I am digging a silage pit that has very tight caliche and I was wondering what % rate to use to figure loose yards? Any ideas? The pit consist of about 10000 yards of tight material. So how many loose yards would that be? Thanks
Loose ......... Tight........Are we talking dirt here or something else :usa
Ha..Ha!!! You got me there, constructo.
10000 bank yards x 25-30% 12500 - 13000 expanded yards
I have never been around caliche, but from what i hear its pretty hard stuff. Back to your question, based off the material i know. In clay you can expect 25-30% more loose material. In rock you can expect upwards of 50%, assuming you can get it out
Are you bidding on the pit job or doing it by the hour?How did you come up with the 10k yardage figure? Will the pit need to be graded for concrete floor and sidewall? What is the lengthxwidthxdeepth ? If it is just going to be a dirt run pit here,usually berm the sides with dirt and waste the other dirt on site. Will it be hard going all the way down to grade?You have a ripper,so you will be ripping i take it.What about a scraper? Good luck and get a few pictures:usa
Constructo, By the hr. Just a ruff figure. Probably closer to 12000yrds of bank material. 16ft deep 80 feet wide and 300ft long with a 6to1 slope. I am making a existing pit twice a big. No concrete or sidewall. The caliche is hard enough to hold. They dont want to berm the sides, I still dont understand why. After about the first 4ft everything has to be ripped. I am having to move this dirt twice (push it out and push it away to one side). There is not enough room for a scraper, there is a fence about thirty feet on both ends of the pit that they do not want to move. I have thought about a loader but the cost of renting a big enough loader is too many $$$ plus it will get into my total hrs. I will try to get some pics. I have never seen a silage pit built like this one. The pit when finished will be 600ft long and 80ft wide with slopes to get trucks in and out on both ends. I am about half way done today.
The good thing with your job is that your doing it by the hour if your having to move the dirt more then once.If your half done your getting along fairly good. Are you dozing sideway (80.ft) until you get down aways then finish the bottom the long ways and moving from one end of the pit to the other end? With a 6 to 1 slope at least you could get up and out fairly good.If you are dozing sideways are you dividing the cut in half and dozing both ways? It's heating up here now finally.Stay cool and good luck.:usa
Constructo, Doing some dozing sideways but most of it is coming out the end. I can only put the spoil dirt on the west side of the pit because they have silage on east side of the pit. I will try to get some pics of this project tomorrow, it is difficult to explain how I am digging this because it is the second time this pit has been made larger. The pit originally started out to be 40' wide, 16' deep, and 300' feet long with a squared off end on one end. Last year I went back in and made it twice as big and now I am making it twice as big again. Dad is bringing his machine (d5h) down tomorrow to help push my spoil away.
Here is a formula every hole digger should know V = D (A1 + A2) .. Volume = Depth ( area 1+area 2) divide by 54 ------------- 54 You take the area of the top A1 plus the area of the bottom A2 multiply by the depth and divide by 54, this will figure in the slopes and give you cu. yds. of a square or rectangular pond cut. End of math class
thanks for the class I fill wel learnded. I just need help now on grammer since I got the math down. Just kiddin DPete, I respect and appreciate your replys on this forum. Thanks again.
Heh heh, you can't see my dictionary can you? Seriously that formula is really handy and can be changed a little to calc bank fill. Learn that at the next class
Got some pics, first time posting pics. Hope this works. This is the west side of the pit this is looking from north to south this will be the north end of the pit
ok. what did I do wrong. Why wont the pics show up?
They are working when I click on them.
Looks a little dry down your way! I worked in southern Mo. and they had sand stone where we was working had to rip it ,but when ripped it was like sand.It was more red. Your stuff looks like power after you get it ripped doesn't it.Keep pushing ,looks like you have a ways to go. Whats all the rubber tire tracks?:usa
eray, I was trying to get them up on this site without having to go to the link to look at them, I think I might have it figured out thanks to countryboy. Constructo, It is very dry here. It does turn to powder after it is worked, it comes out in big chunks though. This stuff will set up like concrete after a little moisture and some compaction though. The feedlot has a loader they were getting some spoil dirt with it.
Here is my little Kitty Cat.
Is that your fuel tank that you parked by?????? or was that a tank there at your job.Shaped like propane tank ,so if that is fuel tank for the dozers it is unusual for here. Noticed also that the front lights on your machine looks to have covers that fold down ,is that correct? See you have been in the brush with your machine some, by the decals ,but you still have good paint on the roller frames.How many hours you have on your machine now last time you was talking about your tracks i think it was around 1500 hr?Are you still running the same tracks? Are still keeping busy? The dirt your working in i'm sure you have to keep the air cleaner clean and replace often.Drying out here some ,but got rain last night.Good for the crops since they are behind compared to normal. Thanks for sharing your job and dozer pics:drinkupGood luck:usa
That's a fine looking 6, Doze on :thumbsup
constructo, Yes that is my fuel tank. I use compressed air to fill my machine up. After using air I will never go back to 12v, it is about 3 times as fast. Good eye. The covers have self -locking nuts on them so if I run the machine at night all I have to do is flip them up and when I am done flip them down. Mesquite limbs and cedar limbs are hard on the lights. Did you notice the radiator screen? It is built out of expanded metal, it has saved my radiator on several occasions. I have been in alot of brush. Doing fence lines and fire guards where no man or beast has ever been is hard on the decals, as well as old barns and houses that I have demoed. Still running the same tracks, I had a dry pin replaced the other day, the same one that Cat originally told me that it wasnt dry. I turned over 2504hrs when i quite this evening. Maybe they got the u/c problems taken care of for now. I am snowed under right now. I am about 4-5weeks out as of now. Suprisingly, the dirt is not that dusty yet. It seems to have a little bit of moisture in it. We sure do need a rain though. Our crops are going the other way right now, it looks like we dont have any relief in sight either. Here's to ya':drinkup Dpete, Thanks, I kinda baby it. Dont really care to get it the brush, but I guess it pays the bills.
Heres a few pic. I was clean up on my farm,around one of the cow lots.Torn down part of the leanto to the old barn.It was falling here.Guess i'll leave the barn for now. My machine is a 1998,it's got a few scuffed up decals also. :usa
Nice pics. It looks like you take real good care of your machine also. That is a very clean 10yr old tractor. How many hrs do you have on it? I have always enjoyed doing clean up jobs. I have a big clean up job that I am going to after I finish the silage pit. I have to push a massive quanset (sp) barn in a hole + about 60 yrs of junk that has been gathered up.
Prices old metal is!!!!!!! to bad you couldn't savage some of the iron at least,but if your like me they pay you too get rid of it means money.Plus that is time you could be running the machine Also if you go hauling things off then they go what are you doing ?Then they want it back or there share,when in fact you would save them money. One clearing job i did i in fact did deduct from bill for the logs that i got,but made arrangement with the owner before i did anything. I always make sure i do that evertime,so there isn't any hard feeling or lose of customer. Post more picture as work goes on with you furture job.I enjoy seeing thing sin other parts of the conutry being done. Have a good day!!!!!!!:usa
Actually the dozer is pretty low hour machine for it's age.It has 6200 hours on it.:usa
Care to elaborate on your arrangement here? I have often thout about using air presure to pump fuel and oil, but never had the time to try it. Nice work too.
First of all you must use a propane tank, or at least a tank that will withstand pressure. I use about 20 psi. Most propane tanks will have a % gauge, and all I had to do is replace the old one that was on it. Bought a air pressure gauge and some fittings so I could use a filter. I also use a 1" hose and nozzle. The tank come from a clean-up job that I did several yrs. ago. It was free. The trailer frame is from a old dry fert. spreader. All in all I have about $400 in the whole setup, that also includes the hi-dollar cat paint. One thing you have to be careful about using air is that you dont fill the tank to capacity. You must leave a little room for air. I put about 245 gal. in my 250 gallon tank. Another nice thing about using air is that it is harder for thieves to steal. Every car has a battery to hook up a 12v pump to, but not everybody has an aircompressor.
Finished pit. It was not near as big as it was supposed to be. They cut me off at 190' long and with an 8' to 1' slope.
Thats a lot of dozing when you have to keep moving the material sideway as you go.Always nicer to be able to dozer it where you want to go without moving it again. Looks like you need some of our rain this year.Has straighten up some finally here.So able to get more done.Guy wants to build a good sized,pond ,but i'm getting backlogged and eveyone is hurrying me.Imagine that!!!! Whats you next project? Mine will be putting in field drainage tile with a trencher and build some erosion terraces.Will be a lot of terrace to clean silt out and rebuilt from washouts this year.Thanks for the finshed job pics:usa
That was a pain in the rear, having to move the dirt twice, but that is just more $$$ in my pocket. We do need some rain, maybe tonight and tomorrow, at least that is what the weather men tell us. I did the cleanup job. That amounted to about 40 hrs and now I am building a decent size pond, but it is so dry I am having problem with compaction and there is no water close by, I guess I will just build the dam tall and wide.