Filling a Hundred Holes (6-feet across, 4-feet deep)

[npalen]

Rent a tree spade.

 

[redman135]

I work in construction, earthworks side. ScarOB2150 has nailed it. State SPECIFICLY that you want CLEANFILL or you will get all manner of juck like broken concrete, treated timber etc included.
You must also specify weather you want subsoil or topsoil. BE SPECIFIC, in what you want.
If you are near a subdivision being built you should have no trouble getting cleanfill. With today's tiny sections there is no choice but to cart away and dump good clean topsoil or subsoil. Tipheads are geting further and further from town these days.

 

[mikester]

My property was previously a tree farm and I have over a hundred holes where the trees were dug out, balled, and burlapped. I tried filling the holes with my Kubota L4330, but I made very little progress scraping off surrounding dirt and using that as fill. I've also tried loosening up dirt with a tiller, but that is only slightly more effective.

What type of equipment is usually used to fill holes left when removing trees? Should I rent a dozer? Or is an excavator more efficient at this task? If an excavator, is a Bobcat E-85 (20k pound machine; 36-inch bucket) big enough to get through that many holes in an 8-hour rental period?

Or should I just truck in some fill dirt and rent a backhoe?

truck in dirt and backfill.

 

[RjCorazza]

I filled 20 or so similar holes for a neighbor several years ago. With my 0.45 cy bucket, and traveling about 1500 feet from the pile to the holes it was a very time consuming task.
If I were doing something similar in the future I would have soil delivered to the site.

 

[Creamer]

I assume I can move the dirt with the tractor's FEL. The distance between the hole/dirt pile and various holes is at most 500 feet.

That would be a lot of dirt to move with an FEL. A dump truck and back up to each hole and then a bigger loader - not a compact - or dozer to level them out.

 

[4570Man]

That is super cheap if you are talking semi and not tandem and cheap even for a tandem. Around here you are going to pay $100 minimum just for the trucking plus the cost of whatever you want hauled. Granted dirt is cheap but the people digging it up and loading it want something for their efforts.

Regardless I think OP is far better off trucking in material than trying to dig it up to fill these holes unless he already had a backhoe or excavator and a means to haul the dirt.

Tri axel dump but they’re legal for 74,000 here but with the truck being lighter to start with they’re hauling the same as a semi.

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

You can move dirt a lot faster with less wear and tear when you put the dirt into a dump truck and move it.

I watched my farm neighbor start to move a lot of dirt after regrading the fields. I'm laughing at them using an excavator to pile dirt and have the back hoe move it one bucket at a time. I stopped them and asked them how long it was going to take? The reply was forever. Told them to get a truck, even a 6 wheel 1 ton moves dirt a lot faster than what they were doing and for a lot less money.

 

[ruffdog]

If there is a location to get dirt, get a tree mover to move it as they would make the right shaped plugs.

 

[4570Man]

You can move dirt a lot faster with less wear and tear when you put the dirt into a dump truck and move it.

I watched my farm neighbor start to move a lot of dirt after regrading the fields. I'm laughing at them using an excavator to pile dirt and have the back hoe move it one bucket at a time. I stopped them and asked them how long it was going to take? The reply was forever. Told them to get a truck, even a 6 wheel 1 ton moves dirt a lot faster than what they were doing and for a lot less money.

Dump the dirt straight in the dump with the excavator and don’t pile it first.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Few people in the bus. give away top soil. So it's Trucking and cost of good soil. Unless you can find someone looking for a place to dump "fill". Then, they pay everything. And sometimes you can't argue over what is showing up.