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

[wolc123]

I had to haul a similar amount of fill/soil, with a similar sized tractor (JD 4120), last year. It was not too bad. The town highway department had cleared a 500 yard long ditch that ran along our property line. My neighbor didn't want the fill.

I talked them into hauling about 4 tandem loads, to near where I needed it, but most they just bermed up close to the ditch that they cleared. Moving those 4 loads of fill, a very short distance with my tractor, only took a few hours.

That only gave me about half of what I needed for backfill around a new polebarn. Moving the rest, 3/4 yard at a time, about 400 yards, took a few days. It was relaxing, fun work though. I was very thankful for the canopy on my tractor, because most of that was under the hot summer sun.

If I was on your shoes, I would get that ditch work done first (rent an excavator for that), then haul the fill to your holes. Killing two birds with one stone is always good. Depending on the distance from the ditch to the holes, a dump truck or trailer might be justified.

 

[crazyal]

First thing I would do is figure out how deep your topsoil is. You'll want to save it, not use it to fill holes in. If you plan on using material from other places on your property you'll also want to remove the topsoil first. If buying material the price for fill vs topsoil is enough so I wouldn't be buying TS to fill holes.

 

[I Piddle]

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?

 

[I Piddle]

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?

WOW, that will take a lot of fill to do 100 holes. That would take 100 yards (100 tons) of topsoil. Out of curiosity, they must have been humongous trees when taken out.

Do you have an elevated area that you plow up and then carry the soil off and dump it in the holes? Actually, with four-foot holes, you could put a lot of rough fill in the bottom of the holes.

You could also just plow the whole area and then use a blade to level off.

Never tackled anything like that myself, just throwing about a couple of ideas that may be helpful and may not work at all.

 

[aircommuter]

Get clean fill hauled in and disperse it with a wheel loader. Use the wheel loader to roll it in and leave the holes 6” low then topsoil from your property or delivered if needed. Spread with a dozer or a motor grader, or a box scraper.
I did earthwork on dozens of subdivisions. You can always do things with less equipment, it just takes longer.
It takes approximately 500 years to make 1” of topsoil. We always removed the topsoil and stockpiled it before building pads and roads.

 

[RedLeaf]

Twenty years ago, I bought a 200 acre farm that was pockmarked with hundreds of tree holes. It took quite some time (2 years), but I finally filled them all in and the the land is quite smooth.

First, get some clean fill, quite a few tandem loads distributed around your property. You can get clean fill from construction sites and they will often pay you to accept the fill. Make sure they can certify it as clean, as you don't want soil from sites that have had oil tanks, etc.

Fill the holes with the clean fill. I used a mini-ex and a backhoe attachment to my tractor. As much as you try to compact the fill, it will take 2-3 years before nature compacts it properly; you will have mini-indentations in the ground, so you should then use top soil to make a 6-8" mound above the ground level. I used a mini-ex to scrape adjacent topsoil to make this mound.

After all of that, I threw some grass seed on top, which will hold everything together in a matter of weeks.

I still have to "top up" some holes by driving my FEL around full of topsoil, but it is getting better all the time. We can now safely ride horses without the fear of them tripping or hurting themselves.

 

[RedLeaf]

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?

Another note. I tried using a disk harrow to till all the soil, followed by an 8' rototiller, then a blade. This appears to look good, but after one winter, everything compressed and I still had seriously deep holes.

 

[CoyPatton]

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?

In answer to your 8 hrs rental on an E-85–if you are an experienced operator, maybe to get the soil volume you will need, but I doubt it. Since you mention tenting a backhoe, I assume for your digging you will be renting regardless, so I would recommend rent a excavator, my rationale here is in moving the equipment. With a backhoe, you have a bucket and 2 outriggers to deal with versus 1 blade on the excavator. My $0.02!
Make 2 piles as you dig! 1 of top soil and the other the rest with a possible 3rd pile of the yucky mucky soupy crap from the wet area. This 3rd pile maybe useful for around the wet area to contain it or may not be worth anything waiting game till it drys some to decide.
I highly encourage looking for a dump trailer or truck. Be cautious as these are items that “you get what you pay for” rings very true. S good shape used dump trailer can bring almost new price. Deals in both can be items that you invest lots of time and money to make usable. Better equipment when you begin is worth more to someone else when you are done if taken care of.

 

[D2Cat]

If you're in farming country find a farm that has a pile of "processed hay" that they've had piled for a while. Often times you can find a dirt pile that has been there for 4-5 years. Get it moved to your problem area and spread it with your tractor.

 

[devodad]

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?

You cannot make dirt to replace dirt that has been removed by digging the surrounding areas. An excavator or backhoe won’t be much help unless gou already have one. I think your best bet is to use the dirt from the trenches you plan to dig and use a dump trailer and your existing FEL to donthe job.