How deep can I plow a ditch.

[Pooh_Bear]

1949 8n tractor, 16inch bottom plow.

I want to lay some 4inch corrogated drain pipe.
I need to lay about 400 ft of this stuff.
Can I plow a deep furrow to put the pipe in and then cover it over.
Can I get it deep enough to mow over it with the tractor.

Have no idea what it would cost to have this done or rent a ditch witch.

Whatchya'll think about it.

Pooh Bear

 

[beenthere]

You might get a 6" furrow with the one bottom plow, but with some adjusting, maybe a bit deeper. Likely that 6" depth will have to be on the second pass, where the right wheel is dropped in the furrow left from the first pass. If the plowing is easy, maybe more but 6" might be okay to cover the 4" pipe. Depends on how you think 2" of dirt on top will work.

 

[Cabinholler]

Pooh Bear

My dad had a John Deere 16 inch plow on a 600 Ford tractor that he could plow 12 inches deep with this plow in fescue sod on our farm. If your ground is hard, you might not be able to plow that deep on the first round, but you can make more than one round to get the ditch deeper.

Cabinholler

 

[cwarrix]

Hey Pooh Bear, here in Central Ohio I rented a ditch witch a few weeks ago. It was about $80 for 4 hours or $120 for 24 hours. I only had about 150 feet to do, so I got it for 4 hours. The one I rented was a three wheeled setup that you walk behind. It worked pretty good for about half of what I needed done, but it started to rain and it got too muddy towards the end. About 30 feet or so from the finish line, I got it stuck in the mud (actually muck) and tried to pull it out with my Cub Cadet. Then got the Cub stuck too, and had to pull them both out with my 4WD truck. Ever seen a brown Cub Cadet? I should have taken pictures, but I was too mad at the time.

The one I rented will dig up to 24 inches deep, maybe a tad more. But if it's muddy, I'll warn ya, it just stirs that stuff up like mama's mixer and makes a nice thick mucky milk shake /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif In case you're interested, the 4WD Silverado dug a nice 6 inch trench... actually two of them /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif So that's yet another option if you only need to go 6 inches or so /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif And in 2WD, it may have went a little deeper yet!

 

[Pooh_Bear]

LOL, been stuck like that a few times myself.

I have very easy to plow soil.
I imagine I could plow 10 inches deep no problem.
When I plowed the garden I was getting 6-8 inches easy.
Two are 3 passes in the same furrow would put me pretty deep.

It is a two bottom plow. I took one of the bottoms off it to plow with.
I would use the plow in the middle of the tractor for ditching.
For plowing I use the one near the rear tire.

I'll try to get pictures when I do this.

Thanks.

Pooh Bear

 

[KiotiJohn]

I'm not sure just how deep you'd have to go to have the soil protect the pipe from tractor mowing, but I'd certainly think there would have to be at least 12" of dirt on top of the pipe. The dirt will settle around the pipe and give it supporting pressure to keep it from collapsing. After you backfill, you may want to wet it down good to assure that the pipe is really surrounded well by the soil.
Maybe someone else can say just how deep it needs to go for the best protection.
John

 

[Shadow_River]

If it were me I would rent the Ditch Witch. That way you can easily get deep enough to lay the 4 inch pipe and cover it with with 8 or 10 or whatever inches of soil. I have a backhoe on my tractor and I would still rather use the Ditch Witch because of the speed and smaller width trench line. Get one that will cut a 4 inch trench probably the ride on type. The Ditch witch will make short work of your task. Plowing with a single plow or small pull type ditcher just don't work that great, especially if you want to get deep enough to get the pipe really buried well. Just my two cents worth. Anyways, Best of Luck.

azzxx

 

[Egon]

Ditch Witch for sure.

Egon

 

[Moon]

No doubt a ditch witch is the best tool for the job. But ....I used a middle buster (aka potato plow) to bury 4" drain pipe and it worked fine. It will dig down about 12 inches after a few passes. If you don't already have one, you can buy a middle buster for the price of renting a ditch witch ..about 80 bucks.

Moon of Ohio

 

[cwarrix]

Another point about the ditch witch is that it breaks the dirt up really nice, which means easier to fill back in. In my case, before it started to rain, it was almost powder like. I could easily push it around with my foot, no big clumps. I've never used a plow before, but I envision it as pulling up big clumps of sod and dirt, but not really sure.

I let mine sit too long before I filled it back in so a lot of it got hard and clumped up. I was able to straddle the ditch with my tractor and tiller and just one quick pass broke it all back up again. A few more passes with a box blade and the ditch is gone. Now it's safe to walk through the back yard at night again! Don't ask /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[JerryG]

Go down one direction and back up the other. That way, you will have your left wheel in a lower area that has bee plowed already. If you do it more that one trip, you will get deeper.

 

[djradz]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( It is a two bottom plow. I took one of the bottoms off it to plow with.
I would use the plow in the middle of the tractor for ditching.
For plowing I use the one near the rear tire. )</font>

Ah yes, that makes sense, for a one-pass operation. However, to get deeper, you want the right side tires to ride in the ditch on the second pass, so you'll want the plow that's in line with the tires to be the one you use to get deeper. It's likely you could easily go 14" or so this way. Our good friend, John Miller, (who seems to have retired from TBN) once posted a picture and short description of how many of us use a rear blade in the same fashion. The rear blade pushes the soil a little farther out of the ditch, but makes a tremendous rut/ditch after a couple of passes, and because of the nature of the shape of the blade, the slope is a little more gradual than a plow. Briefly, what you do is set the rear blade at a big angle, usually a 45 or more and then also tilt the blade low on the leading edge, so it ends up looking like a huge plow. If your blade doesn't have enough adjustment to to get the right position, you may need to pin/bolt it in some fashion to do this. What you strive for is to have the leading edge/point fairly well in line (directly behind) the rear tire. That way, with every pass, you just keep digging deeper, without ever even changing the blade position. I usually strive to take about 4 to 6 inches with each pass. Eventually, you get to the point where you are in a pretty big lean, and so it's time to quit. Only down-side with the blade method is you'll be piling the soil to the center of the tractor, so if you machine is very small, you may end up scraping.

I don't think you need to bury the tile all that deep to keep from crushing it. We've buried plenty of pipe with any where from 12" to only 5" of soil on top of it with no problem. Once the soil firms up, it's pretty safe to drive on. In fact, with all the clay around here, we've usually used the tractor, riding in the same trench on top of the pipe, to compact the soil afterwards.