Trench Digging

[JakeLS]

Good morning,
I'm looking for a little advice. I'm new to tractors and equipment in general. Yesterday I helped a friend dig a trench from his house to his new garage for electric service using the backhoe on my MT125. The backhoe worked great, much better than a shovel! My question is, how do you "finish" a trench with a wheeled machine? I had to leave enough space at one end or the other to drive the tractor out (ended up leaving the gap in the middle due to rocks and roots near the garage and sticky clay near the house). I've seen track machines lift the front end a bit with the boom and just spin the tracks 90 degrees and drive out over the trench but that wont work with wheels.
Any advice or will I need to continue hand digging the last 6 or so feet?

 

[Professor Marvel]

you have to pick it/walk it over the ditch using the hoe
practice this without the ditch a few times first

 

[JakeLS]

you have to pick it/walk it over the ditch using the hoe
practice this without the ditch a few times first

Thanks! Excellent advice on trying it without the trench first! Lol if it ever stops raining I'll give it a shot.

 

[Gary Fowler]

To get the front across, just lower the FEL to lift the front wheels slightly and skid across, keep the FEL down then use the backhoe to lift the back wheels and pivot the hoe to set one wheel across the ditch.
On narrow trenches, you can sometimes just drive across with the back wheels since they are much larger than the fronts.

 

[3Ts]

Since you have a tractor mounted hoe, be sure it can lift the back of the tractor completely off the ground. Otherwise - - -

 

[Red Horse]

Or you can just back up to end of trench at like 45 degree angle and boom out and just dig a wider hole at foundation- not pretty but it works. How wide and deep is trench. Or how about this very simple solution-you are not laying drainage pipe where you have to worry about pitch. Run out enough wire from house in trench, leave a couple of feet open, then backfill up to coiled wire and dig rest out.

 

[Diggin It]

^^ That's probably what I would do. Dig some, lay the conduit/pipe/wire, backfill that section, then move on. Second option would be some kind of heavy planking. I don't believe I'd be lifting and hopping over.

 

[Diggin It]

Since you have a tractor mounted hoe, be sure it can lift the back of the tractor completely off the ground. Otherwise - - -

I'm not sure these will. The outriggers will. The Hoe might straight back and down. Angling and twisting the whole machine? I don't think I'd trust it.

 

[Red Horse]

Simple is usually best solution

 

[4570Man]

It’s hard the get the last bit of dirt out of the trench without dragging it around some. I don’t think the dig and cover half of it approach would work very good. The digging at 45 degrees doesn’t work good either. My last tractor backhoe had no problem with the lift and hop over approach.