Removing clay filled culverts

[wawajake]

Had some fun last week removing 15ft of 12 inch culvert plugged with clay because previous owner installed it in two pieces and over time it filled up.
Luckily the small one came out after using middle buster to open trench and FEL to expose . And then a chain and sling to walk it out from each end. But the remaining 10 ft piece weighed far to much. But with some coaxing and using my BX2660 and my ATV , I was able to work the big piece out too. A few times the tractors wanted to tip , but from lessons learned on this site (like always keep hand on FEL hydraulics) was able to drop quickly when got hairy and get a better grip and try again.
Yes I should not of stopped to take a picture at the precarious moment , but some here like pics !!!!.

Anyway a clean 15inch 10 ft used culvet went back in and the old one I rollled into bush and buried with the dirt I got from the same ditches in pics that I cleaned better with FEL after .

Was a fun 6 hrs of seat time (including ditch/swale cleaning)

jake

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Like your sun roof. Is that tube steel? Please show more close up pictures of where it connects to tractor and describe cover.

 

[ChuckinNH]

You know, I hate to say it, but guys buy large tractors, and we often never hear from them again, but the guys with the BX's are always doing something interesting. Thanks for sharing the pictures, and story about what you have been doing with yours!

 

[EddieWalker]

... 12 inch culvert plugged with clay because previous owner installed it in two pieces and over time it filled up.


But the remaining 10 ft piece weighed far to much.

Jake,

Nice job on pulling out the old culvert and installing the new one. Not being there, I don't know this, but in my experience, culverts clog up most of the time due to a lack of flow through them. If the water doesn't go fast enough, it leaves sediment in the pipe. The faster the water goes through it, the cleaner it will remain. If you have a very flat area, I would consider lifting one end of the pipe and letting the sediment build up before the pipe so that the water flows through the pipe better.

To clean out a culvert, use a pipe to feed a chain through it. Then attach the end of the chain to a plug. I've used pieces of 4x4 that I run through it, then add more pieces until I get the bulk of the clay out. After one end has the plug on it, pull the other end with the tractor. Start out small and keep making it bigger.

Not that it matters, you got it done and did it well.

Eddie

 

[savageactor7]

Good pics too Jake.

Have you ever use your middle buster to fashion a swale hole trench for drainage? What was your thoughts?

I'm debating between a middle buster and a 1 bottom plow.

 

[iplumb]

Jake,

Nice job on pulling out the old culvert and installing the new one. Not being there, I don't know this, but in my experience, culverts clog up most of the time due to a lack of flow through them. If the water doesn't go fast enough, it leaves sediment in the pipe. The faster the water goes through it, the cleaner it will remain. If you have a very flat area, I would consider lifting one end of the pipe and letting the sediment build up before the pipe so that the water flows through the pipe better.

To clean out a culvert, use a pipe to feed a chain through it. Then attach the end of the chain to a plug. I've used pieces of 4x4 that I run through it, then add more pieces until I get the bulk of the clay out. After one end has the plug on it, pull the other end with the tractor. Start out small and keep making it bigger.

Not that it matters, you got it done and did it well.

Eddie

Not always true. I'm a plumber and we only have 1/8 to 1/4 per foot fall on larger diameter drainage pipes which is code. If water travels through the pipe too fast in leaves STUFF behind. I have always heard that a pipe with too much pitch will plug up faster.
This may not be true if there is always lots of water running through the ditch.

Thanks for the picks Jake! What tooth bar is that? Do you like it?

 

[LBrown59]

Had some fun last week removing 15ft of 12 inch culvert plugged with clay because previous owner installed it in two pieces and over time it filled up.
Luckily the small one came out after using middle buster to open trench and FEL to expose . And then a chain and sling to walk it out from each end. But the remaining 10 ft piece weighed far to much. But with some coaxing and using my BX2660 and my ATV , I was able to work the big piece out too. A few times the tractors wanted to tip , but from lessons learned on this site (like always keep hand on FEL hydraulics) was able to drop quickly when got hairy and get a better grip and try again.
Yes I should not of stopped to take a picture at the precarious moment , but some here like pics !!!!.

Anyway a clean 15inch 10 ft used culvet went back in and the old one I rollled into bush and buried with the dirt I got from the same ditches in pics that I cleaned better with FEL after .

Was a fun 6 hrs of seat time (including ditch/swale cleaning)

jake

This is where I wouldn't want to be without my BX23 BH.

 

[wawajake]

In order of questions asked:
My roof is tin attached to hardwood frame which is bolted with two quarter inch bolts thru the ROP and two quarter inch bolts thru FEL upright (there was enough room to fit the three quarter inch thick piece of oak with countersunk nut between FEL hinge point and and then run the quarter inch bolt thru small hole in FEL upright. THen attach plexiglass front and back to the wood . It was for keeping winter winds off me , but now I see it is good for shade in summer , so will keep it on.
Previous description was made earlier on TBN in

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/132825-welders-dont-read-one-homemade.html

Eddie :thanks for tips on cleaning a culvert , those were new for me.
The ditch was only holding any appreciable water in spring , but protects my septic bed from flooding so is a requirement. Although last year I did a much better swale further up the hill to diagonally divert a spring time stream away from this area and away from my garage.

Further to that Savage you asked how I used middle buster.
The 150 ft swale ditch I made from scratch and in hard clay last year required me to bust the surface open with two or three passes of middle buster , then I worked perpendicular to the ditch from uphill side with my FEL and made the ditch 20 to 30 inches deep and used the waste material pushed to the downhill side to further bolster the ditch capability.

jake

 

[wawajake]

Its a Markham toothbar..........love it , best purchase and they treated me well and fast even to Canada.

Yes LBrown a backhoe would be nice but could not afford.(but am jealous !)
Even now I am installing fence posts using the FEL.
So you end up digging a four foot wide hole for a 10 inch cedar post , sort of like using a sledge hammer to install finish nails in baseboards. But it works , fill in the hole , using the back wheels to tamp down the earth and move on to the next post hole needed.

jake

 

[EddieWalker]

Not always true. I'm a plumber and we only have 1/8 to 1/4 per foot fall on larger diameter drainage pipes which is code. If water travels through the pipe too fast in leaves STUFF behind. I have always heard that a pipe with too much pitch will plug up faster.
This may not be true if there is always lots of water running through the ditch.

Thanks for the picks Jake! What tooth bar is that? Do you like it?

I see your point, but have never come across it myself. I know this is true for sewage drain pipe in homes. Too much slope and the liquids and solids separate from each other, leaving the solids behind. Not enough slope and nothing moves in the pipe. With culverts, I've seen allot of damage on the outflow side of the pipe from too much slope, and the speed of the water causing erosion, which exposes the pipe and creates another set of problems.

Since this culvert was full of clay, I think it was from being too level. The observation that the clay was from the culvert being joined together in the middle and that there was two of them doesn't add up for me. If the joint was the problem, then that is where the clay would have built up. I don't see this happening. I think the culvert was so flat that after a heavy rain, the water sat in the culvert and slowly evaporated. Since the water wasn't moving, it left deposits of clay at the bottom. Over time, this just kept building up to the point it probably came close to plugging up the culvert.

Eddie