I am going to dig 2 ditches this weekend, one water line and one electrical- both about 200 ft. each. I was hoping to borrow my neighbors backhoe with a narrow bucket but he appears to be out of town. :(
Tractor ditch digger is about $350 per day, walk behind is just over $200. I've seen the tractor one in use, but never had any experience with the walk behind. Would it suffice?
Soil is very hard and rocky!
What about the kind used for laying cable that goes thru rock?
I used a ditch with walk behind and had no troubles. trenched to 24" for exlectrical with one pass. It's like a tiller or a jackhammer if you have ever used either - don't fight the machine, let it do the work. Fighting it just makes you tired and sore. Let the machine do the work, just keep it on the path. slow and steady is the plan.
For reference, my soil was sandy loam with hard clay at 15" - this was two years ago when we were in a drought. From a shovel perspective, it was hard as concrete after 4 inches and full of tough roots. The walk behind just chewed it up. again, slow and steady.
(http://www.loopy.org/pictures/galleries/Dixon%20Ranch/August%202009/_thumbs/640x480-dscf4644.jpg)
[cool]
Thanks, Muldoon
Good information to store in my memory. Never considered the walk-behinds before.