Digging with one stabilizer

[PA452]

I'm thinking this is a bad idea, but just throwing it out there.

I have a pole building and want to put in a french drain around it on three sides. I have a BX23. I'd like to get the ditch closer to the building than I can get with the stabilizer on the building side down. I figure that leaves me with four options:

1. Dig it by hand.
2. Dig it from the side but that entails a ton of moving the machine and the ditch ends up a lot wider so it takes a lot more stone.
3. Dig with the stabilizer on the building side up and go light on the other stabilizer.
4. Dig farther from the building.

I'm in no way worried about rolling or anything in this location. I'd be swinging the boom toward the side with the stabilizer down anyway. I'm more concerned about putting too much stress on the rear axle that the tractor wasn't designed to have.

Has anyone ever done something like this? I'm probably going to end up digging it by hand or biting the bullet and making the ditch farther from the building, which will require some grading to make that work.

 

[Diggin It]

Take smaller bites to lessen the load/stress.

 

[Mendonsy]

I have seen it done a different way also, but it required a second tractor. They put the one stabilizer down then pushed down on it with the loader on the second tractor to pin it to the ground.

 

[/pine]

In the real world digging is done all the time without the stabilizers down on any and all sizes of excavators/ backhoes etc... when there is no room just take it accordingly...that is what the pros do on a daily basis...be safe...

 

[3Ts]

I've had to dig with only one stabilizer. Just take it easy, smaller bites, slower swings, everything a little slower and you'll be ok. I've even had an occasion to dig with no stabilizers down - didn't like it at all, but slow and easy made it work out. For me, digging by hand is not practical for more than a foot or two.

 

[TMGT]

Should be fine, but if you're really worried about it you could always block the bh frame on the building side.

 

[diesel85]

You'll be fine. I've dug with TLBs without using the stabilizers, especially when trenching. You just take small scoops, even if it's shovel sized scoops, it beats doing it by hand.

Only time I use stabilizers is when I full fledged digging at max power and full scoops. Or taking up hard objects like pavement, stone or concrete. Or lifting something.

 

[4570Man]

There’s a lot of bounce in the tires with no stabilizers. I dig with only one down fairly often haven’t seen any problems.

 

[sea2summit]

Why not back in at an angle so you can get both stabilizers down? Won't be able to move the spoil as far from the trench but you have a lot more stability/accuracy with your bucket.

 

[Cataclysm]

Go at an angle. Put the stabilizer down that's away from the building. Put a full load in the bucket. Engage 4x4 if you have it and set the park brake hard. Take smaller bits. Easy Peasy.

With a little experience you can just drop one stabilizer and the front bucket and dig away. Its just weight management.

 

[zoltanthegypsy]

I like the diagonal idea

Another way to go if your soil is very hard to dig: face the wall with stabilizers down and scratch it in as far as you can reach side-to-side. Don't move the spoils and keep the bucket as vertical as you can. Keep it skinny. Then go back at it parallel to the wall w/one leg down and do the actual digging and loading.

That's making it way too complicated...

Z.

 

[dougtrr2]

Just curious as to how deep and close you are going. Will the trench have any effect on the stability of the footings or poles?

Doug in SW IA

 

[PA452]

Thanks guys. To be honest I wasn't getting email notifications of replies and kind of assumed this thread just went nowhere. :laughing: I should have known better.

I haven't had a chance to get into this project yet, but I'm leaning toward the idea of just backing in at an angle and trying to use both stabilizers while digging with the boom to the side. I've done this before when trenching out for a french drain in a very wet area so I wouldn't get stuck. The difference there was that I was able to swing the backhoe back to the center of the machine (other side of the trench) to dump the discard. In this case, I wouldn't be able to do that since I'm digging next to the building. Still, leaning toward that method, I think i can make it work.

As far as how deep and how close, I'm not sure yet. I believe it's mostly surface runoff that I'm getting, so I don't need to go real deep. On the uphill side I may go as shallow as a foot where I can. I expect though as I try to keep a downhill flow around the building I'll probably end up 2'+ down. How close, I'm not yet there either, but I'm guessing maybe 2-3' distance from the building at most. I'd like to grade the ground right by the building so that it has some downward slope to the drain.