Which of these would you choose for trenching?

[JustinB60]

Hey guys, need your help. I have about 200ft of trenching (about 18 inch deep) to just install some triple wall drain piping for downspouts and sump pit drain. I also would like to dig a 36 inch by 3 ft deep hole to install a dry well in an attempt to get some sodium chloride extracted from my sump pit drainage when water softener regen happens (so it doesnt kill trees near drain exits at swamp). I dont have much experience with backhoe, just skid steers and tractors and so Im not sure which of the following would do best for me.

My local rental options at my local rental place or Home Depot:
BX25 TLB ($300 per day)
Bobcat 418 super tiny mini excavator ($300 per day)
Trencher ($225 per day)

Or going to a different rental place I can get a little bigger mini excavator a TB216 (Takeuchi) for about $300... but it will stretch my tow rating of Chevy Traverse (5k)...

One rental place told me trencher and dig pit by hand. One said I would be best off with bobcat 418, but another said 418 is too small and bucket wouldnt release material on its own if it is wet at all and Im better off going TB216.

 

[xmikew]

Hey guys, need your help. I have about 200ft of trenching (about 18 inch deep) to just install some triple wall drain piping for downspouts and sump pit drain. I also would like to dig a 36 inch by 3 ft deep hole to install a dry well in an attempt to get some sodium chloride extracted from my sump pit drainage when water softener regen happens (so it doesnt kill trees near drain exits at swamp). I dont have much experience with backhoe, just skid steers and tractors and so Im not sure which of the following would do best for me.

My local rental options at my local rental place or Home Depot:
BX25 TLB ($300 per day)
Bobcat 418 super tiny mini excavator ($300 per day)
Trencher ($225 per day)

Or going to a different rental place I can get a little bigger mini excavator a TB216 (Takeuchi) for about $300... but it will stretch my tow rating of Chevy Traverse (5k)...

One rental place told me trencher and dig pit by hand. One said I would be best off with bobcat 418, but another said 418 is too small and bucket wouldnt release material on its own if it is wet at all and Im better off going TB216.

If it’s wet forget the trencher. Maybe 18” will hold but I went 3.5 ft for 300’ of underground power and several places caved in where soil was too wet. I needed to get an excavator to dig out collapsing trenches. The trencher will go faster and will be easier to use. Backhoe will have a little learning curve so will be slower for you but you’ll make it up digging that hole. No experience about the small bucket not releasing. Generally a good fiddle with the curl will release soil but I can see where clay soil might stick. My soil is sandy.

I’d go with a backhoe. More versatile. Especially so if you got wet soil.

 

[johnjk]

I had something similar here with my house. I had to trench for downspouts and dig a dry well for the outflow from my sump/softener. I went with a trencher and dug the pit by hand.

Not sure about Michigan but where I am in Ohio, it sucked. The trencher did great until I got in to some wet clay and then I had to stop and clean it out a couple times. Spent over an hour power washing it to get it clean before I took it back. On the plus side, it was fast. I had nine trenches around 16" deep done in around 3 hours. Set the depth, hold the handle and it walks itself back.

The area the dry well went in was dry and a real pain to dig by hand. Total fail on this since I have way too much clay to have a dry well work. I now have a nice little swamp out front, no issues from the softener either. Grass and reeds growing like crazy.

I need to rent a backhoe to dig a trench over to the drainage ditch on the other side of my driveway. I'll lay in 4" PVC and sleeve it where it runs under the drive.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I like trenchers but they don't dig holes worth a hoot!

The bobcat 418 will work the best all around, you don't need big for a job like that you just need quick and easy.

 

[RCW]

I would go for the Bobcat if you have a tractor with loader for backfill.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JustinB60]

Thanks fellas! I'll go with the bobcat, thats the way I was leaning but without any experience on any of the machines I wasn't very confident with it.

 

[bgk]

You’ll get the hang of it in no time, and probably end up wanting one.

 

[Tooljunkie]

It doesent take long to figure out a hoe. Regardless of the controls. There are 2 versions of the controls, ask the rental guy if it can be switched. Reason is,if you are having difficulty, then the other may be easier. Excavator controls vs. Backhoe controls.

As far as digging in wet ground,you need a big stone. Dragging your “pet rock”
Along as you go may make life a little easier as you will have something to bang
The bucket on.