Ditch cleaning help

[MOlivin]

Hey all,

My driveway is on the side of a hill. I've got a hill side ditch running about 2000'
Which gets filled with leaves a couple times a year.
What is the best route cleaning this out? A PTO vacuum? I need to basically suck it up and blow it across the driveway and down the other side of the hill.

I need to figure this out before I finalize topping the driveway with 4" geocell and 3/4"clean.

Thoughts?

Thank again!

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I will throw out a CHEAP option..... how about a landscape rake?

used ones a cheap and easy to find.

 

[MOlivin]

That would not work in this situation. The ditch is 18" wide and about 12"deep. The high side is at about a 45 degrees slope, at it's steepest.

 

[Caden]

Hard to picture your exact situation. My angle blade can offset way out to the side for the purpose of ditch work.

Slide/swing it out in direction of the ditch so you can keep tractor on the road, drop that side to match ditchbank pitch, angle so you pull debris up into the road.

Then keep an angle, level out blade, and move debis to the other side of the road.
Not a perfect solution but a good rear blade is a super versatile attachment with some ingenuity.

 

[chim]

I'm sure that with 2000' you want something that works very well. This is probably something you don't want to hear, but how about reshaping it so you could drive along (on the road side) with an offset or tilted rear blade?

 

[Grandad4]

I agree with Caden about an offsetting scraper blade. I used a 7 foot one to maintain a similar ditch. Your L6060 should easily handle something like that and an 8 foot size would give even more reach

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

That would not work in this situation. The ditch is 18" wide and about 12"deep. The high side is at about a 45 degrees slope, at it's steepest.

gotcha... when we say ditch we mean something like 20' across, what you describe here we call a trench (haha) devils often in the details.

cheers

maybe a 3 pt debris blower but a lot of bucks imho...

 

[bobnic]

gotcha... when we say ditch we mean something like 20' across, what you describe here we call a trench (haha) devils often in the details.

cheers

maybe a 3 pt debris blower but a lot of bucks imho...
View attachment 174205

That is exactly what I use to clean out the ditch on my 3/4 mile long driveway, a Cyclone PTO blower from Buffalo Turbine.

 

[Russell King]

That is exactly what I use to clean out the ditch on my 3/4 mile long driveway, a Cyclone PTO blower from Buffalo Turbine.

But I assume you are blowing the leaves out of the ditch and further into the woods on the same side of the driveway as the ditch. It sounds like there is an uphill side ditch that can’t be blown out because of a vertcal wall that blocks that path.

Can you direct the air flow to be towards the rear and get the leaves to move into a pile or onto the driveway?

The only thing I can see working as a vacuum is something like this

Peruzzo Tractor PTO Vacuum for Grass Clippings, Leaves, Trash

Tractor PTO Vacuum for Grass Clippings, Leaves, Pine Needles, Turf Clippings, Debris, Trash: Peruzzo Turbo 400 Vacuum, Debris Loader w/8"x16' Hose.

www.farmequipment24-7.com

But I don’t see how it would work while the tractor is moving. It seems that it has to be stationary and then someone manually has to move the vacuum hose around. Perhaps the hose could be mounted on to a pull along contraption that would vacuum the majority of leaves out of the ditch, but that may be wishful thinking.

 

[bobnic]

But I assume you are blowing the leaves out of the ditch and further into the woods on the same side of the driveway as the ditch. It sounds like there is an uphill side ditch that can’t be blown out because of a vertcal wall that blocks that path.

Can you direct the air flow to be towards the rear and get the leaves to move into a pile or onto the driveway?

The only thing I can see working as a vacuum is something like this

Peruzzo Tractor PTO Vacuum for Grass Clippings, Leaves, Trash

Tractor PTO Vacuum for Grass Clippings, Leaves, Pine Needles, Turf Clippings, Debris, Trash: Peruzzo Turbo 400 Vacuum, Debris Loader w/8"x16' Hose.

www.farmequipment24-7.com

But I don’t see how it would work while the tractor is moving. It seems that it has to be stationary and then someone manually has to move the vacuum hose around. Perhaps the hose could be mounted on to a pull along contraption that would vacuum the majority of leaves out of the ditch, but that may be wishful thinking.

With the Cyclone PTO blower I am mainly blowing leaves up hill into the woods. The hill varies from close to flat up to about 45 degrees in the steepest sections. The discharge is a remotely controlled 90 degree elbow that can rotate 360 degrees. I generally keep it angled down 30 to 45 degrees from horizontal. It would be nice to be able to angle it back, but that is not possible. It is so powerful that some leaves do wind up on the driveway, but I blow them off the other side on my way back.

 

[TheOldHokie]

Hey all,

My driveway is on the side of a hill. I've got a hill side ditch running about 2000'
Which gets filled with leaves a couple times a year.
What is the best route cleaning this out? A PTO vacuum? I need to basically suck it up and blow it across the driveway and down the other side of the hill.

I need to figure this out before I finalize topping the driveway with 4" geocell and 3/4"clean.

Thoughts?

Thank again!

I use an old TracVac to vacuum up leaves along the fence lines. Would work great in your application. In my case they are collected and dumped in another location.

Dan

 

[JasonW]

Nobody has mentioned a flame thrower so I will. It will work great for this. I use mine way more than I thought I would at first.

 

[bird dogger]

I concur with the pto powered leaf blower recommendations above. I've had an Agrimetal pto powered blower for 25 years and its worth its weight in gold when you need it.

This one blows either to the left or right by means of raising or lowering a chute deflector. But it wouldn't be too hard to make a deflector to direct the air straight back if needed.

If you can work "with the wind" it's surprising the amount of debris you can move, even up and out of depressions or ditches. Especially if you don't need to collect the leaves from the area you've blown them into.

They are a little spendy up front, but there isn't much to wear out or go wrong if you just grease them when required. Mine is getting closer to 30 yrs old and has never needed a repair. Not even new belts. Just gets greased regularly.

 

[bird dogger]

Nobody has mentioned a flame thrower so I will. It will work great for this. I use mine way more than I thought I would at first.

Funny you mentioned a flame thrower. I just put a new replacement "ignition kit" in one for a gentleman this past weekend. He uses it to burn wheat chaff that collects or blows into his field drainage ditches, etc.
A "PulseFire" made by ExOThermic. It sure is a nice piece of kit!! But it should be for the $600 price tag. I'd like to see it working!!!

 

[JasonW]

Funny you mentioned a flame thrower. I just put a new replacement "ignition kit" in one for a gentleman this past weekend. He uses it to burn wheat chaff that collects or blows into his field drainage ditches, etc.
A "PulseFire" made by ExOThermic. It sure is a nice piece of kit!! But it should be for the $600 price tag. I'd like to see it working!!!

Yes I have a Pulsefire. Plenty of videos online of them. It’s actually on the low end price wise of flamethrowers.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

It'd be a nice upper body building workout for some kids !

Agree, need to spend $$$ for some kind of PTO powered blower. Hopefully one [ass to get leaves onto the road, 2nd from road to downhill ditch.

Maybe a 'powerVAC', suck them up AND blow across the road ?