Mowing Ditch Banks

[870wing]

I'd use Round Up to kill every thing off and then plant some type of grass seed that would be easy to mow with a regular mower. Be careful the wife doesn't see it as an opportunity to make a nice flower garden, if that happens your yard work will more than double ;-)

 

[s219]

You might consider the DR Power 3 point hitch trimmer mower.

I have looked at that several times, and I see they just did a redesign to give it a wider reach, which was one of the showstoppers before. Now it reaches an additional 11" out, so that would be about 33" beyond my rear tires, and it starts to be usable for my needs. I have not seen any reviews on their website of the new redesigned unit -- just mostly negative reviews of the older model. Would be great to see some new reviews before spending $999 on the unit. It sure looks promising.

 

[smstonypoint]

I'd use Round Up to kill every thing off and then plant some type of grass seed that would be easy to mow with a regular mower. Be careful the wife doesn't see it as an opportunity to make a nice flower garden, if that happens your yard work will more than double ;-)

I would do the same, but I would plant a ground cover that doesn't require mowing.

Steve

 

[bcp]

No mowing, no mowing machine building fun:

Concrete:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/80009330857327278/

Concrete cloth:

Concrete Cloth | Applications

Concrete half-pipe:

Drainage services, concrete products, catch basins. Lenoir, NC - Ditch-Lining

Plastic liner:

Agricultural Irrigation | HDPE Channel Liners | Relining of Concrete Ditches

Bruce

 

[LarJea]

I used to use a Toro 5 HP walk behind string trimmer for such work. I also have a 60 inch 13 HP Swisher pull behind mower that can be offset approximately 60 inches left or right, although I have never used it in a ditch. Plus it might be to big and heavy for ditch work? but they make smaller ones.

 

[muddstopper]

Back when I used to do hydroseeding and erosion control, I used to run into a lot of ugly ditch situations. Seems everytime some developer would start a new development, they had to fight water run off in one direction or the other. Bare ditches just washed deeper and deeper. Fill the ditch full of riprap and then it would clog up with leaves and other junk that would find its way down the ditch. The best method I found to fix the problem was to slope the ditches where you could run a regular mower up and down the sides. After slopeing, seed the area and apply Turf re-enforcement mats. (TRM's) The grass would grow up thru the mats and the mats prevented the water from washing the ditch out. Because the TRM's made for a smooth surface, the ditches where pretty much self cleaning and any leaves or trash would just flow on down. You might talk to you neighbor and see if they will go along with doing some minor grade work. All it would take is a tractor and scrape to smooth the side of the ditch. I used to use my harley rake and just run down each side letting the rake smooth and level the sides and once done, it was just a matter of spreading seed and rolling out the mat. The mat needs to be stapled to the ground to prevent it from washing out, but once the grass is established, the grass will hold it in place. TRMs really makes maintaining ditch banks as simple as making a pass with the lawn mower.

 

[Garandman]

$999 new. Cuts 22" per pass an

3-Point Hitch Trimmer Mower: String Trimmer and Fence Mower | DR Power Equipment

Seems like it might work.

 

[s219]

$999 new. Cuts 22" per pass an

3-Point Hitch Trimmer Mower: String Trimmer and Fence Mower | DR Power Equipment

Seems like it might work.

It has seemed promising for a couple years, but reviews here have been lukewarm, and the reviews on the DR site are pretty bad. Even at $999 it seems like a gamble. I would love to get some feedback on the redesign, which was just done this spring. Can't really tell if they addressed any of the main issues.

 

[TerryR]

It has seemed promising for a couple years, but reviews here have been lukewarm, and the reviews on the DR site are pretty bad.

The overall "star" ratings don't make it seem too bad, until you look at the individual reviews and notice that some of the worse reviews have 5 stars - looks like the reviewers forgot to set the stars to match their reviews. If they were matching "lukewarm" would be a serious overstatement.

Terry

 

[Garandman]

A friend of mine may buy one jut because the sickle bar cutters are so expensive. But he hasn't yet. DR has something like a six month return policy.

 

[s219]

If I was local, I wouldn't hesitate to give the DR unit a try under the 6-month return policy. But for people that have to use shipping, DR makes you pay shipping costs *both ways* when returning an item under the 6-month warranty. So it is potentially an expensive experiment to try one of their products. I think one of the reviews on their site mentioned they only got $600 back out of the $1000 cost when they returned their unit!!

Sickle mowers are awesome, but super expensive, they require rear hydraulics if you want to be able to control angle from the seat, and they have their downsides in terms of maintenance/performance/parts. I am keeping my eyes out for an older used unit -- some of the old Ford-branded sickle mowers are good bets, but they run $1500 for a good used one (which could be 30-40 years old).

 

[s219]

The overall "star" ratings don't make it seem too bad, until you look at the individual reviews and notice that some of the worse reviews have 5 stars - looks like the reviewers forgot to set the stars to match their reviews. If they were matching "lukewarm" would be a serious overstatement.

Terry

Yeah, I can't remember the last time I saw such consistently bad written reviews for a DR product. And many of them said the same things and had the same criticisms. I do think DR addressed the width issue with their new unit, which now makes it usable on my L3200 (the old one would only have stuck out about 22", which is not enough for my needs). And they improved the trimmer head too. So those are two big pluses.

 

[TerryR]

A friend of mine may buy one jut because the sickle bar cutters are so expensive. But he hasn't yet. DR has something like a six month return policy.

Yes and no. Read the reviews. It sounds like it's actually 90 days, and you have to pay the return freight. Several reviewers who wanted to return the units said it would cost them over $400, on a $1000 unit, to return. Returning doesn't seem like a realist option.

Terry

 

[Garandman]

A very basic ditch mower for the non-welder:

Very, very, very basic mower!

What about the self-powered ATV units, pulled offset?

 

[rd_macgregor]

What is maximum flow in the ditch? Is the runoff from your property or above it? I ask because one solution (depending on the answers to the above questions) is to put down (say) 6" drain tile and backfill. As long as the max likely flow is less than the capacity of the pipe, the authorities should be willing to approve this alteration...I suspect it might be cheaper than a concrete lining project, but still well above your $500 budget.

 

[ishiboo]

What is maximum flow in the ditch? Is the runoff from your property or above it? I ask because one solution (depending on the answers to the above questions) is to put down (say) 6" drain tile and backfill. As long as the max likely flow is less than the capacity of the pipe, the authorities should be willing to approve this alteration...I suspect it might be cheaper than a concrete lining project, but still well above your $500 budget.

Just make sure it's legal. Around here, the country is responsible for the drainage ditches and you cannot do something like that. I am on a high corner, and have almost ZERO flow... I could easily put in 6" pipe and greatly simplify my mowing as I have ZERO flow in even the worst storms, just standing water of my own. Unfortunately I can't do anything.

 

[TerryR]

If I was local, I wouldn't hesitate to give the DR unit a try under the 6-month return policy. But for people that have to use shipping, DR makes you pay shipping costs *both ways* when returning an item under the 6-month warranty. So it is potentially an expensive experiment to try one of their products. I think one of the reviews on their site mentioned they only got $600 back out of the $1000 cost when they returned their unit!!

Cute! I just looked at their return policy. The product ships "free." But if you return the item they deduct "standard" shipping charges from your refund, so you end up paying for shipping both ways. So much for a "90-day free trial."

Terry

 

[PHPaul]

What is maximum flow in the ditch? Is the runoff from your property or above it? I ask because one solution (depending on the answers to the above questions) is to put down (say) 6" drain tile and backfill. As long as the max likely flow is less than the capacity of the pipe, the authorities should be willing to approve this alteration...I suspect it might be cheaper than a concrete lining project, but still well above your $500 budget.

It handles runoff from a hill that's about 1/4 mile long and perhaps 50 feet total change in elevation. Spring snowmelt or a real frog-strangler can get it running 2-3 feet deep.

I'd actually thought about concrete culvert, probably 24" would do, but to do 75 feet or so to get from the road past the back of the house gets REAL expensive REAL fast. Plus I'd need permission from the state which would probably involve all sorts of engineering and ecological impact studies. Not about to let THAT camel get his nose under my tent.

I've worked on a few DR's for neighbors. I've never been impressed with their design or build quality.

Still thinking about building a monster string trimmer, but in reality the best approach is probably to suck it up and clean things up with a hand-held weed-whacker and then keep it in check with Roundup.

 

[GreenYellow]

A couple of things come to mind. I buy Glyphosate from the local feed store to spray things like this. An $18 quart of concentrate makes 40ish gallons, and lasts me a couple of years. I keep a band sprayed around trees, house, shop, fences, and keep a couple of drainage ditches under control with it. It really works great. I use a 5 gal backpack sprayer from Harbor Freight. 1 hour of spraying and you'd be done... Might need a touchup in a couple of months. Once the vegetation dies completely, it really doesn't look bad at all.

If killing it isn't the direction you want to go, you could rig up a redneck type of thing with a push mower. You said you have a tractor... I envision extending the lift arms with whatever (2x4's ?) about 6-8 feet and putting a push mower out there on it. Take the wheels off the mower and use the bolts to go through the 2x4s. Then you can raise/lower it down into the ditch with your 3pt lift. It wouldn't be perfectly manicured, but it's simple and cheap. A hoopty push mower from a Pawn shop would fit the bill. Whole thing for under $100. I bet it would work fine. Let us know!

 

[Garandman]

Cute! I just looked at their return policy. The product ships "free." But if you return the item they deduct "standard" shipping charges from your refund, so you end up paying for shipping both ways. So much for a "90-day free trial."

Terry

I usually buy their stuff at the factory store so other than dropping it off, wouldn't be a biggie. I think that's their second redesign, looks like they'll need a third. But it is still the lowest cost option I've seen: I've been doing both sides of a 700 foot driveway by hand and it ain't fun.