3 to 1 Pond Slope

I am cleaning silt and moving back the shoreline on my island pond. I almost finished draining it yesterday. I want to put in a 3 to 1 slope on the new shore. I'm using a 4 foot cleanout bucket on the CAT and I am having a hard time getting the slope right. Any ideas or techniques Y'all use, please share them with me. I originally dug the pond down to 7 feet with my tractor and 7 foot wide loader bucket. But now, I am trying to do the sloping with the CAT to learn how to do it right with the excavator.

I started digging with the pond drained down half way. I want to move the shore back into a finger cutout behind the CAT.
I have dug more back since the photo was taken. Also, I am thinking about taking some of the trees behind the CAT out, so there will be more room for access around the new "finger".

I dug around and pushed over into the pond, this sweetgum and elm tree. The white to the left in the photo is silt that washed into the pond from our May floods.

I had left a point of land around the tree and the bucket is on the old point.
hugs, Brandi

Need to mark your top edge with flags or flagging paint. If the water is three foot down from the top, cut you a measuring stick 9 foot long, lay it on the ground so the end will be lined up with the water edge. Mark the end on the bank. Get your machine placed with your tracks running with the contour. Start shaving the material off taking the crown out up to the high side. Try not to undercut if possible. You can use your marking stick to check behind you. Nine foot is for 3 foot, 12 foot is for 4 foot, 15 foot is for 5 foot and so on. You should try to decide your clearance needs so you can clear what you need before working your slope, most of the time I give 5 foot from the top edge and width of tracks plus 5-10 foot for counterweight clearance on the swing. Always be careful of undercut areas when working along edges, you don't want to end up in the pond.

I get the length back from the water's edge. I tend to dig too deep when I had crowding the stick, then pull up too much. Right now it looks like a roller coaster. I need to lengthen it a little and slow down and get the bumps out. My old CAT just doesn't seem to have the "float" finesse I have with my backhoe.

When working a slope, where should the bucket's edge be positioned?
hugs, Brandi

Hello, Your bucket position looks good in last picture. I have done a lot of slopes for big building basements and ponds. Like sheepfoot said, mark a line on top parallel with bottom of slope. One thing I see wrong (to me) is you look like you might be digging from bottom up. Start at top working your way down. you won't lose as much material down the slope this way.

I usually only run one of our excavators loading the wood grinder but occasionally load the haul trucks for an hr or 2 every now and then . with our 330c and 320e as I am not an operator but a mechanic I find it easiest to pull the bucket smoothest and make minor adjustments to bucket and grade starting out with stick out far as it goes , but my secret is to go slow sometimes I have to run the throttle down some to achieve what I am trying to do but then again im not an operator and dont do it everyday

dozerman400 said:

Hello, Your bucket position looks good in last picture. I have done a lot of slopes for big building basements and ponds. Like sheepfoot said, mark a line on top parallel with bottom of slope. One thing I see wrong (to me) is you look like you might be digging from bottom up. Start at top working your way down. you won't lose as much material down the slope this way.

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Yes, I was digging from the bottom. Each time I pull up, it gathers material that is loose. I will try it your way after lunch. Thanks.
hugs, Brandi

walkerv said:

I usually only run one of our excavators loading the wood grinder but occasionally load the haul trucks for an hr or 2 every now and then . with our 330c and 320e as I am not an operator but a mechanic I find it easiest to pull the bucket smoothest and make minor adjustments to bucket and grade starting out with stick out far as it goes , but my secret is to go slow sometimes I have to run the throttle down some to achieve what I am trying to do but then again im not an operator and dont do it everyday

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I'll slow down. Thanks!
hugs, Brandi

I had another thought Brandi ... if your smooth with your backhoe and its normal bh controls maybe try finding the valve on your excavator to switch it to backhoe pattern .. just a thought

walkerv said:

I had another thought Brandi ... if your smooth with your backhoe and its normal bh controls maybe try finding the valve on your excavator to switch it to backhoe pattern .. just a thought

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Hehehe....................I had to switch the lines to the stick and bucket to get backhoe controls. I did that a few months after I bought it. My backhoe joysticks are smooth. The old CAT E70/Mitsubishi MS070 has two long levers to work. The controls are not smooth. I did better with it today. I lined up with the right angle for the bucket and just backed up..........lifting the boom a little as I went. That knocked the roller coaster down for a good roughed in slope. When it gets dryer.........I'll back drag it with my loader bucket (7 foot wide) for the final slope.

Now, in this photo you see my process. I wasted a lot of time fighting the water pump, because it kept clogging up with hundreds of mud catfish, down in my sump hole. Wet weather springs keep seeping and filling the bottom up. I wasn't gonna pump it all the way down.........until I figured out all the tadpoles I saw had whiskers. But anyway in the photo you see my son on my tractor with a chain going down.............................I'll post a new thread on where the CAT went........................
hugs, Brandi

Here is the link I started to what happened to my CAT. https://www.heavyequipmentforums.co...-I-learned-3-things-today&p=655375#post655375
hugs, Brandi

I am starting to get the hang of resloping my bank. I also made perches to keep from sliding down. Once I have a stretch of the lower bank cleaned, I take out the perch and reslope that. It's going slow, but I'm all alone. I keep pumping out the sump hole, but mud catfish babies keep clogging it up. So intermittant pumping, dumping, policing the loading zone with the loader bucket, and the heat really slow me up. I really need two other people helping me. I'm also backdragging the slope with the loader bucket when it dries a bit.
hugs, Brandi