Quick tip. Measure 24” on the stick of your backhoe with the bucket flat on the ground and use that as a guide so you know if you lay your bucket on the bottom of the trench you have a rough idea of where 24” deep is. 2nd tip. To get that last little bit out just dig the trench a little deeper in that spot and then smooth out the crumbs back flat in the deep spot of the trench.
If you have to dig again by yourself get a nice strong magnet and have a marker pole sticking off the side of the boom arm. Same concept as the one you use on your chainsaw to cut firewood
Digging too deep isn't a bad problem, especially if you put 8-10" of stone in the bottom so your conduit doesn't lay submerged in water a lot. It also gives you room to run additional conduits, which I would put in now so you will have them for anything you may need to run from barn to house in the future, like ethernet, fiber optic, security system & camera wiring, etc.
Pretty good for your first big backhoe job. Celebrate the win. Take pictures, make a map and record all the information on this installation. You think you’ll remember but after 25 years I know in general terms where the gas, electric and water lines run for my shop but not the details. Besides, the next owner won’t have a clue.
Electricity doesn’t care how deep it I, but remember to add red electrical marker tape close to the top of ditch for your and anyone else that might be digging in the area. I’ve watched several operators try to get it done, but with a child’s shovel we would probably meet in the middle, great video, keep them coming?👍👍💡💡💡
Great job for a beginner Evan!!! Stick time is the best teacher!!! Probably should have started at your house, but after owning a Cat hoe for 30 years, I learn something new everytime I do a job!! Stay safe my friend and God bless you all !!!!! Eddy
PERSONALLY I LIKE TO RUN POWER DEEP, THAT WAY ITS HARDER TO ACCIDENTLY HIT, IF YOU HAVE SOME KINDA BRIGHT YELLOW CAUTION TAPE ABOUT A FOOT OVER THE LINE, THEN YOU KNOW TO SLOW DOWN
I thought about renting a power trencher but wound up hand digging my 125 ft conduit trench. I did have a single shank Subsoiler to loosen up the heavy clay but it was a bugger to clean out. I had the opposite problem than you---doing my best to keep the trench around 15 inches deep. Just like you, the work I did was good enuf for who its for!
I had a setup similar to yours and dug in clay ground. After digging my trench I would switch my backhoe out with my 55” rototiller. Then I would drive on top of the dirt pile and rotatill the clay until the large clumps were gone. Then I push that into the trench. When I was finished there was little to no settling.
You certainly did better than me, I've never ran one, so I would have taken so much longer. All you have to do is put some gravel in the bottom. I like it, looks good to me. Good luck on the rest of it and I hope you have a great week.
When grading alone mark your arm with a piece of tape as a guide. Also when you digging between two structures do a little at both ends so you can get the job done without turn the tractor
I know you got a new toy and just had to play with it, good job. Wouldn't it have been easier to rent a ditch digger and get the trench dug in one day?
There is just "No Fun" renting another "mat-chine" when ya have yer own "Twack-tor-Digger" to do the job when yer "maken payments" on the "new-rig"; even IF it takes Six times Longer! Nothing like "pullen yer own leavers".
For keeping the same depth, put a mark/tape just above the bucket on the stick so you always get the same depth, the bucket needs to be in the same postion to keep the same depth.
Sure beats digging by hand!! Looks good, Evan! Have you made working drawings of all these improvements? They will be an asset if you ever decide to sell. We put 2”, 1.5” and 1” conduits in our trenches for ham radio coax, electric(Low voltage and 110) and water, in that order.
GREAT JOB !!! Maybe you could get some sand delivered and fill the whole 3/4 full with the sand. Then you can use the extra dirt behind the workshop for your leveling/drainage solution. you'd have to bring in more fill dirt for behind the workshop anyway. why not just bring in sand for the trench?
Nice job. Smooth the bottom of the trench and pump the ground water out before you install the conduit. Conduit should rest on a smooth bed. During backfill level the dirt before you compact with a jumping jack. No doubt you will do a great job as always. Next time you trench start at both ends and let the both trenches intresect.
If your boom cylinder is strong enough you can place the front bucket flat close to or on the ground rear bucket flat (above or in the trench depending on machine or depth, get the stick relatively vertical and use the boom to raise the back wheels of the tractor off the ground and use the swing levers to pivot the rear wheels of the tractor to straddle the trench. Essentially using the backhoe to position the rear wheels or outriggers without "driving" the tractor. On a side note, at 2:24 operating the outriggers standing on the ground is not a great idea. If the tractor was to roll back with you standing there it would make for a very bad day.
When I was on some electric power substation projects, we did the trench excavation like you did and installed the conduits. On the surface of the rocked yard and directly above the PVC conduits, we placed 9"x9" by 4" thick squares of concrete to clearly show the location of the conduits underneath. In our case, we also put some marking grooves in the surface of the concrete so that we could tell where a cable or conduit turned toward a piece of equipment. It wasn't easy to keep posts or other markers from getting hit or otherwise lost. The concrete surface marker pads worked well.
Where I work, we stamp the concrete paving where conduits are underneath. We also encase the conduits in low bag mix of red colored concrete to protect it.
Before I start digging, I put the bucket flat on the ground. I measure up on the stick to the depth I want and put a piece of tape or a line with a paint pen on the stick. This helps me keep the trench fairly even.
When you grease your equipment look into Lincoln air operated grease guns so you can hold the tip on the fitting. It is easier and a lot quicker. When I was greasing a truck with a boom on it with 50 fittings you find the best way to do it.
For future use when using the back hole like when you got to the porch turn your bucket around on the backhoe you would be able to reach underneath a lot better
To settle the trench, backfill it, then turn the hose on and let it fill. It will drop down, refill, do it again. I have similar clay and found doing this works. I'm presuming your on well, otherwise this can be expensive. Or, run a pump from the lake I suppose...
Only ideas I have are - Put a piece of tape on the arm at the depth you are aiming at. Also to help settle the trench, after filling it in make a spike with a pipe and hook it to a water hose, move it around in different areas along the filled trench to help it collapse in. Good episode!
Looks amazing Evan. I think if you flipped the tractor around you could’ve dug from the house side going to the pole barn, exactly the opposite of how you started from the pole barn, and meet in the middle, but your method worked too haha
Use the bigger tractor to drive over the trench to pack it down a bit. Then when you make the final grade on the trench, don't make it level with the existing lawn, make it slightly higher. When it settles after a year or two it will blend in perfect.
Nice work Evan! I saw that somebody already mentioned putting some Stone in the bottom. I would definitely do that where you went very deep and there's water so that way the clay doesn't settle can you wind up with a belly that pulls your conduit down/ apart. I was taught that when backfilling to leave a foot or so mound on top of the trench, then run a sprinkler over it for a few days/ week and watch it naturally settle in. Keep doing this until it stays a mound, then grade and plant. Love what you guys are doing and enjoying watching.
Rent yourself a "jumping Jack" compactor and compact in 12" increments and this will completely solve your ditch issues with settling. They may look intimidating to operate but they are fairly easy to use.
Nice job Evan. Are you able to reverse the bucket? Sometimes by turning it around you can reach under. Having not done it much before you did real good. As always thanks for taking us along! Have a great week.
Suggestion for depth control mark your bucket postion boom and bucket in position where bucket pointed so teeth are straight down use tape measure ans mark it at 1 foot ans 2ft and 3 ft either with yellow or whit strip that put you in ballpark of depth needed Or could use the bucket alone as guage measure bucket at maximum digging potential looks like on camera bucket is 24 in 16 in wide by 24 at its max length of bucket? ?
Evan if you only put 8 to 10" of clay in when filling the trench you will be able to pack it better now that you have the backhoe. By using the back of the bucket to bump it into the clay, do it in layers. Don't try to backfill all at once do it only a far as you can reach.
I started this exact same project today with the same results you had. I was wondering how I was going to get my tractor wheels over the trench on rocky sandy soil once I got the trench connected. I have but maybe 15 to 20 hrs of stick time and operating at 90 degrees seems to mess me up with the controls because of the perspective, angles or whatever. If I stare it at long enough I'm sure I'll figure it out. Thanks to you and the commenters below with more knowledge than I for the ideas.
I am in shock. You did not dig up any metal that we saw on the video. As much as you have uncovered elsewhere i thought you surely would find some there.
I know, right. I have a few hundred acres and no matter where I go, if I start to dig with the mini-ex I will definitely hit an old pile of buried tin, old barbed wire, old implement pieces, axles, logging cables, mattress springs.....you name it.....I hit some kind of earthly treasure EVERY time!
You are very good with your new machine , I would mesure the bucket when the teeth are pependiccular to the ground suppose the bucket mesures 18" inches and the highes pine is 24" inches and an other point 30" inches you would have a guide as to the hole you want to dig ...
the tractor would be unlevel but you use the outrigger's to level the backhoe. then you leave the tractor out of gear so you can move the tractor with the backhoe. never dig all the way to the straight under the tractor. always move when it is have way and you will be able to work faster as you on move part of the backhoe, not full retract to full extend only half. use the bucket to lift the back of the tractor over the ditch, then put dow n the outriggers. when finished, reverse the operation to get back over the ditch.
just a fyi.....the stabilizers are for leveling you on unlevel ground in addition to stabilization....planning your dig is as much of the process as the actual process i sure you learned some things along the way
You don't need to apologize for the work you do. In the future, you can use features on the arm of your hoe to measure the depth of a hole. A few pen marks would work fine.
Once you get this project finished Evan (the backhoe's maiden voyage) You can take her out behind the barn and dig and exploratory trench across the front of the cement slab to determine if there is a clay pipe from the barn floor drains that runs under the slab. If you don't find a pipe, next step is to rent a water cooled diamond saw and cut the cement to open up a trench to match up with the down pipe inside the foundation. That will require some careful measuring - but it can be done. | With the backhoe off, that little machine should be just right for cleaning up the manure pack on the cement slab. Start a manure compost pile if you don't have one already 😊
Use your bucket to gauge depth, it’s probably close to 18 inches from tooth to pivot pin. I’d also measure a few other points on the arm and mark those for future reference. That trench is easily 3 feet deep in spots. Overall not a bad job though.
Looks good. Spend the extra money and put an empty pvc conduit in the trench for possible future lines between buildings.
Quick tip. Measure 24” on the stick of your backhoe with the bucket flat on the ground and use that as a guide so you know if you lay your bucket on the bottom of the trench you have a rough idea of where 24” deep is. 2nd tip. To get that last little bit out just dig the trench a little deeper in that spot and then smooth out the crumbs back flat in the deep spot of the trench.
If you have to dig again by yourself get a nice strong magnet and have a marker pole sticking off the side of the boom arm. Same concept as the one you use on your chainsaw to cut firewood
Great job... the more practice you get soon you will be able to put the tractor in neutral and move yourself with the backhoe
Evan merhaba başarılı videolarını izlemek çok keyifli teşekkürler.Türkiye'den selamlar.
Digging too deep isn't a bad problem, especially if you put 8-10" of stone in the bottom so your conduit doesn't lay submerged in water a lot. It also gives you room to run additional conduits, which I would put in now so you will have them for anything you may need to run from barn to house in the future, like ethernet, fiber optic, security system & camera wiring, etc.
That's some good thinking right there!
I did put in an extra 1" conduit. In case I do any of those things.
The dude is going to China
Wise advice. Lay down extra conduit now with them "pre strung" (your guide pulls), and you'll be Very happy later. 👍 Nice work 👍
Hi, Evan! Great video!
Pretty good for your first big backhoe job. Celebrate the win. Take pictures, make a map and record all the information on this installation. You think you’ll remember but after 25 years I know in general terms where the gas, electric and water lines run for my shop but not the details. Besides, the next owner won’t have a clue.
Electricity doesn’t care how deep it I, but remember to add red electrical marker tape close to the top of ditch for your and anyone else that might be digging in the area. I’ve watched several operators try to get it done, but with a child’s shovel we would probably meet in the middle, great video, keep them coming?👍👍💡💡💡
I put red tape in above the conduit. 👍
Looks like the Duck Weed is back for another season
I was admiring your work with the backhoe shovel under the deck.❤❤❤❤
Nice soil, easy digging. We’ve got a lot of rock.
LOOKIN' GOOD FOR 1ST TRY. KEEP SAFE AND WELL...
Practice makes perfect.
Great job for a beginner Evan!!! Stick time is the best teacher!!! Probably should have started at your house, but after owning a Cat hoe for 30 years, I learn something new everytime I do a job!! Stay safe my friend and God bless you all !!!!! Eddy
PERSONALLY I LIKE TO RUN POWER DEEP, THAT WAY ITS HARDER TO ACCIDENTLY HIT, IF YOU HAVE SOME KINDA BRIGHT YELLOW CAUTION TAPE ABOUT A FOOT OVER THE LINE, THEN YOU KNOW TO SLOW DOWN
Good job! Better deep than not!
Good job Evan
Nice job Evan
Awesome backhoe attachment
I thought about renting a power trencher but wound up hand digging my 125 ft conduit trench. I did have a single shank Subsoiler to loosen up the heavy clay but it was a bugger to clean out. I had the opposite problem than you---doing my best to keep the trench around 15 inches deep. Just like you, the work I did was good enuf for who its for!
Nice job Evan, practice makes perfect. Way better than hand digging. Little tractor going well.
I had a setup similar to yours and dug in clay ground. After digging my trench I would switch my backhoe out with my 55” rototiller. Then I would drive on top of the dirt pile and rotatill the clay until the large clumps were gone. Then I push that into the trench. When I was finished there was little to no settling.
top soil on one side dirt on the other
You did way better than I would have done .
Fill up some of the depth with river sand. Nice clean install.
Done like a pro!
Well at least you have the bucket to push back in when your done! 😊
You certainly did better than me, I've never ran one, so I would have taken so much longer. All you have to do is put some gravel in the bottom. I like it, looks good to me. Good luck on the rest of it and I hope you have a great week.
Great video. Looks like you did pretty good for your first time using it. Keep it up
When grading alone mark your arm with a piece of tape as a guide. Also when you digging between two structures do a little at both ends so you can get the job done without turn the tractor
Well done, Evan. You did a great job! A little sanding on the deck dings should make them disappear.
The backhoe is the most satisfying implement, isn't it? 🙂
you did good . one thing . when leaving the trench open over night leave a ramp so incase a animal falls in they can easily climb out .. good video
I know you got a new toy and just had to play with it, good job. Wouldn't it have been easier to rent a ditch digger and get the trench dug in one day?
There is just "No Fun" renting another "mat-chine" when ya have yer own "Twack-tor-Digger" to do the job when yer "maken payments" on the "new-rig"; even IF it takes Six times Longer! Nothing like "pullen yer own leavers".
Great job Evan,we call that...leaving your mark on the job...lol😂
Nice job. Tractor really helps with so many things❤❤❤
For keeping the same depth, put a mark/tape just above the bucket on the stick so you always get the same depth, the bucket needs to be in the same postion to keep the same depth.
Put marks of bucket up the boom.
Dig both ends first and mark path with some spray paint 😉
Sure beats digging by hand!! Looks good, Evan! Have you made working drawings of all these improvements? They will be an asset if you ever decide to sell. We put 2”, 1.5” and 1” conduits in our trenches for ham radio coax, electric(Low voltage and 110) and water, in that order.
hay Evan you look like a pro on that backhoe good job on my book regardless of you diiging out to much dirt back fill a bit its all good good job
Great coordination skills...I think you did a great job. Look forward to the next one. Have a Blessed day.
You should an amazing person mate what you doing it’s great all the best to you and your family.
Wow I think you did an amazing job pat yourself on the back ❤👏🏾🙏🏾👍🏾
Keep up the good work your doing a great job love your videos thank you
They sure are nice to have... I miss mine already
GREAT JOB !!! Maybe you could get some sand delivered and fill the whole 3/4 full with the sand. Then you can use the extra dirt behind the workshop for your leveling/drainage solution. you'd have to bring in more fill dirt for behind the workshop anyway. why not just bring in sand for the trench?
Looks a very useful tool. Great job. All the best 🇬🇧.
Nice job. Smooth the bottom of the trench and pump the ground water out before you install the conduit. Conduit should rest on a smooth bed. During backfill level the dirt before you compact with a jumping jack. No doubt you will do a great job as always. Next time you trench start at both ends and let the both trenches intresect.
Good job
Stick a strong magnet on to the side of the dipper to mark your depth. it will help until you get a better feel for it.
You can offset level with your out riggers
You do well as a "First-time Operator". Running a backhoe is an art , and requires a LOT of pratice.
If your boom cylinder is strong enough you can place the front bucket flat close to or on the ground rear bucket flat (above or in the trench depending on machine or depth, get the stick relatively vertical and use the boom to raise the back wheels of the tractor off the ground and use the swing levers to pivot the rear wheels of the tractor to straddle the trench. Essentially using the backhoe to position the rear wheels or outriggers without "driving" the tractor. On a side note, at 2:24 operating the outriggers standing on the ground is not a great idea. If the tractor was to roll back with you standing there it would make for a very bad day.
Im watching with interest as ive got a deleks backhoe ordered for our Goldoni, ive not driven one before
Thanks for this.
When I was on some electric power substation projects, we did the trench excavation like you did and installed the conduits. On the surface of the rocked yard and directly above the PVC conduits, we placed 9"x9" by 4" thick squares of concrete to clearly show the location of the conduits underneath. In our case, we also put some marking grooves in the surface of the concrete so that we could tell where a cable or conduit turned toward a piece of equipment. It wasn't easy to keep posts or other markers from getting hit or otherwise lost. The concrete surface marker pads worked well.
Where I work, we stamp the concrete paving where conduits are underneath. We also encase the conduits in low bag mix of red colored concrete to protect it.
Rebecca would make an excellent backhoe operator.
With that smaller tractor you should be able to find the drain in the bank barn.
Before I start digging, I put the bucket flat on the ground. I measure up on the stick to the depth I want and put a piece of tape or a line with a paint pen on the stick. This helps me keep the trench fairly even.
A tip . On sloping ground you level the machine with the outriggers.
Great video and very helpful
When you grease your equipment look into Lincoln air operated grease guns so you can hold the tip on the fitting. It is easier and a lot quicker. When I was greasing a truck with a boom on it with 50 fittings you find the best way to do it.
For future use when using the back hole like when you got to the porch turn your bucket around on the backhoe you would be able to reach underneath a lot better
To settle the trench, backfill it, then turn the hose on and let it fill. It will drop down, refill, do it again. I have similar clay and found doing this works. I'm presuming your on well, otherwise this can be expensive. Or, run a pump from the lake I suppose...
Hi..... Evan, thank you for showing your video homestead 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 👕🐔🐓🐣🐥🐕🐈🐐🐑🐄🐖🐝🐠🐟🎣 🌱🌻🌼🌹🌸🌺🌷🏡🎥👍👍👍
Only ideas I have are - Put a piece of tape on the arm at the depth you are aiming at. Also to help settle the trench, after filling it in make a spike with a pipe and hook it to a water hose, move it around in different areas along the filled trench to help it collapse in. Good episode!
Looks amazing Evan. I think if you flipped the tractor around you could’ve dug from the house side going to the pole barn, exactly the opposite of how you started from the pole barn, and meet in the middle, but your method worked too haha
Evan put sand bags in there every so often it will keep the pipe out of the water while installing it
Use the bigger tractor to drive over the trench to pack it down a bit. Then when you make the final grade on the trench, don't make it level with the existing lawn, make it slightly higher. When it settles after a year or two it will blend in perfect.
Nice work Evan! I saw that somebody already mentioned putting some Stone in the bottom. I would definitely do that where you went very deep and there's water so that way the clay doesn't settle can you wind up with a belly that pulls your conduit down/ apart. I was taught that when backfilling to leave a foot or so mound on top of the trench, then run a sprinkler over it for a few days/ week and watch it naturally settle in. Keep doing this until it stays a mound, then grade and plant. Love what you guys are doing and enjoying watching.
You could put some blue tape on the trenching arm for a depth reference mark.
Hello Evan and Rebecca.
I'd say a smaller backhoe bucket is on order. Good job though with what you had.
Rent yourself a "jumping Jack" compactor and compact in 12" increments and this will completely solve your ditch issues with settling.
They may look intimidating to operate but they are fairly easy to use.
It would not hurt my feelings if the videos were longer, but I'm guessing editing takes hours. Great job!
Yes, they seem too short!
Nice job Evan. Are you able to reverse the bucket? Sometimes by turning it around you can reach under. Having not done it much before you did real good. As always thanks for taking us along! Have a great week.
Nice work Evan. Next project, LED lights on the back of the 2515 for night time digging 😀
Work lights would be nice.
Daylight is the BEST time fer digging---3 Times better that "arty-fissal radiation-diode light beams".
Suggestion for depth control mark your bucket postion boom and bucket in position where bucket pointed so teeth are straight down use tape measure ans mark it at 1 foot ans 2ft and 3 ft either with yellow or whit strip that put you in ballpark of depth needed
Or could use the bucket alone as guage measure bucket at maximum digging potential looks like on camera bucket is 24 in 16 in wide by 24 at its max length of bucket? ?
Evan if you only put 8 to 10" of clay in when filling the trench you will be able to pack it better now that you have the backhoe. By using the back of the bucket to bump it into the clay, do it in layers. Don't try to backfill all at once do it only a far as you can reach.
👍👍👍👍👍👌Good job!!
Recommendation, put in an extra unused conduit. It will cost you a few extra $, but is extra insurance for any future needs.
The slope won't hurt you you can level it with your outriggers
I started this exact same project today with the same results you had. I was wondering how I was going to get my tractor wheels over the trench on rocky sandy soil once I got the trench connected. I have but maybe 15 to 20 hrs of stick time and operating at 90 degrees seems to mess me up with the controls because of the perspective, angles or whatever. If I stare it at long enough I'm sure I'll figure it out. Thanks to you and the commenters below with more knowledge than I for the ideas.
I add a horizontal crossbar to the dipper arm when I do trenching as a guage. You should not run power and comms in the same conduit. From New Zealand
I straddle the trench to make it easier. If you get stuck you can just use the backhoe to lift you over or out
In Australia, you must go at least a metre (3 feet) for electrical cabling, so you did good I think.
I am in shock. You did not dig up any metal that we saw on the video. As much as you have uncovered elsewhere i thought you surely would find some there.
I know, right. I have a few hundred acres and no matter where I go, if I start to dig with the mini-ex I will definitely hit an old pile of buried tin, old barbed wire, old implement pieces, axles, logging cables, mattress springs.....you name it.....I hit some kind of earthly treasure EVERY time!
Thx
Measure the bucket and use it as a depth gauge.
You are very good with your new machine , I would mesure the bucket when the teeth are pependiccular to the ground suppose the bucket mesures 18" inches and the highes pine is 24" inches and an other point 30" inches you would have a guide as to the hole you want to dig ...
the tractor would be unlevel but you use the outrigger's to level the backhoe. then you leave the tractor out of gear so you can move the tractor with the backhoe. never dig all the way to the straight under the tractor. always move when it is have way and you will be able to work faster as you on move part of the backhoe, not full retract to full extend only half. use the bucket to lift the back of the tractor over the ditch, then put dow n the outriggers. when finished, reverse the operation to get back over the ditch.
If you were digging in Maine you would have run in to rocks the size of Volkswagens in the first 10 feet.
Put a mark on the backhoe to show the 2 foot depth.
The marks on the porch will help you locate the conduit in the long future...lol......
Deep is not bad, you might be digging in that area again.
Fun fun ❤
just a fyi.....the stabilizers are for leveling you on unlevel ground in addition to stabilization....planning your dig is as much of the process as the actual process i sure you learned some things along the way
You don't need to apologize for the work you do. In the future, you can use features on the arm of your hoe to measure the depth of a hole. A few pen marks would work fine.
Once you get this project finished Evan (the backhoe's maiden voyage) You can take her out behind the barn and dig and exploratory trench across the front of the cement slab to determine if there is a clay pipe from the barn floor drains that runs under the slab. If you don't find a pipe, next step is to rent a water cooled diamond saw and cut the cement to open up a trench to match up with the down pipe inside the foundation. That will require some careful measuring - but it can be done. | With the backhoe off, that little machine should be just right for cleaning up the manure pack on the cement slab. Start a manure compost pile if you don't have one already 😊
Use your bucket to gauge depth, it’s probably close to 18 inches from tooth to pivot pin. I’d also measure a few other points on the arm and mark those for future reference. That trench is easily 3 feet deep in spots. Overall not a bad job though.