe.

 

[pmsmechanic]

BTW if you do get a small bucket one of the best ideas I've seen for getting wet dirt to fall out of the bucket is to attach a heavy chain inside the bucket. The chain helps to keep the dirt from sticking into the bucket and weight of the chain also helps the dirt to start falling out. The slapping of the chain as the bucket is moving helps to clean the bucket out. You want the chain loose enough in the bucket to flop around but not so loose that it's a pain to keep inside the bucket while you are digging.

 

[Stimw]

I made a 6" bucket for my backhoe attachment some years ago and it works great.
I had a Jinma Hoe and I just made a cardboard template of the side of the regular bucket then cut it out of 1/4" plate.
Assembled sides with 6" in between and made mounting brackets.
I have replaced 2 drain fields, countless wires and water lines and it works great for digging stumps.
I bought a new Hoe Attachment last year and sold the old one but kept the bucket.
Recently I had to cut off old mounting brackets and fab new ones to fit new hoe.

 

[aczlan]

I have no experience with any type mechanical trencher. However - as pmsmechanic said - all you ever hear on the TBN threads. How difficult it is to get dirt out of a narrow bucket.

I've got a heavy duty 72" bucket on my FEL. I've had trouble getting damp dirt to fall out. It's a real PITA to have to remove dirt from the bucket with a hand shovel.

I think if you find a bucket narrower than 12" it will have operational limitations. Such as - dry sand only.

One thing I would try if making a narrow bucket would be to make it with very short sides, almost like a banana shape. That will not work as well for loose stuff, but for a narrow trench you'll be less likely to get dirt stuck in it.

Likewise - I just don't think a single tooth ripper will do you much good in the soil type you have.

I can convert my single bottom moldboard plow to a single tooth ripper. With my Kubota M6040 it has difficulty maintaining a 10" penetration in my soil. It would never go 18" and maintain that depth.

Our l3830 does fairly well with a single tooth ripper as long as the ground is soft.

I think your best bet is to rent a chain saw like mechanical trencher.

If you do rent one, I would highly recommend getting one that attaches to a Toro Dingo or other small walk-behind skid steer. I have tried using the self-propelled wheeled ones, but they don't have enough weight to keep the chain down and digging in hard soil. The Toro Dingo I rented had enough weight to keep the chain down and dig a trench last January when we had to rerun power out to the barn.

Aaron Z