The hydrolic mining works a lot better if you use a pressure washer in stead of a garden hose. You will need to work from the down hill side so the water will flow away. Works great for sidewalks, dont see why it could not also work on the rail roadtracks.
Water Line to new Pasture fields
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chim
Elite Member
We have used various methods of trenching to bury electrical and water / waste lines at work. It's hard to beat a good backhoe operator. The trenchers we have used the most were large (don't remember model numbers, the best one was made by Case) and the operator rode them. The soil (rock) conditions were the main factor in the amount of digging possible. We ranged from giving up and digging nothing, to a little over 600' in a day. All of our trenches need to be backfilled and tamped well in lifts of a foot or so. The only effective tamper I have used for a trench made by a Ditchwitch is the air-operated one that looks like a pogo stick. The Case trencher we used had a HST, trencher of around 6' in length and a dozer blade for backfill.
We have more luck with a good excavation contractor. There's a small outfit - 2 brothers - that own a couple hoes, dumps and a tracked loader. On one project several years ago, one of the brothers was given the green light to open up a trench for site lighting. He had been dealing with being real careful of existing utilities at a state hospital campus, and here was an area we were guaranteed that we were the first underground installation. Harry started baling dirt, and had 1,200 ' of trench opened by 1:00 in the afternoon. This was in a valley where topsoil was deep, and this trench was for site lighting, so it was less than 2' wide and around 3' deep.
When I built my house, I was able to connect to a town water line on the far side of the road. I borrowed the "torpedo" from our underground crew at work. It is a steel projectile of about 5" diameter, maybe 4 feet long, and gets connected to a large air compressor via a steel cable-reinforced hose. It works its way through the ground by hammering one direction. After the device gets to its destination, or gets stuck, twisting the air hose reverses valving inside the unit to make it hammer in the opposite direction.
For piping, something like Golden Jet or other quality polypropylene pipe should be fine. That's the stuff used for a lot of deep wells around here, and is pretty tough. As the other guy said, the joints are the weak link. One word of caution. Don't make connections on black polypro pipe that has been laying there in the sun heating up. Get it backfilled and do the connections last. Especially with the distances you are talking about, the pipe will be a lot shorter when it cools off................chim from PA
We have more luck with a good excavation contractor. There's a small outfit - 2 brothers - that own a couple hoes, dumps and a tracked loader. On one project several years ago, one of the brothers was given the green light to open up a trench for site lighting. He had been dealing with being real careful of existing utilities at a state hospital campus, and here was an area we were guaranteed that we were the first underground installation. Harry started baling dirt, and had 1,200 ' of trench opened by 1:00 in the afternoon. This was in a valley where topsoil was deep, and this trench was for site lighting, so it was less than 2' wide and around 3' deep.
When I built my house, I was able to connect to a town water line on the far side of the road. I borrowed the "torpedo" from our underground crew at work. It is a steel projectile of about 5" diameter, maybe 4 feet long, and gets connected to a large air compressor via a steel cable-reinforced hose. It works its way through the ground by hammering one direction. After the device gets to its destination, or gets stuck, twisting the air hose reverses valving inside the unit to make it hammer in the opposite direction.
For piping, something like Golden Jet or other quality polypropylene pipe should be fine. That's the stuff used for a lot of deep wells around here, and is pretty tough. As the other guy said, the joints are the weak link. One word of caution. Don't make connections on black polypro pipe that has been laying there in the sun heating up. Get it backfilled and do the connections last. Especially with the distances you are talking about, the pipe will be a lot shorter when it cools off................chim from PA
Two years ago I put an irrigation sytem in my yard in town. My buddy and I rented a Vermeer trencher that was hand operated. It did wear me out. Watchouts are to do this when it is dry. If you move mud, it is much harder to fill back in.
When we got to side walk, I used a sharpened piece of 2X2 and a sledge to drive it under the sidewalk. My buddy and I decided if we ever went into the business that we would make a similar device out of steel pipe. We didn't need to use water pressure at all to tunnel under the sidewalk.
The whole job came in 85% under what our lowest quote was. We saved $6000 doing it ourselves even including renting the machine.
Now I am planning to run a water line from a spring to a future homesite at the farm. It is probably a 700' run and includes tunneling under a dirt logging road. The biggest problem will be tree roots, but based on my previous experience with the trencher, this should be a small problem.
Redman
When we got to side walk, I used a sharpened piece of 2X2 and a sledge to drive it under the sidewalk. My buddy and I decided if we ever went into the business that we would make a similar device out of steel pipe. We didn't need to use water pressure at all to tunnel under the sidewalk.
The whole job came in 85% under what our lowest quote was. We saved $6000 doing it ourselves even including renting the machine.
Now I am planning to run a water line from a spring to a future homesite at the farm. It is probably a 700' run and includes tunneling under a dirt logging road. The biggest problem will be tree roots, but based on my previous experience with the trencher, this should be a small problem.
Redman
OP
barticus73
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Is there a very big difference in the black poly lines rated 100 psi and 160 psi. The 100 psi is a third the cost. I am running lines from my well pump out to some fiel hydrants soley for animal watering. Will be buried 3 feet deep. What should I get???
hayden
Veteran Member
Get the heavier pipe - no doubt about it. I've used both and would NEVER use the lighter stuff again. All the work and real cost is in digging the trench. The last thing you want is a leak or crushed pipe after you are done. I even had the lighter pipe buckle on me when trying to lay it straight in the ditch and it actually broke, requiring a trip to the hardware store to get a splice joint and clamps etc.
I'll never make that mistake again.
I'll never make that mistake again.
As far as tunneling under stuff, prior posts re. the larger (than your intended water pipe) schedule 80 PVC and a pressure washer work fairly fast. I gave up on a "steerable" Vermeer trencher - bear to trench straight on irregular ground, and slow, and susceptible to larger tree roots (keep a shovel and hatchet with you). So, being in the South and only needing 1-1.5 feet, I used a subsoiler on my tractor (about 4 inches wide, about 2 foot soil penetration on my unit), and when pulled behind a reasonable sized tractor will tear up most roots and allow are very straight trench. I widened the trench with a potato plow (only feasible once tough stuff zapped by subsoiler) - and voila, a trench about 1.5 feet deep, about 10 inches wide, straight as an arrow for 1000 yards, and in less than 1 hour of tractor time. The soil has to be relatively firm - sandy stuff would probably fall back into the trench. This, of course, was learned from others on this forum - I'd have never thought of it. I laid 20' lenghs of PVC, and wrapped all stuff coming to the surface with rubber foam insulation beginning at the junction with the water line 1.5 feet deep. Filling the trench, so it won't settle later is always a major pain, and takes loads of time (and dirt). Used FEL to push dirt back into the trench, then dumped fresh dirt every 50' or so along the trench, box bladed it flat over the trench, drove the tractor the length of the trench (with 1 set of wheels tamping down the dirt), repeated the dumping dirt and box blading 3 more times - by then driving the length of the trench with a tractor loaded with box blade and FEL had no effect on tamping dirt - we'll see if such holds up over time. Is there any plow type of attachment that will achieve the depths needed for you Northern folks?
P.S. - if you ever need to run electrical line alone, a subsoiler is the ticket - and some rig a hollow tube behind their subsoiler and are able to lay electrical line and flexible waterpipe simultaneously - I seen one such set-up, old and rusty, in a local farmer's yard, and he swears it worked over a distance of 1/2 mile to his cabin in the woods, but I've never seen such a set-up in action.
P.S. - if you ever need to run electrical line alone, a subsoiler is the ticket - and some rig a hollow tube behind their subsoiler and are able to lay electrical line and flexible waterpipe simultaneously - I seen one such set-up, old and rusty, in a local farmer's yard, and he swears it worked over a distance of 1/2 mile to his cabin in the woods, but I've never seen such a set-up in action.