Ditch Clearing ~ how do you do yours?

[nooie]

Wait till you past your forties, then the digger will seem a better option:laugh1:

Aye, I'm 40 now! I was thinking I was getting more aches and pains and feeling quite tired each night. Turns out I was diagnosed with Lymes Disease today! Buggeration. I'm usually out every evening cycling or windsurfing or something, but been knocked out every evening for weeks.

 

Sorry for hyjacking.. The spade is great though. Plenty time for thinking about stuff while digging..

[Matthew Storrs]

I do agree, I quite like spade work, easy stuff is quite therapeutic and hard digging I find I get really into it. But if my machine is sitting nearby the spade usually goes out the window!

[ballibeg]

My ditches are next to good tracks. Is there anything I could pull off set from the tractor to cut the ditches?

 

Dave

[Matthew Storrs]

My ditches are next to good tracks. Is there anything I could pull off set from the tractor to cut the ditches?

 

Dave

 

Iv never heard of anything like that, not to say a homemade rig utilizing a digger bucket or something, would work, but you'd need a way of actually getting the material out the ditch without it all falling back in as you pull the bucket through.

Hire a 1.5 ton digger for a day and you'd be amazed how much it can get done cleaning out existing ditches.

[nooie]

My ditches are next to good tracks. Is there anything I could pull off set from the tractor to cut the ditches?

 

Dave

 

With a powerfull enough tractor I'm sure you could make up a sort of plough type thing. Maybe a bit of culvert size pipe split in half. Make up a frame to go on the tractor and cut the pipe so it sits square in the ditch and then angle off another section so it goes through like a sausage onto the bank. No idea if it would work, but it might with soft wet ground..

[ballibeg]

Not sure the old 4000 comes under 'powerful'! I'm always looking to use what I have first before hiring in.

 

Dave

[doobin]

Not sure the old 4000 comes under 'powerful'! I'm always looking to use what I have first before hiring in.

 

Dave

 

£500 will get you a back actor for the linkage. Very slow compared to a mini digger however.

[LGP Eddie]

I'd use this!

 

But seriously a 1.5 tonner is the cheapest man you'll ever have on a job in my opinion and will do some serious work in a day.

 

Eddie.

[hedgesparrow]

get a 1.5 digger do a lot of ditches with one. if access is a problem then get a 0,8 or 1 tonne digger. still got grunt as for a tracked dumper kubota do a very good one can put a good tonne of material in back. go on kubota website have a video of one in action. have a word with Phil at Wessex plant bristol he will be able to help you out

[renewablejohn]

When clearing our ditches we use a 3 tonne excavator and leave the spoil to drain for a year and then sieve before spreading. Only allowed to do 1 bank per year and don't forget you need EA exemptions for the operation.