Trenching a downspout drain

[bhh]

I wanted some advise on options for this. I'm getting ready to put down about 6" of fresh gravel on my driveway this spring and I wanted to dig 2 trenches about 30' long (each) and install 4" schedule 40 pipe in them to drain my downspouts under the driveway and out to daylight before I have the gravel delivered. I have a Kubota L3800 with a FEL, 66" bucket (no teeth), 48" grapple (big teeth) and a box blade. I think if I can get down through the soil about 10-12", that would leave 6-8" over the pipe and then another 6" of gravel over that. I could of course rent a trencher but that seems like a lot of hassle and big expense for 2 relatively short and shallow trenches. Once the soil thaws, I thought about scraping the existing gravel clear with my FEL or box blade and then making a couple of passes with one of the ripper teeth of my box blade lowered as an alternate to a pickaxe and then the loose dirt would hopefully shovel out pretty easy. I could also buy a subsoiler for about $150 but am hoping to do this with tools on-hand if possible. Any ideas?

 

[Ed of all trades]

I use a one shank sub-potato plow, and swap back and forth to get the ditch I need.

 

[rekees4300]

Any ideas?

Do you have a garden tiller? That would be enough to get down a foot. If not then just do it by hand with a ditching spade.

 

[RDrancher]

I dig them all the time with the FEL and flat cutting edge. The first cut takes the longest, especially if the clay we have around here is really dry. After that, just cut a half-a-bucket width at a time. If you have room, use one scarifier and rip it first to make it easier.

 

[avc8130]

Either buy a potato plow or rent a mini excavator.

ac

 

[6011Artist]

buy the potato plow, use it for the ditch for the pipe. Later you can use it to put down electric wires, water lines, subsoiler or actually plow up potatoes. More uses for a potato plow than plowin' taters.

 

[bhh]

I think I am going to give it a whirl with my FEL and if no luck with that, try the potato plow - also know as a middlebuster?
Thanks everyone for the input.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

How deep do the rippers on your box blade go? A single shank on the box blade is the functional equivalent of the potato plow. What will limit you is how deep it can go. I've buried downspout that way, as long as you have an unobstructed pass with the tractor it's not hard. Do one or two passes with the ripper to break up the ground, then clear it with a shovel. A hole 60' by 5" wide by 12" deep is slightly under a cubic yard. I figure with already broken soil shoveling a cubic yard an hour is a measured pace, it's about the pace of filling a 5 gallon bucket every 90 seconds. One key is not to move any more dirt than you have to, you want to use a straight-sided shovel so your hole has straight sides.

The nice thing is if you work neatly you don't really disturb the landscaping. I would think to dig a hole like that with a FEL you would have to make it quite wide and really make a mess of your yard.

 

[aczlan]

I would think to dig a hole like that with a FEL you would have to make it quite wide and really make a mess of your yard.

You would put the edge of the FEL parallel to the trench and dig straight down with it, works fairly well.

Aaron Z

 

[texasjohn]

This is what I would do. Scarifier tooth on box blade set as deep as possible, rip up the trench, remove dirt with FEL parallel to trench. If you need more digging power because of tough soil or to go deeper, get a tooth bar and have it for countless future projects. Finish with shovel as needed. A wife or buddy to help direct bucket placement will improve digging efficiency.

I dig them all the time with the FEL and flat cutting edge. The first cut takes the longest, especially if the clay we have around here is really dry. After that, just cut a half-a-bucket width at a time. If you have room, use one scarifier and rip it first to make it easier.

 

[6011Artist]

bbh, do you have a welder? Do you build any of your implements?

 

[bhh]

The BB scarifiers only go down 4" which will certainly help get things started but probably not enough to do the job completely. A subsoiler is very similar in design to a scarifier except that can run about 12"-14" deep i think whereas a potato plow/middlebuster only runs about 6-8" deep.

My BB is a 66" landpride with 5 scarifiers putting one in the middle. What would be great is if i could buy or have fabricated (i don't weld yet) a much longer scarifier that i could use on the BB. Maybe even with a detachable plow blade. That way i could use the weight of BB to help penetrate and could also shift it to one of the outer edges to run up the side of the driveway to create better drainage ditches.

 

[6011Artist]

bhh, when I need something I don't have, I can usually go to my steel rack and dream up something that will get the job done. Thats why I asked do you weld.

If you are going to spend money to do this I would suggest buying a reese tube type hitch. You can use it to move trailers, which we all have. Then you can build lots of devices to work out of that hitch.

I took the 4 scarifers out of my box blade and made a tube to mount them back into just like in the BB. I call it my root rake. It's only about 38" wide. I've used it to rip out small rotted stumps, subsoil, use two in the middle to pre-plow a trench (tear out the roots) and then run a middle buster with a shovel on it to plow out a ditch. Very little shovel work to be done that way except on the ends where I can't get real close to connection points. But I weld it myself, save a lot of money that way.

 

[bhh]

Welding is on my list of things to pick up as soon as I have the time, for sure. I'd love to be able to fabricate something to do this. We just bought this land/house back in September and are in the middle of a gut renovation for which I am doing a lot of the work (weekends only) as well as getting the property cleaned up from years of neglect so I feel like I barely have the time to eat when I am up there right now. House should be finished up this summer though so that should free up a lot more time I hope and can maybe pick up welding along with getting the wood shop I've been craving for over a decade put together.

 

[6011Artist]

ahhh, Rome wasn't built in a day, sounds like you have a full plate going on.

If you have someone that can help you out with the welding part, your idea about making a longer scarifer to use in your BB sounds like it would work. Just be careful not to get too deep all at once and bend it. You could even drill a few holes into the side of your BB and bolt one scarifer to the side panel but a lot lower than it is now and be careful and go slow, not too deep, and scratch out a good ditch. Then clean it out with a shovel. You could even bolt a piece of good strong 1/4" thick tubing to the side of your BB and buy a "shovel" type plow to bolt on to the tubing to clean out the loose dirt after you run the scarifer through it. No, it wouldn't be as heavy or strong as a potato plow but a lot cheaper and using your BB to mount it to the tractor. Use it for what it is, with care, and you can get it done that way too. Sure would beat using a hand shovel.