Hello folks, I am a rookie in the industry and have a job to make a big deep hole in ground soon, approx. 30 by 30ft and also 30ft deep. I have a crawler dozer, wheel loader and a JCB 4cx backhoe. I have enough space around to make a temporary ramp. How do you, experienced operators suggest to make it as much proffesional and fast as possible?? Thanks
You would try to move the material with the objective of only handling it once.You have the room to make a ramp so my focus would be to dig it with the loader and clean it up at the end with the backhoe and loader maybe.The dozer might not be needed.The ramp might come in handy for other things depending on what the hole is to be used for.Good luck with it.Ron G
Thanks for reply Ron. But I think its too deep for only one digging. I though maybe to dig it half way (5ft) with dozer and loader and then to get backhoe down there to excavate the remaining 5ft. What do you think??
Yair . . . Vankenobee Bulk confusion here . . . what shape is the hole? That is to say are you talking three vertical sides and the fourth side is a ramp? Your numbers don't add up, you have another twenty feet to go . . . you do mean feet and not meters? Depending on the soil thirty feet down and thirty feet square could be risky and there will not be enough room to swing a cat . . . its a simple job though for a (say) thirty ton excavator. Cheers.
Sorry, I wrote 5+5 meters, meant 15+15 ft. Square shape at the end, three vertical sides, forth with the ramp, one third of that side or half, nevermind. I know that excavator would do the job, but we only have these machines. And the loader is not that big, its about 23ft (7m) long.
Please slope the sides back, or use some kind of shoring to prevent a cave in.
Good advice Buckethead . Found an example of what it will look like sloped back . HeavyEquipmentForums
Thanks guys, I guess I'll have to do that sloping. But I cant see the pics from that thread you gave the link for. It just says "Attached Images". How to open it??
I would stake it out with 30' offsets so you could scale it with an 100' tape and dig it making adjustments as you go because you probably don't know what you will encounter for material until you move it.I don't see any difficulty with the equipment you have on site,it might be slow going but I stand by my original assessment until I start doing the work and see another way that works better.I don't think shoring would be necessary if you could dig the sides back properly but again,we don't know what we are dealing with yet.Hope we get some pics once you get started.Ron G
Do you have just yourself or do you have another operator? If the dozer is big enough push as much out as you can then dig the rest with the hoe and dump it where the dozer or loader can move it out of the way as you dig it. The hoe would be the easiest to slope it and the safest.
Yair . . . Vankenobee Hole 30 foot, hoe maybe twenty foot reach? . . . and swings through one eighty degrees? Will loader back up (say) 3:1 ramp . . . probably not. You could end up with as much yardage in the access ramp as the hole if a few cave ins occur. There is no easy way to do this with those machines. It's possible but as has been said it could be risky unless you move a disproportionate amount of dirt . . . in effect you could have your thirty foot cube okay but it will be within a larger excavation. Cheers.
Scrub Puller,you are right,there is no easy way to do it with those machines and I have been projecting in my mind what would most likely work with what he has there.I can see the hole having a ramp in and a ramp out across from it so he is not backing out with a full bucket and he can enter and exit from either side but as we both know sometimes your plans change as the job progresses.I have no idea what the hole will be used for but as I said before a ramp might be needed anyway so it won't be wasted.Peace.Ron G
Don't know but let me try a different way . Borrowed this picture from one of Tiny's jobs . If you notice the workers are standing in the causeway ramp . Ground water is the biggest issue on something like that . If. it's dry like in the picture it could be done with just the dozer & back hoe . Push it all up the causeway ramp to the top .
I agree with the excavator being used, might be worth it to rent one?
There's been some changes so we are now digging smaller hole. We started today and had flat tyre on loader from the start. Dozer made a long ramp using one whole side of the hole and pushed the dirt on the other (back) side....
We found rocks in ground and somekind of old concrete foundation under the ramp which slow us down too...we made it around 25ft width and 80ft long now with the ramp, but at the end it should be 25 by 25 and as deep as it can be.
We will now use loader to clean the background of the hole from the dirt that dozer took out. Then a backhoe will excavate from that side as much as he can, I think that the maximum reach is 20ft in depth. And the he will get down on the ramp and digg the rest and dispose the material on the ramp next to him so the loder can take it out. What do you say??
Pictures........lol.Ron G
I ll take some pics tommorow or when its done. I dont even know how to open pics you've posted here...it just wont work
Sometimes we have problems with Hyperlinks too.See if you can open this one.Ron G
Ron I see this one
We should see yours okay too then.Ron G