Pull behind roller/compactor for Kioti DK6010SE tractor?

[paulsharvey]

If you do think you might want to build a detacted garage or something in the area in the future; you really want to scrape the top soils off (and stock pile), along with rocks and clay; and place a clean, well draining sandy soil.

 

[paulsharvey]

In "slope fill 1" section; I wouldn't feel bad about having rocks and clay in the bottom 2 lifts; as your top 3 lifts would be fine; once again, assuming we are talking about yard/landscape area.

You pretty much want good material atleast 4 feet outside of any foundation.

 

[future_vision]

Yes, pictures are correct.
For fill; down here, we typically would use any relatively clean material, with as little clay, or organics is fine. Basically, you want to avoid any rocks larger than your fist, and any roots bigger than your finger as a rough guideline. If you ever intend to place an outbuilding on this, things change, but my understanding is you want to have a yard area. Honestly, if you can 100% say you never intend to build a structure on top of this back fill; you can put a pretty good bit of roots, clay, rocks, in the lower portion of the fill; say, the bottom bit of 4 ft; but it's not ideal. I dont mean dump your tree stumps there, I mean, that bottom, some roots, head sized rocks, and all will be fine. As you get to the top 24" you really don't want expansive clays or roots.

As far as water; rain is better than sprinklers; but there is no replacement for proper soil moisture when compacting. As a Very general statement; you want it wet enough that you can form a ball, but when you drop the ball, it crumbles apart. This is why any road project you see, there will be water trucks to get the moisture if it's too dry.

Great information! We don't plan on building anything in that area. It's a front yard that will be flat and then gently slope down and then back up to some fields. We are actually thinking we want to keep some slope to channel water down and away from the house and fields to an area about 100' from the house where we want to bury a cistern or some method/structure to collect water to use for watering the fields and grass. Footer drains and gutters would be routed there too.

As for the fill we'll have some from digging out for the walkout basement. From what I can tell it is exactly what you are talking about. I should scrape off the organics until I get down to the non-organic material I assume.

 

[paulsharvey]

"As for the fill we'll have some from digging out for the walkout basement. From what I can tell it is exactly what you are talking about. I should scrape off the organics until I get down to the non-organic material I assume."

Yes, try to scrape the top soil off first, and put that in a pile to top dress stuff when you're done.

Not all clay is the same; some is more stable than others. If you can take a ball of the clay, and roll it into a snake; that's probably a very "plastic" clay that is prone to expansion in water, contraction when dry, and could cause drainage issues; so that would be avoided. Very different area; but here, gray/white/pink clays generally are like that; the orangish sandy clays aren't nearly as bad.

I know I sound kinda dump taking about fist sized rocks, finger sized roots, making dirt balls, and rolling a clay snake.... and there is Much more technical terms for all of this; just trying to make it understandable.

 

[future_vision]

That is entirely dependent on the material. We dont use sheep's foot at all here (other than in landfills). They are good in clay, but sandy loam/clean fill; smooth roller is the norm.

So, back to our OPs compaction; you have a handful of options;
1) place fill, with decent moisture, track it in, go about 6"-12" lifts; this is plenty for landscaping, but is not going to get you to 95-98% compaction required for foundations
2) place thicker lift, maybe upto 24", tire roll; flood it and let it sit
3) rent a vibratory roller; atleast a 1 ton; not a static gas powered sod roller
4) directional plate compactor; and thin lifts; 6"; and yes, have the moisture right
5) a 48-60" long, 30-36" diameter steel drum filled with water or concrete, and many passes
6) a traffic roller type set up; including one's that pull behind a medium sized tractor; most have a water or sand tank to add weight; the rubber tires help prevent bridging over soft areas
7) sprinkler and time

General advice; you can't compact dust or mud; you really do need your moisture to be right for any method

You mentioned a plate compactor in your post. Would that be referring to something like this? I could see using this in multiple applications. Driveway and pads for storage shed, portable timber mill, etc...

https://www.harborfreight.com/7-hp-plate-compactor-with-wheel-kit-70167.html

 

[paulsharvey]

You mentioned a plate compactor in your post. Would that be referring to something like this? I could see using this in multiple applications. Driveway and pads for storage shed, portable timber mill, etc...

https://www.harborfreight.com/7-hp-plate-compactor-with-wheel-kit-70167.html

Yes, although I don't know about that specific one. Some are reversible, and are more or less self propelled; some weight I. at 500# of so; while others might be 120#. The small ones honestly don't do that much for compaction, but the large ones certainly are capable. I dont know that it good faith I'd recommend them for landscaped backfill; for a couple reasons;
1) $700 is a lot of money that might be better suited to a rental
2) you mentioned the time/trips involved in wheel compacting; this probably covers less total square feet than your tractors wheels; and makes multiple passes.
3) they are a Lot of work

 

[paulsharvey]

From HFs own reading; 9500 sq ft per hour. That's Optimistic. I would say 4000 sq ft per hour. If we are doing 0.25 acres; that's 2-3 hours of plate tamp time per lift. If we are doing more like 0.5 acres; your going to have something like 20+ man hours in compacting those 4-5 lifts of fill.
With a loaded bucket of fill; your DK should probably be putting something like 1000#/sq ft of pressure on the fill with front tires; and something like 250#/sq ft with the rears; but covering probably in the neighborhood of 4 sq ft of area per linear foot of travel. You can handle mounds, slopes much easier too; all from a seat; vs dragging a 500# tamp around, and still needing to drag/level the area with the tractor.

Dang; Sunbelt is expensive on compaction equipment.... and even with a roller; you would probably have 2-3 days of rental min

 

[paulsharvey]

Moisture and tire rolling should get your to that 90+% compaction needed for a yard/landscaping. If we where talking foundations, that's where we need to get more serious

 

[future_vision]

From HFs own reading; 9500 sq ft per hour. That's Optimistic. I would say 4000 sq ft per hour. If we are doing 0.25 acres; that's 2-3 hours of plate tamp time per lift. If we are doing more like 0.5 acres; your going to have something like 20+ man hours in compacting those 4-5 lifts of fill.
With a loaded bucket of fill; your DK should probably be putting something like 1000#/sq ft of pressure on the fill with front tires; and something like 250#/sq ft with the rears; but covering probably in the neighborhood of 4 sq ft of area per linear foot of travel. You can handle mounds, slopes much easier too; all from a seat; vs dragging a 500# tamp around, and still needing to drag/level the area with the tractor.

Dang; Sunbelt is expensive on compaction equipment.... and even with a roller; you would probably have 2-3 days of rental minView attachment 874137View attachment 874138

Yes. Rentals up in this area are crazy. I've watched recent YouTube videos where people were renting for half the price(might be a bit of an exaggeration). As for the plate compactor I was only thinking of buying because there is a 400 ft driveway that needs compacting when it goes in, the parking area in front of the garage, the gravel under the slabs for the home and garage, and some other miscellaneous areas. I am guessing I could get away with the tractor in the more open areas but inside stem walls/footers it is probably going to need be a plate compactor right?

 

[future_vision]

From HFs own reading; 9500 sq ft per hour. That's Optimistic. I would say 4000 sq ft per hour. If we are doing 0.25 acres; that's 2-3 hours of plate tamp time per lift. If we are doing more like 0.5 acres; your going to have something like 20+ man hours in compacting those 4-5 lifts of fill.
With a loaded bucket of fill; your DK should probably be putting something like 1000#/sq ft of pressure on the fill with front tires; and something like 250#/sq ft with the rears; but covering probably in the neighborhood of 4 sq ft of area per linear foot of travel. You can handle mounds, slopes much easier too; all from a seat; vs dragging a 500# tamp around, and still needing to drag/level the area with the tractor.

Dang; Sunbelt is expensive on compaction equipment.... and even with a roller; you would probably have 2-3 days of rental min

FYI, my DK has filled tires and I can even even switch over to the grapple and cart around a large boulder or log if that gets me more compaction.