How many feet of 3 foot ditch can you dig in a day?

lgammon · Jan 24, 2020

Looking at putting in a water line. 4" dr21. It is 4400 feet long, one road crossing, no existing utilities. All clear farm land. May backfill with gravel maybe onsite dirt. How many feet can a 305 make in a ten hour day. Or a backhoe? Or what ever you run? Average clay dirt.

Canadian_digger · Jan 25, 2020

Dig and backfill? Or just dig?

Bls repair · Jan 25, 2020

All depends on what your digging in ,I’ve dug in clay where you had to work harder to dump bucket then fill it.

NepeanGC · Jan 27, 2020

With my e42, I've done about 1000-1200ft a day in 'easy' soils. Did one at the end of this past season though that was only 600ft long, and it took about 8-9hrs for dig only. Ground was mush and I had to fight to empty the bucket every time. With that length of trench and if it's open, I'd probably want a bigger shovel than a 5 ton. I think I'd likely bring in an 8 ton minimum, just for extra bucket capacity per swing.

Welder Dave · Jan 27, 2020

Is it only a 4" water line 3' deep? That's what they make trencher's for. If the ground is dry a trencher would do it in a couple hours or less. An angle blade on the front would backfill it pretty fast too.

AzIron · Feb 2, 2020

My hired help on a good backhoe can average 80 feet sometimes a 100 an hour at 4 feet deep buts that's in dirt with no rock and the dirt cleared the bucket as fast as it went in

I personally have done about 1400 feet in one day but it was about 16 hours

lgammon · Feb 19, 2020

No idea on soil conditions. My guess would be dryish red Clay's. I have a 305 is why I'm wanting to use it. Why rent while I'm making payments on another one? I was hoping to hit 800 feet a day average digging only. I think I an inline from your comments...thanks

Welder Dave · Feb 19, 2020

I'd still look into a trencher, even a walk behind one. Using a mini-ex will still make the job about 4 times more work and take a lot longer.

Orest Anhel · Feb 20, 2020

Did 3500 feet of waterline 5 foot deep for a micro hydro project with Yanmar Vio 35 mini ex and 24 inch bucket. Did 250-600 feet per 8 hour shift depending on whether I was navigating around immovable boulders, going through heavily consolidated cobble or fairly dry clay-sand-dirt. I make no claim to be a hi ball production operator.

How many feet of 3 foot ditch can you dig in a day?

lgammon

Senior Member

Canadian_digger

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Bls repair

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NepeanGC

Well-Known Member

Welder Dave

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AzIron

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lgammon

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Welder Dave

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Orest Anhel

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