Do it yourself?

[radioman]

Having a BH sitting around gives you a sense of security. Everytime something happens, you can now say NO PROBLEM, just hook up and go to work and GIT ER DONE! Having aBH on my BX24 was worth it. I have been using it for little things around the house instead of my back andd it sure is fun to use. As for you needing to get a trench done, you probably would break even if not aheada and then you will have a new toy to play with for other projects. You probably will have other new possiblities pop up with a new can do attitude. Get the BH , no question about it. it will make your 20k machine worth it.

 

[KeithInSpace]

...something happens, you can now say NO PROBLEM...it will make your 20k machine worth it.

I've told the story about the 220V line going from my house to the septic tank ejector pump...

CHRISTMAS EVE: Smelled something funky and finally tracked it down to the pretty green grass on the downhill side of my pump access riser. Turned out that my sprinkler contractor had severed the power and control wires 3 months prior and I had been spilling raw poopie in the side yard the entire time. Honestly, don't ask me how I didn't notice. I mow around there every time.

Anyway, it turned out that he had direct buried the wires under MAYBE 6 inches of dirt. And that is being kind.

I had my electrician (who was conveniently working on the basement wiring) do an emergency patch job and I set about trenching a wonderful conduit line to replace the direct-bury cable. It runs only about 50 feet. The trench took maybe an hour. Cleaning it up took 15 minutes. Laying the conduit and installing the wires took another 30 minutes. Rewiring it took another 30 minutes, and backfill/compaction took maybe 30 minutes.

If I didn't have my backhoe, I either would have re-buried new wires under the same 6" of cover, or I would have spent 10 hours digging that trench by hand. I would not have gone through the trouble of renting a unit...would have been too big to work in the confined space anyway. ONLY THE BX WOULD FIT.

My wife was quite impressed.

 

[LBrown59]

can do attitude.
*Get the BH , no question about it.
**it will make your 20k machine worth it.

*Yup.
**It will make a tractor out of your machine .

 

[spk64]

As a side note, if you do decide to use a trencher do not get a walk behind. They will beat you up and most walk behinds will not cut as deep as you are talking.

MarkV

Absolutely!
Prior to getting my BX24 I had ~200 feet of trench for a new electric service to my shop. Rented a walk behind and could barely scratch the hard dry ground. Immediatly returned it to the rental mart and they let me upgrade to a drive behind. Much quicker and still struggled with a few roots.

That being said if I had my BX then that would have been my tool of choice even though it would have been a bigger trench and a little more mess and time. I would not think twice about using the BH around the house now for trenching, or any other digging for that matter. Along with the countless other chores and projects that have been completed.

I now kick myself for not buying one 10-15 years earlier.

 

[PILOON]

Well I have laid a few water lines over the years.
Located north of Montreal, Que Can.
We tend to pump our water up from our lake and as such often we hit solid bedrock as shallow as 16" deep, so I needed to find solutions.
What has worked very well is - (trench as deep as possible, but often results in a mere 16 inch trench).
Add sand to a few inches over the pipe and then cover with 2 inches of high density foam about 16-24" wide with pipe centered underneith.
Fill with sand to create a slight mound.
If on a slope make barriers every so often to prevent erosion as water will want to wash down the fill.
Don't walk or compact the snow over the pipeway as for sure it will then freeze as snow will insulate.
Use well pipe 1/4" wall supply line as it is as tough as copper supply and much more affordable.(comes in 300 ft spools)
If really worried about freezing you can add an internal heated tracing wire that is self regulating and even lay the whole thing on the surface without any digging.
We have actually done that where there was simply no soil to bury a line! (true we wrapped the heated line in foam wrap to prevent heat loss and save on hydro costs)

The new heated tracing lines are self regulating thermoplastics with generally 3 or 6 watts per foot.
They only heat the footage that is about to freeze hence the operating costs are very low.

Many proven options as you can see.

Good luck, and sorry if I am defeating your backhoe purchase logic.

 

[LBrown59]

Absolutely!
Prior to getting my BX24 I had ~200 feet of trench for a new electric service to my shop. Rented a walk behind and could barely scratch the hard dry ground. Immediatly returned it to the rental mart and they let me upgrade to a drive behind. Much quicker and still struggled with a few roots.

That being said if I had my BX then that would have been my tool of choice even though it would have been a bigger trench and a little more mess and time. I would not think twice about using the BH around the house now for trenching, or any other digging for that matter. Along with the countless other chores and projects that have been completed.

I now kick myself for not buying one 10-15 years earlier.

I didn't want to kick myself so I bought a BX23 over the BX2230.

 

[dodge man]

You guys have convinced me, I just have to convince my better half.

 

[CurlyDave]

When laying this pipe another thing to consider is that water velocities of greater than 5 feet per second should be avoided, and 7 feet per second is an absolute upper limit. This is more for erosion control in PVC pipe than pressure loss.

I have found that this criteria usually produces a requirement for a larger pipe than a simple pressure drop calculation.


These guys: PVC Pipe Pressure Loss Calculator have a nice on-line calculator and mention the erosion issue.

 

[Botabill]

To trench 600 plus feet 4 feet with a backhoe on a BX will take a long time unless the digging is easy. Regardless... the job can be done more economically by renting a small excavator. Having said that... Iif you want a backhoe get it. You only live once.

 

[ray66v]

You guys have convinced me, I just have to convince my better half.

I was not able to convince my wife, until one day, when we spent 4.5 hours shoveling snow off the the driveway. We got buried, and she had to get to work. The whole time, I kept saying "You know, if we had a backhoe, this would be easy" At about the 3.5 hour point, she broke, and said: "WHY DON'T YOU JUST BUY THE *** THING!!!!", I really wanted to tell her that I already had, but I just said: ok.

Now, she thinks we don't need an airplane.