Cutting ditch with FEL?

[JimS]

Want to cut a shallow ditch along a road and thinking I could do it with my FEL. (Kubota 3600) Ground slopes up from the road on one side . Road itself is practically level. I am thinking if I cut out at the start (should be easy as it is more level there) and run the tractor with one wheel on the road and one in the (shallow) ditch I should be able to cut a modest ditch. Need to do about 150 feet. I will be getting someone with a trackhoe to cut out more eventually but need to get something done now for cheap. Road isn't wide enough to use tractor cross ways of road. In the slightly less steep places I might be able to come at it down the hill but suspect I might be more likely to get stuck if I get hung up and can't get traction to back up the hill.

Just wondering what people think of the idea and any suggestions.

 

[Luremaker]

I've cut ditches with my bucket before I had my backhoe. Take your time and I think you'll get it done.

 

[k0ua]

Well to be honest with you, I don't think it will work at all. Trying to just cut thru dirt with the side of your loader , and the tractor over on an angle is just going to "hog in" the loader ,in other words it will not cut, and just try to turn over the tractor. Now I have cut several trench's like the above poster by using the FEL and using your curl/breakout and the pressure of the tractor moving forward all at the same time.. Now this works well and if you don't have too many rocks. is quite fast. The Hydrostat is your friend here as it makes the tractor pressure part easy. Now I have done it plenty of times with a gear tractor too, it is just hard on the clutch/throwout bearing. You must have an extremely narrow road, as I can place my tractor accross my very narrow road and clean out the ditch. Now of course this is just my opinion, and you are welcome by me to try But I think you will have no success. Hopefully others will chime in here with their experience/opinion.

James K0UA

 

[Herkypilot]

If you have access to a box blade, you can angle that up a good bit on your 3ph to cut the ditch.

 

[Egon]

Is there enough room to full nbucket width?

 

[Thomas]

Go slow and give it try.
May become hard digging if big rock or roots show up...do you have back blade if not borrow one,than off set blade go slow dig the ditch depth for now.

 

[MG1867]

I have similar project so I would be interested in the out come. I have a ditch that just has debris in it (corn stalks and such) Not a deep ditch so mt thought was to run with the ditch and let the end of the bucket clean out the bottom. I plan to do my project Monday so I will post my out come and hopefuly I don't report that I turned my tractor over

 

[s219]

I dug a short ditch (about 20 feet long) with the FEL a week ago. Due to space constraints and what I thought was safer, I cut into it perpendicular to the ditch direction. So I had to make 5-6 cuts moving down the line to create the ditch. It was a matter of setting the bucket position and angle, driving forward, and then curling back the bucket at the right time. I made it about 8-10" deep and 2' wide.

I wouldn't want to do this for a real long ditch, but for short runs it works fine, and you completely avoid getting the tractor sideways in the ditch. You're always approaching from the side.

 

[Ken45101]

It depends very much on the soil type and the traction you have. Heavy clay? It's not going to work very well. Rock? Forget it.

Do NOT try overpowering it by ramming. Since you are only digging on one side, the off balance pressure could twist the FEL. Don't forget, you do not have an "excavator", but rather a "front end LOADER".

Also, if you do get it to work, as you progress, the ditch will get more shallow.

It will work MUCH better if you have a tooth bar.

I agree that a box blade or scraper blade is probably the best way to go.

If it is a county or township road, have you talked to them about doing it? Around here they periodically ditch the road sides.

Ken

 

[JimS]

Thanks for all the comments. Gives me some ideas of what I am in for.

No rocks, no roots, not heavy clay... I can get crossways in spots but it is only 10 - 12 feet wide for some of it. It's a good job for a backhoe as I would like to put the material on the other side of the road but I don't have one. I do have a box blade but what would be the steps? I guess it would be use the box blade to dig the ditch with dirt ending up on the road (and some on the other side of the ditch). Then come back with the FEL to clean up and move the dirt? If I can cut it with the FEL I figured it would be less time as I can just dump the dirt where I want it as I go but now that I think about it I may be wrong. I may try cutting pretty much level the first pass and see how it goes.

I couldn't really do the fully bucket width - I guess I could but don't want a ditch the full bucket width. I could move the tractor over and cut the ditch with the other side of the bucket but I would be at steeper side slope so that doesn't seem good.

 

[Ken45101]

Yes, with a box blade you would scrape and create a small pile then pick it up with the loader. That may sound like a slow process but I'll bet it would be a lot faster than trying to do it with just the FEL.

A backhoe is NOT what you want. Generally they only dig directly off the rear and you can only dump it 90 degrees to the side....another pile you have to pick up and move. I guess a really big one might be able to do some decent digging to the side if the ground is soft enough. I have a small BH (Kubota B-21) that I've used to clear the ditch on the side our of driveway. Real mess since the mud ends up on the driveway and then I have to try to move that. For the type of operation you want (dig it on one side and dump it on the other side of the road, you need a mini excavator with a long enough reach. They can dig on one side and dump 180 degrees away.

Ken

Thanks for all the comments. Gives me some ideas of what I am in for.

No rocks, no roots, not heavy clay... I can get crossways in spots but it is only 10 - 12 feet wide for some of it. It's a good job for a backhoe as I would like to put the material on the other side of the road but I don't have one. I do have a box blade but what would be the steps? I guess it would be use the box blade to dig the ditch with dirt ending up on the road (and some on the other side of the ditch). Then come back with the FEL to clean up and move the dirt? If I can cut it with the FEL I figured it would be less time as I can just dump the dirt where I want it as I go but now that I think about it I may be wrong. I may try cutting pretty much level the first pass and see how it goes.

I couldn't really do the fully bucket width - I guess I could but don't want a ditch the full bucket width. I could move the tractor over and cut the ditch with the other side of the bucket but I would be at steeper side slope so that doesn't seem good.

 

[JD5210]

A couple other things. It will go a lot easier with a toothbar. If the soil is wet and packeted down, as you dig into it, pulling down of the front of the tractor, be prepared that this dirt could just pop out and the front of the tractor will jump up a little or at lease feel like it did.

Let us know how it worked out for you and any lessons learned.

 

[blueriver]

Soil type will have an impact. I have on occassion had to bury a dead calf and even a cow. When I do this I count on the FEL hydraulics alot ... degree of angle, curl the bucket ... you can damage things using 4WD and getting rough.

 

[radioman]

I have a bachhoe, but I cleaned out my ditch using the FEL 2 years ago. I learned that when my rear tires is on a slop, my cutting angle is on a slope as well, so smaller cuts after the first one is needed to make it all flow together. I would have started on the bank but its quite steep at 45 degrees and it was tough to control the forward movement as the gravity was pulling me in faster then I wanted to even with HST.

 

[Ken45101]

It will go a lot easier with a toothbar.

^^^ what he said. I forgot to mention that.

Ken

 

[Egon]

Check out the post "Drainage Ditch". By Egon.

It shows some pictures of a trench dug aB7100 and FEL.

 

[Herkypilot]

Thanks for all the comments. Gives me some ideas of what I am in for.

No rocks, no roots, not heavy clay... I can get crossways in spots but it is only 10 - 12 feet wide for some of it. It's a good job for a backhoe as I would like to put the material on the other side of the road but I don't have one. I do have a box blade but what would be the steps? I guess it would be use the box blade to dig the ditch with dirt ending up on the road (and some on the other side of the ditch). Then come back with the FEL to clean up and move the dirt? If I can cut it with the FEL I figured it would be less time as I can just dump the dirt where I want it as I go but now that I think about it I may be wrong. I may try cutting pretty much level the first pass and see how it goes.

I couldn't really do the fully bucket width - I guess I could but don't want a ditch the full bucket width. I could move the tractor over and cut the ditch with the other side of the bucket but I would be at steeper side slope so that doesn't seem good.

Let Ted from Everythingattachments demonstrate. Go to about 5:00 min into it.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxuEDGSGOZA&feature=player_embedded]How to Use a Box Blade - YouTube[/ame]

HP

 

[crbr]

Thaks for the pictures

 

[tractorshopper]

Great thread! Thanks for the video as well. This is my project for tomorrow morning. I have a drainage that has accumulated erosion over the years and I want to clean it back up to where water will flow as it should. Was wondering how to get the angle right and thought I'd have to cut from sides with FEL until shape was there then use box blade. Now I know how to adjust the box blade angle so this should be much easier. What the steepest side slope you'd drive on? 20 degrees? One side is uphill, the other is flat. The uphill side has eroded into the drainage because of insufficient ground cover when originally cut in.

 

[JB4310]

Thanks for all the comments. Gives me some ideas of what I am in for.

No rocks, no roots, not heavy clay... I can get crossways in spots but it is only 10 - 12 feet wide for some of it. It's a good job for a backhoe as I would like to put the material on the other side of the road but I don't have one. I do have a box blade but what would be the steps? I guess it would be use the box blade to dig the ditch with dirt ending up on the road (and some on the other side of the ditch). Then come back with the FEL to clean up and move the dirt? If I can cut it with the FEL I figured it would be less time as I can just dump the dirt where I want it as I go but now that I think about it I may be wrong. I may try cutting pretty much level the first pass and see how it goes.

I couldn't really do the fully bucket width - I guess I could but don't want a ditch the full bucket width. I could move the tractor over and cut the ditch with the other side of the bucket but I would be at steeper side slope so that doesn't seem good.

After a season or so you wont have a ditch as wide as you made it, due to erosion.
I would use the box and just drive the length wise of the ditch, that would give the best job IMO.

A box blade used like that parallel to the work is very forgiving, going at it at a right angle is gonna to be very messy.

JB