Making it so the water can run

[sled dog]

Aw heck that ain’t bad. A little time with a sharpshooter and you’re done

Sharpshooter ? Sharpshooter ? Ha, you done spent some time 'round Pipeliners!!!

 

[Junkyard]

I’ve dug out many a track! Sidebooms, dozers, drill rigs etc. Best thing we have now is our vac trailer. Pressure it up, stick a 3” hose on and go nuts. Hold on tight!

 

[245dlc]

View attachment 188243 View attachment 188244 Little winter project. This is the overcut so the plow can put the main in. In case anybody is wondering, I consider myself pretty capable with a hoe, and cutting rough grade I can't seem to make 200 yards per hour. With a 2 yard bucket. Maybe if I didn't have to open it 13' wide I could? Anyway, here's a couple pics.

Hi Shimmy I use to do sub-grade excavating for highway and roads and also use to dig basements it takes a long time to be able to cut perfect or close to perfect grades for stuff like that. Often when I was digging highway sub-grades we would have a dozer go in the cut to help trim but often now I think for cuts like that where maybe a dozer isn't available a wide shallow clean up bucket like what's often used in Europe and the U.K. would work better. I looked at some of your ditching photos and found it interesting that you dig them 'side saddle' like that. We're just finishing up a busy season of ditching here in Manitoba and we almost always sit right in the bottom with the loon $hite and bail in to an adjacent field or sometimes in to a dump truck and if we can't reach like on one of the jobs I was doing in October I made a windrow along the shoulder line of a gravel road where a second machine came later with a couple tandem axle dump trucks to clean up.

 

[Shimmy1]

Question for you catskinners that ran tractors like this 7G in their prime. Not really a good way to get the real greasy stuff out from around the shield over the sprocket, so am I going to be froze up in the morning? I was worried at first about behind the sprocket, since the final drive housing is so close, but after cleaning out and moving the tractor back and forth a couple times, behind the sprocket was clean. But, the outside was pretty well smeared like caulk around the top half.

 

[Shimmy1]

Here we go, as promised. I shot a little video, I'll give you guys that first. I honestly cannot believe how fast they can pull 15" pipe into the ground.

 

[Shimmy1]

 

[245dlc]

I'm surprised they didn't need to pre-rip with a D10. lol I didn't even see the tracks slip as they were going.

 

[Shimmy1]

I'm surprised they didn't need to pre-rip with a D10. lol I didn't even see the tracks slip as they were going.

It was pretty amazing to watch. A couple places it got tough, the 850 would jack the front end up and dig the tracks in to anchor, and then use the winch to help. That plow weighs in at about 80k, and with all that track and 550 hp, the frost just gives up. That big wedge on the front of the shoe does a lot of the work, by pushing up from underneath, the frost cracks and then it just pulls through. They claim that with just that 850 they can get through a foot, if it's deeper than that they pre-rip or call for an 8 to hook in front.

 

[Shimmy1]

Here they are "blinding off" the hole.

 

[Twisted]

I did a little work with a tile crew this past summer. Their plow was the same as that one and they had an 8K with some extra paddles welded to the grousers pulling it where needed. They trenched the 15" header with a 160 hoe and all of the runs were plowed. 50' spacing if I remember correctly.
I lifted the cover the day after the lift station was installed and the water was 6" below ground level. I did most of the surface ditching on that field as it was too wet for tires.

I'm glad to be done with mud for a few months.

 

[casby]

Hey shimmy, I noticed you ditch perpendicular from the ditch every time. Is there a reason for that? Is it because the bottoms are so wide?

 

[Shimmy1]

Hey shimmy, I noticed you ditch perpendicular from the ditch every time. Is there a reason for that? Is it because the bottoms are so wide?

Too soft to sit in the bottom. Tried it just a couple weeks ago, was nearly stuck with the hoe before I got myself out.

 

[Shimmy1]

The end of mile 7 for this season.

 

[Shimmy1]

Halfway through mile 8

 

[farmerlund]

Hey Shimmy, nice ditch work.. How was your summer up there?

 

[Shimmy1]

Hey Shimmy, nice ditch work.. How was your summer up there?

If every year were like this, I could retire in ten years. No lie.

 

[skyking1]

Have any of you used ditching powder? My dad used it and told me about it from the late 40's and 50's. The complete opposite of these beautiful ditches, BTW. Nice work!

 

[bam1968]

Have any of you used ditching powder? My dad used it and told me about it from the late 40's and 50's. The complete opposite of these beautiful ditches, BTW. Nice work!

If you are referring to ditching dynamite, yes I have. About 30 years ago I worked for a farmer that had a wet area that we used it on. We had to quit when we rattled the dishes in his mom's china cabinet which was almost a half mile away.

 

[skyking1]

Too soft to sit in the bottom. Tried it just a couple weeks ago, was nearly stuck with the hoe before I got myself out.

I had a little cleanout job for a drainage district about 10 years ago. A bunch of the ditch was tight fenced through residential back yards with a few access spots, and I had to run down it with our mini 35 and then bail it at those spots with the 120. I can relate to the stuck thing. I got away but not by much.

 

[Shimmy1]

And so another season begins....