Easing Rise Methods

[SLOBuds]

I want to ease the slope on a small portion of my property, as in the picture below. I will reduce the slope from the solid line down to the dotted line.

My tools are 35hp Kubota L35, loader, backhoe, and box scraper. I do not want to buy or rent any other tools.

What is the best procedure to cut that slope? The current angle is too steep for me to drive crosswise. It is too steep for me to push dirt with the loader, going in an upward motion. So I am limited, at least to start, with moving dirt while the tractor is above the 'X' point in the drawing.

Thanks.

 

[jimainiac]

Aproximately how many feet is it between where the dotted and solid lines converge, upper and lower?

 

[SLOBuds]

Aproximately how many feet is it between where the dotted and solid lines converge, upper and lower?

It varies because the land is sloped to varying degrees along the area that I plan to ease. My guess on the length is somewhere between 20-40'. Height of the 'bluff' is probably about 10-15' at its greatest distance.

 

[jimainiac]

Is the length a long way across the face of the the area? I wish I had a good answer for you, I'm in about the same boat as you, we have an L3830 with loader, 9' backhoe, 7' rear blade. I try to do as much as possible with it, but sometimes it's more practical to hire someone with the right equipment, such as a dozer. Would it be possible to back to the edge of the bluff at the top and pull dirt away with the box blade? I guess it would take forever to pick away at it with the backhoe.

 

[SLOBuds]

I guess there isn't any magical answers to this. I'll try to pull it away with the box blade.

 

[charlz]

Can you make downhill runs with the box blade pulling the dirt down to the low area and either leave it there or then move it with the loader?

 

[bjcsc]

That's going to be tough as I think your resulting angle is too great to drive crosswise, but maybe it's your drawing. I had swales cut and ended up with almost the same problem you have. I tried to use my BB to progressively cut it down driving crosswise, but the ground was too hard to get much action. I ended up discing it then scraping it. I did this right up to where the steepest angle was and when I was done with the BB, I pushed what was left into the valley and started high again until I had it all uniform and crosswise drivable. I had ~400' on each side to do and it took me about 3 days. If I was going to do it again I would either borrow or rent a dozer. Once the BB fills up you have to take it somewhere and that eats up a lot of time...

 

[Runner]

I have pretty much the same situation, smaller scale. My plan is to use the box blade/rippers to loosen the soil and move it down to the bottom of the hill. From there, I'm going to use the loader to take it to another location for fill.

 

[Bird]

I once spent a day on a pile of dirt that was more of a bluff or cliff than that. I only used the FEL with a toothbar on it to start with. I'd start just to the left of your X, go in fairly shallow with the FEL bucket and push the dirt over the crest of the bluff, back up and do it again until I worked that hump down to where I could safely drive down it with the box blade dragging a load of dirt down.

 

[dynasim]

When doing something like that with a dozer(on a farm tractor) when I was a kid, we would cut a single path down the hill at the appropriate slope, and then progressively cut the bank out from the side(like widening a road through a slot), pushing the dirt down the hill, and packing it on the bottom.

The hard part is cutting the first slot safely, preferably from the bottom.

I think you could do the same thing with a loader. The thing that would make it difficult is the presence of rocks.

Chris