I did my first real backhoe job, today. In the past, I had pulled a small stump and removed some small bushes, neither of which took more than a few minutes or required much actual digging.
Yesterday, I got proper insurance, including coverage if I hit something while I dig. I got this in case I hit somehting when I do my sewer line or my egress window. I am paying $459/year for a $1M per incident, up to $2M per year coverage, including anything I hit while digging, so long as it doesn't cause an explosion or a structural collapse. In my mind, that's dirt cheap insurance for "commercial landscaping and light excavation", which is the only way to get coverage, for digging, that I've found. If it's not, steer me the right direction. Part of the reason it's so cheap is I have my house and vehicle through the same company, Goodville Insurance. One of the stipulations is I can not let anyone use my equipment, and be covered, if anything happens.
I helped a guy with his line to the street, from the sump pump. He had already called DigSafe. He had dug out where the water was coming to the surface and found someone had just put a PVC sleeve over the rotted galvanized pipe. I was concerned about the large roots, and the power/weight of my equipment. It was a breeze!!
The deepest I had to dig was 2.5-3 feet down, and the ground sloped downward, toward the street, making the shallow end around a foot. The trench ended up being about 20 feet long. It took us two hours, from the time I got there, to the time I was loaded, ready to leave. It would have been a lot faster, if my skills were better (often found things going the wrong way) and if he hadn't forgot to get some tools, before we started.
The largest root we encountered was around four inches diameter. It was a healthy tree that was only a few feet from the trench. I was able to break it by curling the bucket (most power) and moving it to the left, a tad. I was glad to be able to move two directions, at once, as I don't thing the root was going to break with force from one direction. I did this at around 2,800 RPM and my tractor had 23.2 hours on it, when I loaded it onto the trailer. It had 25.1 hours, when I put it up, in the garage, at the end of the day. This included car wash time and I greased all the zerks, except, the ones on the MMM.
I found the best digging was done around 2,600 RPM. It seemed weaker under 2,500 RPM and was too jerky above 2,900 RPM. Yesterday, I mowed around .8 acres, and with that plus today's work, it never got off FULL, but I was able to put some fuel in, from my fuel can. I would guess around a gallon. The heat gauge got to three LEDs once, but every other time I saw it it stayed at two LEDs. At the time of completion, it was 82*F. I moved the throttle frequently, as I am still in break-in hours and want to keep the RPMs variable, as much as possible.
When digging so shallow, I found it took as long to move the unit, and get everything back ready to go, as it did to actually dig. This thing destroyed the roots and dig a very nice hole. Once I got the feel, it was possible to tell where the pipe was.
I need to get a few traffic cones, but the trash bins were better than nothing.
Here's some pictures. I don't have any of the before, but you'll get the idea.
Here's the largest root I could find, in the pile of what was broken, by the backhoe. We found using the backhoe to break them then getting in with an ax every five our six scoops was best.
Yesterday, I got proper insurance, including coverage if I hit something while I dig. I got this in case I hit somehting when I do my sewer line or my egress window. I am paying $459/year for a $1M per incident, up to $2M per year coverage, including anything I hit while digging, so long as it doesn't cause an explosion or a structural collapse. In my mind, that's dirt cheap insurance for "commercial landscaping and light excavation", which is the only way to get coverage, for digging, that I've found. If it's not, steer me the right direction. Part of the reason it's so cheap is I have my house and vehicle through the same company, Goodville Insurance. One of the stipulations is I can not let anyone use my equipment, and be covered, if anything happens.
I helped a guy with his line to the street, from the sump pump. He had already called DigSafe. He had dug out where the water was coming to the surface and found someone had just put a PVC sleeve over the rotted galvanized pipe. I was concerned about the large roots, and the power/weight of my equipment. It was a breeze!!
The deepest I had to dig was 2.5-3 feet down, and the ground sloped downward, toward the street, making the shallow end around a foot. The trench ended up being about 20 feet long. It took us two hours, from the time I got there, to the time I was loaded, ready to leave. It would have been a lot faster, if my skills were better (often found things going the wrong way) and if he hadn't forgot to get some tools, before we started.
The largest root we encountered was around four inches diameter. It was a healthy tree that was only a few feet from the trench. I was able to break it by curling the bucket (most power) and moving it to the left, a tad. I was glad to be able to move two directions, at once, as I don't thing the root was going to break with force from one direction. I did this at around 2,800 RPM and my tractor had 23.2 hours on it, when I loaded it onto the trailer. It had 25.1 hours, when I put it up, in the garage, at the end of the day. This included car wash time and I greased all the zerks, except, the ones on the MMM.
I found the best digging was done around 2,600 RPM. It seemed weaker under 2,500 RPM and was too jerky above 2,900 RPM. Yesterday, I mowed around .8 acres, and with that plus today's work, it never got off FULL, but I was able to put some fuel in, from my fuel can. I would guess around a gallon. The heat gauge got to three LEDs once, but every other time I saw it it stayed at two LEDs. At the time of completion, it was 82*F. I moved the throttle frequently, as I am still in break-in hours and want to keep the RPMs variable, as much as possible.
When digging so shallow, I found it took as long to move the unit, and get everything back ready to go, as it did to actually dig. This thing destroyed the roots and dig a very nice hole. Once I got the feel, it was possible to tell where the pipe was.
I need to get a few traffic cones, but the trash bins were better than nothing.
Here's some pictures. I don't have any of the before, but you'll get the idea.
Here's the largest root I could find, in the pile of what was broken, by the backhoe. We found using the backhoe to break them then getting in with an ax every five our six scoops was best.
