Mowing and Leach Fields

[billrigsby]

I am wondering what people's opinions are of using a small tractor when mowing around and over leach fields. I am not sure what the weight of my 1500 DT and a mower would be. There are some people around here that drive small vehicles on their leach field there are other people that are afraid to walk on their leach fields. A lot of people do mow their entire properties with small riding lawn mowers and that would include the leach field areas.

In the 24 and a half years that this leach field has been here the compaction of the soil is very good. Just wonder what people out there think.

 

[GWD]

What are you concerned about happening?
>Soil compaction resulting in lack of evaporation?
>Getting stuck in the wet soil?
>The consequences of not mowing at all?

For instance, on my property, each spring the leach field area is mowed, subsoiled, then disced all with a M7040.

It all depends on what you are dealing with at your place. Let us know and then maybe more answers can be composed.

Probably the best advice is to look what your neighbors are doing as a guide to what you should do, or at least try. Go from the least disruptive treatment to the most disruptive in steps. You'll find out what you can do.

 

[billrigsby]

My only concern is damage to the leach field itself, the ground around the leach field is completely hard packed and dry so getting stuck is not an issue. The real reason for my question is some people tiptoe around leach fields and other people act as if it's just part of the earth and pay no attention to them.

I personally don't know that much about them, I just know when I did tree work years ago we would never drive a bucket truck on a leach field, but you're talking 62000 pound vehicle versus a tractor and a mower. I have also seen leach fields that are so wet you could barely walk on them whereas mine at least on the top part of the soil is dry as a bone.

 

[Daren Todd]

It really depends on the soil, and depth of the lines.

In my yard, I've dropped trees on them, run over them with the truck and mow regularly with the l1501 with finish mower. Haven't had any issue. But my lines are deep, so not much of an issue.

Your tractor probably weighs somewhere around 1,800 to 2,000 lbs plus the mower.

 

[Diydave]

Unless you have orangeburg pipe for leach fields, No little kubota is gonna crush them. Wet leach fields generally equals someone having a failing system.

What causes them to fail? grease, mostly. Don't ever let anyone tell you to hook up a garbage disposal system, to a septic field. Particularly if you plan on flushing meat or fat down it. Only thing going through a septic system should be already digested...

 

[v6pack]

Bill, I live north east of you near Elizabeth and have grown up on a leach field and have had one with my existing house for the past 30 years. My lines are deep and My soil is not wet, and yes a wet leach field is a problem in the making. I have mowed over mine with my tractor numerous times every year over the past 30 years. i do not however drive over it with heave vehicles. You want to keep from compacting the earth keeping the leach field from being able to breath.
Now in contrast to what Diydave said, I do have a garbage disposal and grease does go down from time to time. Again 30 years and never a problem and I have had it inspected 4 times when i would refinance and every time I was told it is working well, no issues. In fact it has never needed to be pumped. Now I will admit I do use rid-X once every 2-3 months.
The biggest issue with leach fields is to make sure you keep trees away from it. The roots will tear it up.

 

[billrigsby]

Thanks for the info, I guess my only apprehension is years ago when I lived in Divide shortly after we moved in we had an infiltrator fail, some of the neighbors said people used to park there. So you can understand why I'm a little concerned.

Oh did I mention it failed in the winter on a north-facing driveway, you can imagine how that smelled , and it couldn't be fixed until everything was thawed out.

Bill Rigsby
Florissant CO

1972(?) KUBOTA L-1500-DT
Great Bend M10 48" Front End Loader
Brush Hog 48" "Squealer Mower"
Atlas 48" Landscape Box
Rhino 48" Rear Blade
Draw Bar with 2" Ball
28" Fork Lift Forks
36" Sears Snow Blower (still to be mounted to the front PTO)

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S7 using Tapatalk

 

[Tooljunkie]

My field is north of my house,sort of down hill. The sump drain is uphill and both eavestroughs drain on north side. Cattails wer growing in my leach field.

Spring forward 10 years, new troughs and downs changed to drain south, sump line moved and drains into 100 foot weeping tile buried a foot underground and away from leach field. I drive my kubota everywhere to cut grass, and doesent sink anymore. Softest part is where sump line drains after lots of heavy rain.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

The days of cradle block and clay tile drain fields are long past. My last house (built about 1970) had cradle blocks and clay tile. I made it a point not to drive over with anything heavier than a garden tractor or zero turn mower. I still had a couple of incidents where I had to replace clay tile. As far as I know it is still in service. In the newer fields the damage will not be immediate, the plastic pipe is buried in gravel (at least around here). The damage is long term and is caused by the local sandy soil filtering down and filling the gravel. Heavy traffic may speed the sand filling the gravel bed. Local soil conditions have a big effect on the life of a field. Another thing to consider is what will you have to replace your field with if it fails. In some Michigan locations there are expensive raised beds with pumping systems. Some have even gone to storage systems that have to be pumped on a regular basis. Before you drive on your field you might want to check on how expensive replacement could be.

 

[aeronutt]

I installed septic systems for many years and dug up more than a few to perform repairs. My dad owned an excavation company so it was one of our more common jobs. I don't recall ever digging up a leach field for repairs due to someone driving over it. A freshly installed leach field required being careful not to drive the backhoe on the newly backfilled trenches, but 6 months later we'd frequently be back to do touch up grading work where the dirt in the trenches had settled and compacted. We would drive the 16K lbs backhoe right across them while smoothing the surface and never worried about it. Once that soil has had a chance to lock in, it seems to distribute the load very well so compression damage just isn't a problem. Now, that's not to say you should make a habit of driving semi trucks across there, but you are in absolutely no danger of causing damage by running a little mower tractor over them. Don't even give it a second thought.

 

[meackerman]

after 24 years, I wouldn't worry about driving your Kubota over it, especially if its packed earth.

 

[MadMax31]

I bush hog it often enough to keep the grass shorter. As said, my theory is evaporation. Its 10-12' lower than my foundation, 100' feet north and is a raised bed style. Soil here is garbage. The designer of my septic system is 6 houses down, so I could just bug him if I was really concerned....

 

[Dalroo]

I had a septic tank and leach field installed in Spring of 2015 and didn't drive over with tractor last year as the ground settled, and regardless, there was nothing growing on it anyway.

This year is a different story! With the rainfall this Spring, the grass has completely covered the bare spot over the leach field and so far I've mowed twice with the tractor. I won't do it if the soil is moist, but am not concerned when dry to mow on occasion. But just in case, I do try to cross the lines at an angle or perpendicular so I don't chance driving the length of a trench with a tire.

I don't make driving on it a habit, and would not allow anyone over the field with heavier equipment (or even a pickup), but as noted above, the drains are several feet deep covered in gravel and then our hard, compacted clay over that, so don't worry a lot of that it will be damaged by occasional mowing.

 

[ItBmine]

We install septics. Unless you have a problem, you should be able to drive over a proper one with a pickup (though I wouldn't.)

Biggest enemy is frost in the cold climate areas. Driving a snowmobile over them in the winter, pounding the frost in is what does the most damage.