Have a 1ac pond to do for a guy. Soil will be spoiled/piled in one, central place. The distance between dig site and spoil site will be 500-800ft. IMO, it is too far to be practical to push with a dozer. An ADT would be nice but I don't own one and getting one to the site will probably not be financially feasible. I am torn between 1 dump truck, 2, or possibly a loader operating here. I can see a lot of time wasted with trucks in lifting, dumping, backing, etc. Curious what you guys might think here? All easy soil to dig.
I'm considering basically the same scenario. Interested to hear what the experts may offer for input.
We just did something like that last year, although we filled in a pond that size, instead of digging it. I don't recommend you do it like this, but it can be done. We used a 35,000 lb track hoe and a CTL to fill it in. Had to move the dirt about the same distance. It was inefficient as heck, but it worked. The darn landowners would not rent any bigger equipment, so we had to do with what we had onsite. We moved the dirt at least 3 times toward the pond with the excavator, and as my buddy was doing that, I just kept whittling at the piles with the CTL, and pushed the dirt toward the pond. Took us about 2 weeks. You can use this method to dig a pond, but you move the dirt several times, and it is slow. However, if the owner is willing to pay for the labor, it does work. We have also dug a little smaller pond, using the same inefficient method. The photo shows how we had to push a loooong ways with the CTL to get enough dirt to fill the pond. I think digging a pond with small equipment might be easier though.
Wheel loader is relatively fast if not to wet....500 ft is a pain with a dump truck...rock truck or morooka is our choice when we do ponds
I'm certainly no expert but I think with 2 dump trucks you could have reasonable production if you have them driving in a continuous loop. If they have to back up and turn around to get loaded and to dump will take way too much time. I'm assuming you will be digging with an excavator? What all equipment do you have? If you had a dozer it could push the loads from the trucks out of the way so there's no need to back up. There will be some longer distances with a 1 acre pond.
I'd do it with a scraper, whatever flavor you prefer. I have both an elevating and a pull pan, either would work.
he has neither, he's got a 250 class excavator. I'd hire 2 solos and do as suggested above, and add a 3rd if it made sense. That would minimize mobilization and the cost to the customer would be clearly defined.
Dump trucks work if the soil is ok. If they are hopping around in sand or sliding in the mud it turns into a disaster real quick ....
If conditions are dry enough the dump trucks will be fine if you can keep then cycling. Do you have to spread and level the dirt or is there lots of room to dump?