Trench Sod Remover?

[Tractor_Chunks]

I'm trying to think of ways to trench in nice grass and leave it in really good shape after the project.
A narrower trench means less mess, but it seems like narrow trenching buckets tend to ruin the sod because the buckets often have very shallow sides and there is nothing to 'cut' into the sod, so it kind of gets ripped up in a clump.

Normal sod cutters are designed to take a minimal amount of dirt with the grass, and in wide sheets. I'm thinking about something that would be used before digging a trench for pipe, so that the grass could be put back nicely. However, I'm imagining something that would cut a lot deeper than a couple inches (maybe 6-12") and only cut the width of a narrow trenching bucket.

I've watched videos of bottom plows peeling over nearly perfect strips of turf in a straight line.

Would a U-shaped cutter work? I guess the question would be how to get the cutout up and out of the trench.
I also thought about just two vertical cutter blades that could pre-cut the sod so that the backhoe bucket takes out really nice clumps of sod.
I'm pondering if either variant could be used on the 3 point and/or as a backhoe attachment.

 

[JohnDB]

I'm trying to think of ways to trench in nice grass and leave it in really good shape after the project.
A narrower trench means less mess, but it seems like narrow trenching buckets tend to ruin the sod because the buckets often have very shallow sides and there is nothing to 'cut' into the sod, so it kind of gets ripped up in a clump.

Normal sod cutters are designed to take a minimal amount of dirt with the grass, and in wide sheets. I'm thinking about something that would be used before digging a trench for pipe, so that the grass could be put back nicely. However, I'm imagining something that would cut a lot deeper than a couple inches (maybe 6-12") and only cut the width of a narrow trenching bucket.

I've watched videos of bottom plows peeling over nearly perfect strips of turf in a straight line.

Would a U-shaped cutter work? I guess the question would be how to get the cutout up and out of the trench.
I also thought about just two vertical cutter blades that could pre-cut the sod so that the backhoe bucket takes out really nice clumps of sod.
I'm pondering if either variant could be used on the 3 point and/or as a backhoe attachment.

I've had a bit of a play with something like that and didn't have the time to get a good solution. However, based on my experiments a coulter wheel (? I think that's what they call them... basically a sharp free-rotating disc - Flip would know the correct terminology), is needed for cutting each side of the turf before you cut the underside with a blade and lift the sod out of the trench. A U shaped cutter on its own wouldn't work unless the ground is very soft and no roots binding the soil, or you had the coulters running just ahead of the upright sides of your cutter. If you don't have the coulter to do the slicing, any fixed sharp leg tends to rip the sides of the sod. You can get coulters and hubs etc from aftermarket plow/ag parts suppliers or rob some off old plows. You may be able to make your sod remover from an old 3ph plough frame - with a lot of modification but it could be a good place to start.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

What's the end use of the 'trench'?? if installing wire, a 'subsoiler' with cable feed works very,very well. Minimal mess. Mine goes down about 30". Once cable is pulled in , I just drive over the 'slit', after 1-2 grass cuttings, never know it was done.

 

[Tractor_Chunks]

Mostly trenching for 4" schedule 40 pipe. Figuring fittings, the trench needs to be at least 6" wide.

JohnDB, I hear you. Spinning discs is more complicated though. What if fixed vertical cutters had a drag angle to them, so that they're cutting downwards rather than purely horizontally.

One idea I had was to weld these cutting "knives" to the underside of the backhoe bucket. The idea is that before you take your scoop, you use the knives on the bottom of the bucket to cut the sod.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Mostly trenching for 4" schedule 40 pipe. Figuring fittings, the trench needs to be at least 6" wide.

JohnDB, I hear you. Spinning discs is more complicated though. What if fixed vertical cutters had a drag angle to them, so that they're cutting downwards rather than purely horizontally.

One idea I had was to weld these cutting "knives" to the underside of the backhoe bucket. The idea is that before you take your scoop, you use the knives on the bottom of the bucket to cut the sod.

Maybe you could adapt one of these from quailsodcutter.com.

You can see it used manually on YouTube. Then you could roll up the sod and re-lay it when you're finished.

 

[JohnDB]

What if fixed vertical cutters had a drag angle to them, so that they're cutting downwards rather than purely horizontally.

Yes that might work. Probably depends on the amount of downward pressure, sharpness of the cutter, how many hours use you need to get out of it, how hard the soil is. I was thinking of a sharp disc (actually a pair) because that seems to be the universal ag solution to cutting sod, so would probably work sucessfully without much trial and error. Let us know how you get on, whatever you do.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

did a quiklook, Ryan sells a 12" wide 'jr sod cutter'. didn't look at cost. If you want clean, reasonably fast operation, I can see cutting/removing sod, then diggin trench, laying pipe and covering up.
I suppose it depends on how many trenches ,how long you're needing to do. If this is a commercial need (1000s of feet), I can see having a custom cutter built. It'd remove a 6" wide by 4' long by 12" deep 'section' in one pass.Not cheap BUT fast.