cat 304 c cr

[centralillinois]

Normally I fix clay drainage tile in fields with the cat but not much else. I dig out the old and put new in the same trench. However, I'd like to be able to run tile next to the old tile since the clay I'm replacing was put in by hand and sometimes the old fellows tried to run it uphill. I've been told I need to form a half moon on the end of the 27 inch bucket so the new plastic replacement has a wall on each side. How would I go about forming a half moon on the bucket end? Does someone make an attachment for this application or do I need to fabricate this myself? thanks

 

[Jakebreak]

I have seen a few of the U shaped buckets around here but they were only for the larger hoes. I would think if you could find a used bucket for your mini you could cut a half moon out of a piece of pipe and weld it to the bucket and put a few teeth on them those 304 have power and are pretty stable I'm not sure how big you could go and not rob power or breakout force from the machine and not have it tipping when you go to dump

 

[centralillinois]

Thanks for the reply. I looked at a 330 cat today that had a 44 inch bucket that had a half moon fabricated to install 21 inch tile. Princsco has a good explanation on how to build your own unit. I thought someone might already be building these but it looks like you have to fabricate your own. My bucket is 27 wide so if I was to build it for a 10 inch tile it only needs to be six inches deep at the center and 12 inches wide. That wouldn't be a tremendous amount of dirt but I'm aware that if it's wet it could be challenging. The operator welded a 1 1/4 inch plate underneath the teeth and can take it off by torching a few welds. He first flattens the bottom and then makes his final cut to build the bottom trench. He runs pretty flat until he hits bottom to avoid rocks and tear things up. I like your idea of finding a used bucket but anything that hasn't been beaten to death is worth it's weight in gold around here. It's only money.

 

[Jakebreak]

10-4 on that not to take away from your thread but is tile just perforated pipe to help drain low areas on a field or to help push heavy salt or alkali deeper into the soil so the farmer can have better soil to work with I don't think they do to much of that stuff around here and does it have to be laid to grade

 

[centralillinois]

I should be a little more clearer what we consider "tile". Most of the drainage used to be one foot long clay tile that has served well for generations. About fifty years ago we started replacing the ancient tile with plastic perforated pipe that comes in rolls. We still refer to as tile but it's a different product nonetheless. Most pipe larger than six inches is installed by machines that dig a trench and lay the pipe behind it. Smaller than six inches is normally plowed in without digging a trench. The plows are able to hold the grade better than they used to. Typically you try and get 1 inch of fall for every 100 feet. Most of my fields have at least a foot of fall per 100 feet but some are less. The affordable grade systems that are showing up on small trackhoes and backhoes are utilizing machines that a lot of farmers already own. Most of the time they hire the installation of plastic pipe but fix broken tile on their own. Most tile companies recommend you have a small trench to support the side of the tile. Currently it's considered cost effective to use 4 inch tile installed every 60 feet to drain excess moisture. Every soil type is different but there's been a lot of tile installed in the midwest during the last decade. You try to get 30 to 40 inches of cover. If you run a backhoe everyday you don't have trouble keeping it level but most farmers buy 10 year old backhoes and use them a couple hundred hours a year so a grade control system might be worthwhile. I'm going to rent a grade control system to see if I can hold the grade better. I currently use a laser and a stick but I'm hoping the new systems would speed things up. The large trenching machines are pretty busy and don't like small jobs so if these grade control systems work as well as advertised backhoes and trackhoes might be utilized more.

 

[Jakebreak]

That's interesting I appreciate you explaining how that works have tried a magnetic rod eye holder that attaches to the boom of the backhoe or excavator all you would have to do is dig down shoot grade with the rod and then place your bucket how you want to grade the ditch then tone out the magnetic eye to the boom I would imagine you would be limited to how far you could go before you lose signal with the laser then all you would have to do is just reset it and keep going