How to dig a hole

[Alan L.]

My Mom's doggie died Thursday and for the third time I performed a burial on our property using the FEL and a shovel. When its dry our soil is so hard it is literally like concrete. You can jump up and down with a shovel or worry a hole with the FEL (the worst tool there is for digging). It took me at least 4 hours to dig a hole probably 30 inches deep, wide as the FEL since I was using it. I would have had a heart attack trying to dig by hand, and almost dide.

After about 15 minutes and a hole about 3" deep with the FEL, I put the post hole digger on there and drilled 8 holes, but still had trouble with the dig. Finally ran water in there and let it soak. Once I got the hole deep enough digging the mud out with the FEL I ended up sliding into the hole and had to pull my tractor out with the truck.

There has to be a better way short of a $6000 backhoe.

 

[Duffster]

Tooth Bar.

 

[MossRoad]

Tooth Bar.

Yes. I agree. A toothbar with sharp teeth makes a HUGE difference.

Another hand tool is pallet forks. It concentrates the force on two smaller points than the entire width of a bucket.

 

[tanglefoot]

Alan,
I live 50 miles southeast of you, and I know what you were dealing with. Sorry to hear about your Mom's dog. When my old dog dies, if the ground is dry, I plan to use my Mantis tiller to loosen the hardpack, just like I would use a pick.
Butch

 

[jinman]

I have buried two goats and a dog by using my FEL to dig the graves. The first hole I dug for a goat was in clay soil and pretty dry, so I used my rock bucket along with a 5' bucket to dig the hole. A big bucket, even with a toothbar, is not your friend when digging a hole. The rock bucket is very long, so it allowed me to dig deeply, but it reduces my breakout power a bunch. Even so, it worked well in the clay, and the 5' bucket cleaned up the loose material. What I learned was that you have to dig a huge hole with a slope to be able to get deep enough and get your tractor into and out of the hole.

The 2nd hole I dug was with only a 6' toothbar bucket. The hole was in relatively loose soil with good moisture content and went rather quickly. The 3rd hole was in clay and I complicated that dig by having a low front tire that popped off the rim and had to be manipulated to get it to set its bead again. After that, digging resumed, but with some moisture in the ground, it was not too bad.

Alan, do you have a subsoiler? If I have plenty of room, I've learned to use my subsoiler to scarify a large area and follow that with the loader bucket. I've done that in several areas where I was not digging a grave and it worked well. You might be able to get down to 18" deep that way before the sides of the hole keep you from being able to move side-to-side with the subsoiler for multiple passes.

FELs are okay for digging sloped trenches, but not good at digging straight-side holes much more than about 24" deep. Something like my rock bucket can extend that to 36", but then you have to slope one side to get deeper.

 

[JJT]

That's the main reason we now go with cremation.

 

[ragkar]

A poster in another thread showed and told us how he dug square holes with his fel bucket. He would tilt the bucket forwards about thirty degrees and push with the engine. While he was pushing with the engine, he would wiggle (tilt) the bucket.
But teeth are much faster. Markham is a favored manufacturer.

 

[SPYDERLK]

A poster in another thread showed and told us how he dug square holes with his fel bucket. He would tilt the bucket forwards about thirty degrees and push with the engine. While he was pushing with the engine, he would wiggle (tilt) the bucket.
But teeth are much faster. Markham is a favored manufacturer.

That works very well. You still get a sloped entry tho if you are pushing forward.
larry

 

[whistlepig]

I do my burials with a post hole digger. A series of holes as close as I can get to each other. Then I dig the rest out. I have a FEL but wouldn't even think about using it for this task.

 

[Alan L.]

Have actually tried the bucket forks before, the clamp on kind, I believe I bent the bucket a little. Just too much leverage in a very small area. My wifes little Honda tiller (similar to the Mantis) does a good job in normal soil, but I believe it wouldn't be able to break up this hard pan. After I drilled the holes my grandson ask me if I put cans in the ground, as the sides of the holes were like glass.

I basically try to slope the hole where I can take just a little bite, start with the bucket pointed mostly down, then gradually curl it up as I push forward. I'd try to keep the front wheels on the ground to maintain control, but find it next to impossible. Then there is a point where I just can't get any traction, the tractor feels like it is going to buck me off with the alternate spinning and catching of traction. Then when I get what I think is a pretty good bite I run out of power to to curl the bucket.

Would the tooth bar create less resistance when trying to dig? Of course I don't want to do this depressing chore on a regular basis, but there are other reasons for digging, and its really tough in our soil. What kind of money are we talking about, and is this something you tend to leave on the bucket? How hard to put it on and take it off.

I did drill 8 post holes and it helped, but it didn't make the job easy by any means. The ground was so hard I had to work the tractor back and forth before the auger would ever catch and start pulling itself into the ground, and then of course I had to pull it out every few seconds to keep it from screwing itself into the ground.

I've never used a different bucket on my tractor - its a 54" bucket and not sure how much smaller I could go.

I wish there was such a thing as a tool for digging 30" holes rather than 6 or 7 foot holes like a backhoe will do, for alot less money.

I don't have a subsoiler, but I do have a middle buster I bought with the though to digging a trench with it. But for some reason the geometry is such that I can only manage a 9" deep trench with it. For this dig I wouldn't have had enough room to use that tool.

I ended up with a hole probably the 54" width of the FEL by about that much the other way. Perhaps I could have sloped it more with better results, but every inch was tough going.

I wonder if a big diameter auger would work? Probably would take more horsepower than I have however.

I wish one of our inventors on this board would come up with with a $500 digging machine for smaller holes.

Sorry for the epistle.