hello everyone we have a d9e-49a-150 we purchased a few years ago and have been using it to blade plough brigalow regrowth. now with the dry here in southern queensland a few of our dams are going dry and wondering how best to desilt them using the old girl. it has hyd bull blade (non tilt) and no rippers. previous owner(passed away now) bogged her doing the same job that bad in the silt that 2 d8,s couldn't pull it out in tandem and an exervator had to be used to dig the d9 free so I'm informed, and i wish to avoid the same situation. boss (dad at 79yrs, who just loves driving the power) and I are contemplating digging out beside the dam (but within the walls) a bench then trench until reaching the same level as the original bottom, hopefully under the silt, then gingerly widening the trench a foot or 2 at a time in the silt across the dam bottom. when the trench gets slippery ,maybe pushing a little dry dirt back in , any other other ideas would be helpful, maybe scrubpuller or others has done this job.
Scrub more than likely will advise you to use a silt scoop. Check out this thread. HeavyEquipmentForums
Yair . . . d9e . Bloody hell mate a Nine on its own is about the last thing I would consider for cleaning out a dam. I hear what you are saying with the trench idea but it is still risky . . . as the previous owner discovered a Nine is a big hunk of iron when it gets stuck. I have attempted to clean out a couple of dams with a D9 but only when hooked another one with a couple of hundred foot of scrub chain . . . didn't work that well and the slop eventually beat us. As you probably know I am a big advocate of silt scoops and there are several threads on here about dam desilting. All the best with it. Cheers.
Way 2 heavy way way way 2 heavy and without blade tilt just forget it mate a d6 with blade tilt is more what u want or a loader but both of these options need a skilled operator. Get a contractor in or buy a silt scoop. What u wanna do will end in disaster if u go ahead with this madness I wanna c photos so I can say I told u so. If Ime wrong ( not likely ) I will quite happily describe how my foot tastes
View attachment 127869 G'day d9e As you would know there is no easy way to go about this. Over the years I've tried just about every method there is, with varying success. It is just about impossible to push mud up a slope with a dozer with any degree of efficiency. We've found the best way is to hook the mud out with a wheel loader then maybe push it away from the bank/slope with a dozer. We repaired this dam wall last week after it was washed away during floods several years ago. A mate had a D11 next door, but it still couldn't (efficiently) handle any mud on a slope. Mostly only 4-5 foot of mud, so we got the wet stuff out with the loader, and the dozer handled the soapy stuff without any worries. Plenty of gear lying idle at the moment, you might be able to rent a loader at the right price. Iam hoping most dams in Qld. will be at least half full after this weekend!! Cheers, Greg
Good grief! What kind of area are you by where you can just pull up and be using a 60,000 lb loader and an 11?? Pretty big iron to be cleaning a pond for sure. :notworthy
Better get some salt and pepper. :drinkup
thank you everyone yeah maybe optimistic dreaming, will look into a contractor with an excavator or loader I could at least push the muck away from him. looks like rain coming, so maybe it wont happen if dams fill up, if it don't rain will let em dry right out first. know what its like blade ploughing if rain falls an makes the melon holes greasy to pull out of. did watch a loader bucketing out the silt from a dam while a d8 sat idle on the bank waiting to pull him out each time it got stuck. dad an I did use a drag silt scoop between 2 wheel tractors about 30 yrs ago an our d4d finished the clean up once the slop was dragged out, that was slippery enough.dont feel like bogging the 9 with a wild storm coming about to fill the dam an lookin at an exhaust pipe snorkling above the water level-that just could be embarrassing to say the least.
Sometimes there isn't a big window of opportunity to do these things. We were lucky enough to receive 3" of rain last night, our biggest fall for nearly two years, more on the way hopefully. How did you go d9e? Cheers, Greg Two weeks ago One week ago This morning, about 2" from bywashing
Doesn't anybody have a dragline or a long reach excavator? Or just go with Scrub Puller's silt scoop method....simpler is always better. I can't fathom using a D9 or heavier to clean out a pond but then again I do live in the softest Prairie Province of Canada. lol One other method that's used heavily for gravel dredging here is one of these setups. http://www.skylineexcavating.us/
good to hear an see qlder, we had 12pts last nite at the place where we wish to desilt the dams (just east st George) an 72 pts at home place near dalby, just got back , wish I took some photos of the dams now to show you fellas what we want to desilt, be going back out there after this rain event an a think about the job, might start on one side trenching as if one was enlarging it before the silt proper to get a feel , if cant get below silt level before silt proper , aint going no further.
how do you add photos? d9e
Those yarders from skyline can move up to two hundred tons in a pass!!! Must take a lot of set-up to anchor every thing down for that kinda pull. Would make sense on a pond as the anchors could stay behind to be used again and again. (I picture the anchors as tons of concrete poured into a deep hole rather than something mobile.) Just get your line and bucket in the mud, gotta be cheaper then forty tons of iron mucking around in a wet hole and trying to push mud up hill. Even cheaper the next time it has to be done. That window of opportunity would be bigger too. Of course I know little about yarders and their set-up, but like the idea.
Desilting usually only ever happens during severe droughts. Excavators and silt scoops can work Ok, but contractors with this gear are usually flat out at a time like this, so there is a temptation to have a go with whatever you have on hand. Having done four dams in the past month with a loader, this will definitely be my weapon of choice in the future. The dam that was filled took about 30 hrs from go to whoa, using only the loader, so not a great expense given that it may not get any more attention for 40 yrs. d9e, this thread should tell you all you need to know about posting photos. Cheers, Greg
Yair . . . Queenslander Neat job cleaning that hole out but how come it's so shallow . . . it looks like they only took a couple of floors out? And of course that is just the problem. Desilting was once part of the normal station routine and was carried out as normal maintenance with a silt scoop on about a ten year cycle . . . timed in a good season when the tank was full and the sheep and ****ters had access to other water. Cheers.
Now, if I had rippers on my loader I could have gone deeper.
You should be shot for even thinking that. Your poor loader
Just between you and me, ih, Iam afraid I may have committed an even greater sin. I needed to win a fair amount of material to repair the bywash/spillway, which was badly eroded. To do this I put the grader on that RH side batter to rip it. Pulling down the slope, it was able to easily stay ahead of the loader. Scrub, In a perfect world I would have gone deeper and used that material to dress up the bank a bit better. As it was, at that time I still had two dams left to do with that window of opportunity narrowing all the time. In the end, every thing worked out pretty good, I had the last one 95% finished when we were rained out. Cheers, Greg
Yair . . . Gotcha Queenslander . . . I was referring to the original construction being shallow not your cleanout. Cheers.
Original excavation was much smaller diameter with steeper batters so probably looked more in proportion then. Original owner of the property, going back 50 yrs, had two TD 6s so it's more than likely that he built the dam with these. He was a very determined bloke. Cheers,Greg
I do not think you can point to a machine and say it is perfect for de-silting a dam... Every situation is going to be different, and yet to see a machine, wheels or tracks that likes working slippery muddy banks.. Probably if you are working in mud, the best machine will be one that does not have to get into it.. Big dragline bucket and you winch it across, filling it up as it goes....
grandson in front d9 blade blade ploughing in june mum an I in front d9e
sorry for the photo post size, anyway that's the tractor I was dreaming desilting with , however had a quote from a contractor using loader which seems reasonable, with me pushing away the muck ,so if it don't rain before he arrives its a go
Yair . . . Goodone d9e , there is nothing like some pictures . . . picture size looks good to me. What's the go with the seat on the Nine, something there looks different, lifted for vision maybe? Are you sticking the blade in to loosen up and seed the country or is just that there were no suckers where you took the pics? Hope you are getting some of this rain. Cheers.
yes scub the seat has been lifted by an earlier owner by about a foot, it does help some with vision forward, and yes in that area of the paddock the regrowth was a bit thin, but we do also use it open up the soil again and reseed. just had 30 mm a day ago on this country, but need an awfull lot more
Looks like a good ole ploughing tractor d9e. Using the dozer will certainly speed things up for the loader. A good size loader in the right mud will keep you reasonably busy. When he gets on the floor with enough room to turn around, the mud will flow pretty quickly. Cheers, Greg
yeah qlder mud sure might be be flowing by the wkend with 20-40 mm each forecast for fri an sat, knowing forecasts though we'll wait an see
Hope you're watching the grass grow d9e, not desilting dams.
d9e; Good looking tractor mate cheers Leroy
well we need more rain yet, the grass has just got a pick,making it hard on the cattle at the moment, boy some people have even missed this opening rain, lotta hardship about . desilting starting is on hold just at the present, as the dams are a bit damp again. the tractor aint as good as the other half though, she kinda keeps me sane when I go off the handle at some problem or other, kept me going to fix it coupla years back when the pinion ground itself to 1/2 its diameter (stripped off all the teeth) now THATS a BIG story on itself, getting it going again, could write a book about the fun of getting parts an installing them, but its going again an can thank the misses for keeping me at it.(see I told you , youd sort it out)
You are indeed a lucky man d9e.:notworthy Not many women would happily accept an old D9 in the relationship, especially when things go pear shaped. Cheers, Greg
The reason we put the D11 into the first dam was not so much to shift the mud, but to rebuild the wall which was swept away during 1 in 100 year flood in 2010. During the flood the dam filled normally from the catchment above and was bywashing nicely with plenty of freeboard but was completely overwhelmed from below by nearby river. Normally takes a 1 in 10 year rainfall event to fill, which we had last night , only two months after repairing it.
well qldr got a contractor to clean 1 dam (rain started stopped the rest) and left the d9 in the shed, wasn't game to put it in the silt. well now the waters begun to flow an dams are filling (I hope) didn't get any photos unfortunately , we've had near 100ml at westmar block and same at dalby home block, so looks like desilting the rest will have to wait until the next inevitable big dry. had hoped to sell some cull for age cows this week but too wet for the trucks. your photos look good ,what area are you?
We've certainly been extremely lucky here, on a map, about half way between Taroom and Mundubbera on the Auburn River. Over Sun. Mon. Tues. nights we had 223mm, about 9inches. Average annual rainfall for this area is 26 inches, since Dec.6 we've had 24 inches. We have another place only 10km up the river that has only had half as much, still very good rain. I know I should be shot for saying it, but we could use a dry spell just now. Cheers, Greg
The guys that farm down there have kind of had a rough go last couple years not? Not been a lot of crops?
It's been tough enough here but lots have had it much tougher for longer and still haven't had a decent break in the season. Most of the worst affected areas are cattle and sheep grazing only, but crop farmers have had a rough trot too. The thing is, the weather now seems a series of extremes, big floods followed by long droughts.. I see parts of the US are enduring a record cold snap now. Cheers, Greg
well i'll be qldr, one of our son in laws, gary used to be at narrane research station until a couple yrs ago. resigned an moved onto our block at westmar full of dreams, (oh to be young an full of dreams again)had about 6" in the last 14 days now, the grass an pasture an crops are growing and the butterflies are flying, like the monsoon seasons of old, just caught and boxed another bee swarm yesterday, so we'll soon be in the land of milk and honey. you're right though about the patchy break, one fella about 15 km x/country from us at westmar had had only 8ml up till last week, his dams were dry an not a stick of grass, waiting to hear from gary if that long suffering bloke got any last week. hope so .
You should do well with those cull cows d9e whenever you get them to market. For the immediate future I can only see prices going one way and that is up. I think there are a lot of buyers sitting on the side expecting prices to fall but I think their hand will be forced to buy at the autumn weaner sales and that will force the prices higher still. Ken
I hope prices sky rocket then the cow cocky might spend some money and pull some country , push a fence line or 3 and maybe even build a dam or 2. I also hope it rains like hell and washes roads out and makes a real mess outa everything then there might b some work around the place.
If Labor get in there won't be much scrub pulling. Ken
I think I may have met your daughter and son in law, but it was just as they left so didn't get to know them. Speaking of bees, a couple of weeks before the rain started, several tree species started flowering strongly here. Since then almost every species has done the same. Sign of a good season, maybe? Cheers, Greg
Lets not start talking politics here I'll get to revved up I can really get going u know. Best dream I ever had was me taking care of Drew Hutton and his band of well u know
Sounds like you died and went to heaven. Ken
Then I woke up
There won't be much scrub pulling then...
Who would have thunk it?