Mini trencher

[bluedog225]

I need a little trench for 1” conduit. Maybe 12” deep. About 150’ long. All give or take some depending on number of panels, number of wires, gauge, etc. Clay soil. No rocks. Or not many rocks.

Out in the country. Off-grid. No code. If the conduit stays underground, I’m happy.

This will house a couple of 10 awg twhn wires for a solar array.

Renting a “big” trencher seems overkill. But I suspect that’s how I will have to do this. Though I though I’d check in here first.

I see little electric trencher “chainsaws” but they are over $1000. Seems like this is a job for a machine the size of a little garden tiller.

Are there cheaper alternatives?

I’ve got extraordinary water pressure and flow. I wonder if I can water jet it deep enough to work? Anybody gone down this path?

Thanks

 

[Youngandfree]

How much to rent a trencher?

 

[bluedog225]

Haven’t checked. I suspect a couple of hundred.

 

[Fixr]

Haven’t checked. I suspect a couple of hundred.

You might be able to rent a small wheel trencher (sort of like a big circular saw for dirt & rocks). The ones I've seen cut a considerably narrower trench than the chain types.

Regardless of code, with the power 10g wires imply, I'd want to get the conduit down a good bit deeper than a foot so you don't have to worry about somebody driving a tent stake or t-post into it or something.

 

[dcg9381]

What's your soil like?
Michigan sand the local internet company simply drug a 16" vertical blade behind a tractor slowly.

These are available here (18"), $<100 day. I've used the 24" version and they work great in the right soil types. Right soil type being no rocks.


This is what I have to use, $500/day plus teeth at $10/each.

 

[Higgy1300]

I just did this, rented the 24” from Home Depot was about 279.00 with the insurance for 4 hours. I did 3 trenches totaling about 71’. It saved a bunch of time, I would still be out there. I am in Florida so it was good except for the 3’ piece of rerod . I also stopped to read how to use the thing- again

 

[hans109h]

I was fretting doing about 30 feet of direct bury a couple feet deep. Not anything near enough to rent a trencher, so just did it by hand. It went super fast and was much easier than expected. You can get a lot done with a sharp spade just prying a trench open, and then a trenching shovel for any tough spots.

Hans

 

[zkdiesel]

Rental chainsaw

 

[The Cobbler]

small trenchers are slow at best , and in stoney /hard ground with roots etc, a pain in the rear .

 

[Mr.N]

Haven’t checked. I suspect a couple of hundred.

What is your time and sweat worth?

In my youth, a spade shovel would solve this challenge.

 

[racecougar]

Do you have a tractor or any equipment (skid steer) that could pull a home-made ripper blade?

 

[sjvicker]

Just go rent one that's at least 24" deep. You'll never regret your wires being a little bit deeper and if the ground is like you say, you'll spend more time transporting it than digging the trench.

Save your energy for the 150' wire pull!

 

[bmxdukie]

Get a high volume pressure washer. Use a zero deg tip. Blast away. Easy to get 12" in .
I have a customer that installed invisible fencing that way.

 

[toolmiser]

Sometimes it's just easier, and maybe cheaper to hire someone to do it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Ultradog MN]

I need a little trench for 1” conduit. Maybe 12” deep. About 150’ long. All give or take some depending on number of panels, number of wires, gauge, etc. Clay soil. No rocks. Or not many rocks.

Out in the country. Off-grid. No code. If the conduit stays underground, I’m happy.

This will house a couple of 10 awg twhn wires for a solar array.

Renting a “big” trencher seems overkill. But I suspect that’s how I will have to do this. Though I though I’d check in here first.

I see little electric trencher “chainsaws” but they are over $1000. Seems like this is a job for a machine the size of a little garden tiller.

Are there cheaper alternatives?

I’ve got extraordinary water pressure and flow. I wonder if I can water jet it deep enough to work? Anybody gone down this path?

Thanks

What is your soil like?
I dug this trench by hand last Saturday.
2' deep, about 38' long. That is about the same amount of soil as you need to move.
Clay/loam soil. Not much as far as rocks go except about 15' of it had a lot of 3-5" rocks so I had to borrow a pick from my cousin. A lot of tree roots tho for which I had an old axe but mostly just shovel work.
Took me most of the day as I kinda loafed along, took my usual afternoon nap, etc. but it actually only took about 5 hours.
A good hard day and you would have it done.
And if it matters, I'll be 71 in about 3 weeks.

 

[ATC]

Do you have access to a skid steer or even a compact tractor?

Slap a set of forks on it (remove one fork), stab it down in the ground and drive forward.

It's how I dug the trench through rocky, compacted fill to my shed for power.

 

[PCustoms]

Do you have access to a skid steer or even a compact tractor?

Slap a set of forks on it (remove one fork), stab it down in the ground and drive forward.

It's how I dug the trench through rocky, compacted fill to my shed for power.

I tried this once and bent the damn fork frame when it hit a rock in gravel.

Nothing structural and it mostly bent back, but YMMV.

 

[ATC]

I tried this once and bent the damn fork frame when it hit a rock in gravel.

Nothing structural and it mostly bent back, but YMMV.

Yeah, experience and bigger equipment help. I was using an 8k skid steer with 4400# rated forks.

Slow and steady works best in unknown ground conditions.

 

[RPH]

$2800 later, I solved the snow and trenching problems.

 

[PCustoms]

Yeah, experience and bigger equipment help. I was using an 8k skid steer with 4400# rated forks.

Slow and steady works best in unknown ground conditions.

Pretty sure my forks are 4k rated.

It tweaked the lower mount.

Forks aren't meant for digging. I put them away and did it properly, as I hate abusing expensive tools.

 

[lango]

Saw a guy on YT use his saws all.

 

[Youngandfree]

Saw a guy on YT use his saws all.

I've done that for a 20ft gutter pipe.

 

[jblnut]

Rent one and be done with it. You'll get to play with a new toy and get it done quickly. I have sheds full of equipment that can be made to work in most situations and I’ll still rent the proper tool almost 100% of the time. If I need to rent it more than twice it gets a home in the shed for next time.

 

[teknikfrog]

I got one of those black and decker combo trencher/edgers and used it to bury some fiber optic between my garage and house. It only goes a couple inches deep though. Worked for my needs but it would only support a small conduit I think.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

A small walk behind trencher should be $100-150 for a full day. Probably the way to go if you have no other equipment on hand.

What would I do? I use my tractor for trenches like this all the time. Just remove one fork and set the other right in the middle. Take shallow bites and it works great. Nice little 3-4" wide trench.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Pretty sure my forks are 4k rated.

It tweaked the lower mount.

Forks aren't meant for digging. I put them away and did it properly, as I hate abusing expensive tools.

My forks are only 900lb rated and I've done a lot of trenches here with a single fork in the center. We have hard clay but minimal large rocks - mostly baseball sized or smaller. I use the trench like a shovel, taking shallow bites each time. If you try to ram it through in one go, you'll definitely bend something. Also helps to run a subsoiler through first and then dig with a fork, especially in hard soil