Trenching in drain tile.

[watglen]

A few years ago i trenched in some 12" tile. The trench was flat bottom 16" wide. We bedded and backfilled with the spoils as best we could.

This summer i dug some of it up and noticed the pipe is ovalling. Not enough to worry yet, but i wouldn't do it that way again.

I was wondering if anyone has thought of using a v bottom bucket for this application. Tile plows create a v bottom trench to nest the pipe. I want to create the same trench bottom with an excavator bucket.

Any thoughts?


Ken

 

[Drc]

You either need to fabricate a bucket the shape of the tile or go with a wider trench to get bedding to support pipe to springline, the botom half of of the circle.

 

[JBGASH]

How deep was the tile? We put the tile at the side of the trench bottom for a little better stability.

 

[watglen]

Thats what we did too JB, but its doesn't seem to give enough support to the pipe. I wouldn't want to charge someone for this.

The people i have talked to mass-excavate down to near grade and use the tile plow to install the pipe. The plow does a proper job of creating the trench bottom, and backfilling. However, sometimes this requires moving entire hilltops so they can drive the tiling machine through. Seems like a huge waste of effort to me.

But i thought i had better ask, before i go spend money on a specialty bucket.

 

[pointrow]

You can fabricate a curved flat plate that attaches to the teeth on the bucket. It only needs to fit the bottom half of the tile od. It is important to support the tile at 4 & 8 oclock and cover with dirt of gravel to keep rocks and chunks from damaging the tile.
later
pointrow

 

[bib]

Hi that shouldve been fine unless it was shallow and driven over with heavy equipment I live in mn. and only have problems when certain soils are used and or depths and weight of equipment

 

[robin yates uk]

in the UK we use a perforated plastic pipe with a flat bottom , this is then covered with pea gravel(river rock I think you call it)We use the smallest bucket available for the width of the plastic drain.Usually 4 to 6 inches of gravel over the top of the pipe

 

[watglen]

That makes a lot of sense Robin. I've only ever seen round pipe here.

 

[robin yates uk]

the pipe I mention was used when I was on the build of the M5 spur road, M54 25 years ago, so not new technology by any means.The back filling has to have gravel in and around the pipe before any spoil can go over it. The drains work perfectly today so a friend informed me. The pipe comes in 6 metre lengths

 

[xcmark]

3/4 minus around the pipe with a good amount of cover is a must. last year I watched a mixer with 11 yards in it back over a 24" plastic recharge area that only had 24" of crushed stone cover sink right to the frame. then the A hole rocks the truck forward and backwards to ruin another 20' before he gave up and asked for help. the design required 5" of hot top on top of the stone for a drive way.

 

[watglen]

I was talking to a fellow involved with the tile drain industry for many years. He said that installing tile with a specially shaped excavator bucket is common in the western states and Canada. Not really used in Ontario.

Any idea where i could find some pics of such a bucket?

Ken

 

[daren99]

I've heard of guys using a v shaped frost bucket for tile, the would just weld a flat edge over the teeth. Worked pretty good if I remember correctly.

 

[daren99]

I also think I remember seeing an 18" bucket a guy cut the bottom out of and welded a split piece if 15" (I think") schedule 80 pipe on the bottom. I think his soils were mostly sand, but it worked good he said.

 

[watglen]

A fellow sent me some pics of the kind of thing i had in mind. At least now i know its not a crazy idea...



I have enough feet of tile to install that it may warrant buying a bucket specifically for this.

 

[robin yates uk]

for this kind of drain to work properly( and stay working ) you have to bed the pipe in gravel and cover with gravel

 

[pointrow]

That's what you need. Pretty simple to fab and bolt on when it is needed.
later
pointrow