Backhoe Backhoe trenching

[BuildIdaho]

Hello. I've never used a backhoe but tomorrow I'm having a bh-75 with 12 inch bucket installed on my new (8 hours) Kubota L 3400HST. I know there are lots of variables but I've got a job to do trenching 500 feet 40 inch deep in a park area that is almost all just top soil with no rocks. How many feet per hour is average for a real operator to expect? Any ideas on an hourly rate for something like this? Thanks..Randy /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[v8dave]

I'd hate to guess how much you can do on your first backhoe job. There was a thread quite a while ago about the rate one could expect, I don't remember what the conclusion was though. For 500 feet as a first job I'd expect to spend the better part of a week at it, maybe more.

First get some paint or lime and mark the line you are going to dig. It helps immensly to have the line marked. Start at the most straight and level portion of the field to trench. Straddle the trench line and dig straight back. Plant your front bucket, cutting edge straight down and take some weight off the front end. Put the out riggers down and slightly lift the rear end of he tractor. This will take the weight off the tires and make the whole tractor more stable.

Start by running the backhoe at slow engine speed, try half the rated speed for running the backhoe. Do this for the first 10 hours or so to get familiar with the controls. The whole backhoe operation will feel quite jerky and be sensitive in swing and boom movement at first. Be patient, as your familiarity and skill increase you will be able to operate multiple controls simultaneously and feather the levers to smooth out the jerkiness. As the jerkiness and bucking bronco diminish you can increase the engine speed to make digging faster.

Don't try to dig at the limit of the 'hoe's reach. It will mostly pull you backwards. The most force is available digging up, close in. The most powerful of the backhoe controls is the bucket curl. In tough dig situations use it alone, using more than one control at a time just divides the hydraulic power among the operations and makes each weaker.

Take your time at first. By the time you finish 500' of trench you'll be quite good at this.

 

[KiotiJohn]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Plant your front bucket, cutting edge straight down and take some weight off the front end. Put the out riggers down and slightly lift the rear end of he tractor. )</font>
The backhoe manual for mine says not to lift the rear tires. I've done it both ways, and now I know why they say that. If I lift the front and rears slightly, I'm rocking the tractors weight on the loader and stabilizers with no help from the tires. I don't like the reaction, and the tractor seems LESS stabile. Now, I simply lower the loader bucket, cutting edge down without really lifting the front, and stabilizers down and almost lifting the rears, but leaving them in contact with the ground for extra support. It feels much better and safer this way, at least on my small frame CUT. I could easily see stabilizer or loader damage had I continued to raise the tires off the ground.
I agree with the rest of your assessment. Good advice on not using a high RPM in the beginning as swings on these smaller backhoes can really be quick and surprising at high RPM.
CUT backhoes can take a while to dig 500 feet even with a good operator simply because of pressure relief limits and smaller size.
John

 

[hhw]

Sounds like you got some good digging for your first job. You know, regardless of your experience level there are the "little" things that seem to chew up more time than the dig itself! Like Dave says, site prep is important. When I dug my first trench I didn't quite grasp this point. The trench was supposed to be a straight line run for water and electric, 250 ft. 48" deep. At the time I was using a S.S. with a hoe attachment. I just lined it up "by eye" and had at it. When all was said and done the depth varied somewhere between 48 and 65 inches and my "straight" run looked like, well just not straight. Anyway, site prep is important and things like repositioning take more time than you think.

I would estimate this job, given the conditions you present, to require 3 days on site and approximately 16 digging hours. Using a J.D. 110 TLB.

Currently I charge $65.00/hour with a (4) hour Min. Some others in my area charge between $50.00/hour and $75.00/hour.

 

[edgaines]

I had my first BH experience this weekend on a borrowed Cat 420.
This is one powerful machine, especially after comeing off a JD790.
I was digging trenches for a perimeter footer and I got it straight enough, but, I think it would take about 40 years of practice getting a consistant depth. I now have about a week of hand work to make the trenches useable.
Good luck with your project!!

 

[Henro]

BuildIdaho,

I dug a 250 foot trench with my BL4690 last fall. It was 42" deep. I think it took about 10 hours digging time, maybe a little more. I did not time it. Someone with more experience more talent might do it faster. (attached a photo)

It was all dirt with no rocks or shale. The tape around the stick marked 42" when the bucket was straight with the stick, and made gaging depth easy from the backhoe seat.

My guess is that with the BH75 you will get about the same performance. If you have to work IN the trench, you may wish you had a 16" or wider bucket though. If you are just dropping something in and backfilling, probably not an issue.

 

[EddieWalker]

The advantage to a backhoe for digging a trench is the ability to keep a constant bottom. That's important for drain lines.

What are you installing and how big is it?

With a small backhoe, you could easily spend a couple days on it. With no experience operating a backhoe, you will wast a couple of those days learning how to operate it and become efficient.

If this is a paying job, put the backhoe away and rent a trencher. I've done 1,200 feet in half a day with a trencher. It's what they are designed to do.

The same goes for wages. Why pay you $50 an hour or more for a week of labor when it could be done in a day with the right tool?

 

[BuildIdaho]

It's a 11/4 inch water line. The trencher sounds reeel good to me..

 

[SCB]

How deep do the standard rental trenchers go? I have about 700 feet of trench to do real soon and was going to use my backhoe, but if the trencher will go through rocky soil to about 2 1/2 feet, it sound alot quicker.

 

[EddieWalker]

Your basic walk behind will do three feet easy and in my area it will run $250 for 24 hours.

If you need more depth, more width or more power, you can always rent a ride along trencher that will dig 4 feet deep or more and easily go 6 inches wide.

Price is about double for the bigger model, but if you have a really long distance, you can do it three times as fast in the bigger machine.