Best way to move dirt?

[bowman316]

We are digging a pond in the corner of our corn field, and as a result, we constantly have 6 ft high piles of dirt around the edges that needs to be moved. We have been spreading the dirt around the wetter parts of the field, in hopes of raising the ground, and drying things out.

My question is, whats the fastest way to do this? because using the front bucket of the backhoe, 1 scoop at a time takes FOREVER. Because sometimes you have to drive 1000 ft to dump the dirt where you want to. Would a bulldozer be the trick? Or would it be better to use a dump truck? I'm worried the truck might get stuck if its too wet. I cant tell if we need a big front end loader, or a bulldozer.

 

[fhhuber]

For speed:

dump trailer... Something of that nature.

Dig and deposit into the trailer instead of on the ground, then tow the trailer out and dump it when full.

Then spread it out with a box blade or using the tractor scoop as a dozer.

Skip the re-shoveling step and take more out to the field per trip.

That doesn't address the issue of potentially getting stuck... The only way to deal with that is selectively dumping short of where you'd get stuck then shoving the dirt on out with a dozer or similar.

 

[Scott Danforth]

1000 laborers with buckets (like they do in china or india). however I would suggest both a truck to move the piles, and a bulldozer to flatten them.

A friend of mine made a pond on his property (as well as a 600' mud running pit and a 4x4 obstacle course), however his cousin owns a heavy equipment company. 2 backhoes, 1 dump truck, and a Cat D8N had the pond dug in about 12 hours, the mud pit filling with water from the creek, and the boulders placed for rock crawling.

 

[bowman316]

A conveyor belt would be nice. We have a wooden homemade trailer, not a dump trailer thou. Thought about loading that up, then tying a chain around the digging bucket, and towing it away, then dumping it by picking up the tongue with the digging arm.

 

[HT32BSX115]

I'd use a BIG front end loader and either just drive it back and forth or use a truck or dump trailer.

It looks pretty wet already though. there's no guarantee even keeping a track-layer from getting stuck.

 

[bowman316]

that picture was from a few months ago. Might have good luck when its frozen, if the piles of dirt will move. I have had to pull myself out with the backhoe arm a few times.

 

[StarTed]

Some of our field was shallow and other parts had plenty of top soil. We had a man with a earth mover scrape the deep areas and deposit in the shallow ones. That worked great but it costs $$$$$. I have a dump trailer and backhoe but that would take a long time. You can't dump and spread with a trailer like with a dump truck. I wouldn't want to press the hoist button while someone drove the vehicle unless I needed to get run over.:joyous:

An earth movers (scraper) can sure move a lots of earth and quite quickly if you have a source for one.

 

[alldodge]

Fastest way to move dirt over a distance for most of us is a dump truck. Only faster way is with a scraper, but not many of us have one of those.

 

[bowman316]

The local construction company has one of these things, called a scraper. Its a 40 ft long piece of machinery that scoops up a truck load of dirt, then deposits it elsewhere. half grader, half dump truck. Thing looks bad ass. Maybe it would be worth it to have them bring that in.


https://www.google.com/search?q=scr...hUD8CYKHeCvAEIQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=N_MZX3Yhbt83UM:

 

[alldodge]

The local construction company has one of these things, called a scraper. Its a 40 ft long piece of machinery that scoops up a truck load of dirt, then deposits it elsewhere. half grader, half dump truck. Thing looks bad ***. Maybe it would be worth it to have them bring that in.


https://www.google.com/search?q=scra...ZX3Yhbt83UM%3A

That's a scraper. If you can afford the rate it would make real short work of the project. It takes a permit to move it unless he can drive it off road to your place

Keep in mind, they do flat work, so they may not do so well in a pond but it is worth asking

 

[bowman316]

I know this is crazy, but would a 3 point hitch snow blower on the back of a tractor, blow this dirt? This is clay soil, with zero rocks in it. If it was sand, it might work, but im thniking the clay might stick to the blower parts.

 

[gm280]

Moving the dirt is one thing. How about the actual pond itself. If you dig this out and can't seal the ground with a good clay base type liner, the pond will never stay. It will fill when rainy and wet, but dry out quickly when dry. I've seen that happen a lot of times around where I live. Even big few hundred acreage type lake projects that didn't seal with a clay base, dried up. JMHO!

 

[bowman316]

Keep in mind, they do flat work, so they may not do so well in a pond but it is worth asking

Oh, the pond is full of water, he would only be taking the piles of dirt around the sides away. we prob have a pile 6 ft high, that goes 100 ft or more around the edge of the pond. My dad just dug it out a few feet at a time, working his way around the whole pond. The whole thing was dug with a backhoe.


And GM280, this soil is 100% clay, so i think it seals itself. Plus this is a very swampy area naturally. That's why we dug a pond there. When we first dug it, we hit water at 5 ft, and the water level was 5 ft below the ground for a month. Then in October we got a bunch of rain, and it filled up completely. Last summer the lowest it dropped was 1 ft below ground level.
I want to build up the bank on the downhill side, because right now it overflows on the low side, while it still has 1 ft of bank on the high side.

 

[alldodge]

I know this is crazy, but would a 3 point hitch snow blower on the back of a tractor, blow this dirt? .

I don't think so, and clay is heavier then snow, even wet snow. Don't see the blower being able to send it very far.

 

[Scott Danforth]

The blower would pack up

 

[dolluper]

Is the back hoe free like you own it ....ifin so hire a dump truck after you have it all dug out ....then load the dump truck....ifin it gets stuck the back hoe should pull it out.....get a bull stuck well you need something bigger mucho bucks just to float

 

[Bob_VT]

Dump truck and or dump trailer to go 1000 ft.

To get a bulldozer to move it that distance and have any material left at the 1000' mark would require a trench with sides.

A scraper will work but just how big of a pond do you want? to properly run the scraper it needs to ramp in and out of the pond and a bulldozer to push.

Okay....... he is the way I have made ponds ....... how far away is the road, structures or wells? Yes I have used ANFO explosives. I am licensed here in VT and when I push the button there is a big hole and all the spoil that was in there is spread out!

Are you going to line the pond with a membrane and clay? How are you going to fill it and maintain the water level?


See my avatar..... that was a 2 lb charge of ANFO

 

[Scott Danforth]

we want Vids if you have Bob_VT help dig it with ANFO

 

[bowman316]

Dump truck and or dump trailer to go 1000 ft.

To get a bulldozer to move it that distance and have any material left at the 1000' mark would require a trench with sides.

A scraper will work but just how big of a pond do you want? to properly run the scraper it needs to ramp in and out of the pond and a bulldozer to push.

Okay....... he is the way I have made ponds ....... how far away is the road, structures or wells? Yes I have used ANFO explosives. I am licensed here in VT and when I push the button there is a big hole and all the spoil that was in there is spread out!

Are you going to line the pond with a membrane and clay? How are you going to fill it and maintain the water level?


See my avatar..... that was a 2 lb charge of ANFO

This pond is 50 ft from the drive way, but 1/4 mile back lane from main road. We were trying to hide it from the Govt, but they found out. But i think they are done hassling us about it, found some farm loop hole where we don't need permits.
The soil is 100% clay, it seems to naturally hold water, so there is no lining it it at all. It only dropped 1 ft last summer, and that was partly because we expanded the pond in the summer. There is a small creek within a quarter mile, but to feed that into the pond would require digging thru the corn field, and disrupting the planting area. This is a naturally wet area, that we are just trying to fill with rain water, as we are trying to make everything slope to the pond.

I do want to build up the banks on the low sides, so that water will not overflow the low side before the high side is full. Gonna run a string from the high side, touching the ground, then tie string to post on low side, so that the whole string is level. Then I just need to fill the bank up to the string to have a level pond.

 

[alldodge]

I would suggest using the Roman method of two parallel boards to get your level over that amount of area.