Digging a swale

[bliebold]

So I need to dig a swale to help with water runoff at my parents place since they live on a hill. I have a mx4800 and we are in the Texas hill country which is lots of rocks.

That being said the loader might work with my bucket which I am going to try.

My other thought was my land planer and tilting it with the scarifies down and just going back and forth a few hundred times. It only needs to be 100ft or so. I have also heard mention of a v plow, box blade, or renting a mini excavator.

A penny for your thoughts??


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[skeets]

You might try dragging a middle buster through that area a few times going a little deeper each time

 

[Bulldog777]

Lived in Wimberly for a short time, couldn't even dig a flower bed due to rock. Depending on the amount of rock, you might break up the rock with your scarifiers, and then blade the area. But I've seen areas around Dripping Springs you had to have a rock saw to do anything below ground.
I have used a mini excavator with a Rock hammer to open up ditches.
Or you can rent a jack hammer. They're not fun, but they do work.
Depends on what terrain you are dealing with.

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[rjcorazza]

Lots of ways to handle run-off. Rather than dig, I added a 50 yard ridge that moves the water off to the side of our house. It’s only about 6” high and maybe 2 feet wide. If you have extra dirt available perhaps worth considering.


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[bliebold]

Lived in Wimberly for a short time, couldn't even dig a flower bed due to rock. Depending on the amount of rock, you might break up the rock with your scarifiers, and then blade the area. But I've seen areas around Dripping Springs you had to have a rock saw to do anything below ground.
I have used a mini excavator with a Rock hammer to open up ditches.
Or you can rent a jack hammer. They're not fun, but they do work.
Depends on what terrain you are dealing with.

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So far its been loose dirt with softball to small boulders. My bucket will reveal more when i get onsite but just looking for some insights as to next steps if the bucket isnt going to get it done.

 

[D2Cat]

I'd suggest getting a tooth bar on your bucket. Then you can face where you want the low spot and with down pressure roll your bucket up and form as much of a divot as you want. When the entire length is formed, you can remove the tooth bar and use your bucket edge to dress the loose material.

http://www.spartanequipment.com/pro...MI3P-M2a232gIVCrnACh0nvwRsEAYYAiABEgIUo_D_BwE

 

[Bulldog777]

So far its been loose dirt with softball to small boulders. My bucket will reveal more when i get onsite but just looking for some insights as to next steps if the bucket isnt going to get it done.

Going slow with the scarifiers would be a must, in case you hang a big boulder. It doesn't take much to get water to drain, 0.1" will do the job. As mentioned previously, a berm can provide runoff protection.

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[Daren Todd]

I did one on my property a few years back. Didn't have a FEL at the time. I started out using a middle buster to loosen things up, and then a back blade to kind of smooth it. That worked for a year or two, but was really rough hitting it with my mower.

So I tackled it a second time. This time I had a box blade and rippers. Went back and forth over the area for the swale with the rippers chewing it all up. The area chewed up was around 10 ft wide on the low side where it dumped. The high side, I chewed up around a 30ft to 40 ft wide area, and moved a butt load of that material down slope. I basically knocked down a hill and filled in a gully.

Took most of the day, but the end results was a smooth gradual drop from one side of the yard to the other, with nice gradual swale so the mower wouldn't go airborne if you forgot about it

Was much happier with the results after using the box blade.