anyone built a trench digger for their tractor?

[JUSS10 250]

well a few months ago we got a heater for the barn but never got around to running the gas line yet. winter is fast approaching and i would really like to have that heater hooked up. a friend of ours does heating and cooling and told us we have to run a line off the meter which is a good ways from the barn. he said we need to dig a 12" deep ditch from the gas meter to the barn. i was wondering if anyone has built some sort of trencher that they drug behind their tractor. i was thinking something like a potato plow might work. just curious if anyone has done anything like this. thanks

Justin

[Don1977 604]

If you use a potato type plow you need to make it adjustable in the depth. Then you could make a few passes then set it lower. You will have to pull the pin and raise it just to turn around because you won't be able to lift it far enough to clear when it's past 6" deep or so.

[JUSS10 250]

i dont actually have a potato plow, i was just wondering if anyone built something from scratch that worked similarly. i got a weld and lots of scrap steel, just wondering if anyone has successfully built something before i start cutting and welding something of my own.

[CasualObserver 3,409]

Not that I know of. Randy built this invisible fence installer. http://www.wheelhorseforum.com/index.php?showtopic=19053

I know it's not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe it can help get you some ideas to work with for coming up with a design. There are a couple of attachments that were sold for other brands... don't know for sure if they were ever adapted to Wheel Horses. Do a google search for Hawkbilt or Groundsaw. Should find you a couple more ideas to design from.

Depending on you materials cost/availability beyond what you have on-hand, and whether or not you'd ever actually use a trencher again... you might really look into just renting a Toro Dingo for a couple hours. Sometimes rental equipment is really worth it. Local 'rent-all' kinda places or even a hardware store that rents equipment should have that or something very similar.

[pumper.atv 26]

i built one out of a mulboard plow to pull behind a JD 3020 Gas tractor with 60hp? and it takes quite a lot to pull the ripper, it works but hard to pull. Just another thing to consider

:)

[Sarge 3,464]

Unless you have a rear pto, it would be really hard to build anything large enough to either trench or slug plow in a gas line. I used to work for an engineering company and operated all their trenchers and vibratory plows. With a pto you could make a vibrator box above a cutting blade and use a slug plow system, these work pretty well and don't take a lot of pulling power. Bad part is hitting tree roots and other utilities !

Sarge

[JUSS10 250]

hmm well this is getting complex. i just want to cut a groove in the ground, lay the line by hand, then fill it back in by hand.

[jtmoyer 1]

i would think you could with a turning plow. i put in a line but only had to go about 4" deep. i would think you would just need to make a few more passes in the same spot. i pulled it with the d160, had my wife drive and i stood on the plow to dig it in deeper.

[sawhorse 0]

Here is a picture of a subsoiler I built out of scrap steel and a single box blade tine from agri-supply:

I made mine to fit a sleeve hitch.

There is a seller on ebay selling a subsoiler like this that fits a 2 inch reciever hitch.

It will take several passes and additional downpressure, be it metal plates or someone holding it down to make it cut in deep. Once the trench is cut with the wheel horse it will be easy digging to clean up the trench. Good Luck.

[JUSS10 250]

alright well i just got the tank to finish off our new welding setup and i was dying to build something. so below is a picture of the welder and the "subsoiler" i built and its current dilapidated state haha got through about 4 passes and am probably to a depth of 8 inches, then i hit the roots, cut through a few but i think they one out in the end. so i got a few ideas and tomorrow will build a revised one with a little better back bone and a sharpened splitter on the front and see how that works

[Sarge 3,464]

The key to cutting/cable plows is the shape of the blade. Even the little "drop plow" units we had from Ditch Witch shared the same blade shape to keep the blade in the ground. The nose of the blade had a hook shape facing forward and down at just a slight angle-this help cut roots, or phone drops and kept the nose in the ground. At the back edge of the blade was a slot with a drop in chute cover that fed the cable down the back of the blade and out the rear tip. They work slick for sure...

Sarge

[JUSS10 250]

alright, got in the barn this morning, cut out the bent part, added a back bone, grafted in a new piece of angle iron, added a splitter to the front that i sharpened, then welded on a piece of black pipe to hold the weights. i was cutting through 1 inch roots with this thing. didn't dare push it much further cause i was just using my 854 (GT14 is still out of commission ) the line needs to run right past a stump we ground out a few years back, not sure what i'm going to do about the bigger roots... anyway, here are some new pictures.

[Sarge 3,464]

Here's the shape I'm talking about -

My Webpage

My Webpage

Sarge

[JUSS10 250]

thanks for the link. i think i could knock one of those out too. that would help with these roots

still, the one i built is working pretty well