Having issues backfilling drain tile here. Under ideal conditions, there is plenty of fine material to cover the pipe(blind) before filling the trench. But out here in clay country, all that is available is the giant wads of hard clay that came out of the trench. No topsoil to speak of, and fines are hard to find. I'm losing sleep over the thought of crushing the pipe. Not so bad if you see it happen, but if you aren't really careful, you bury it and don't even know there is a problem. I was thinking of a screening bucket of some kind, but cost is steep on those. How bout a skeleton bucket to separate the big chunks from the finer stuff? We are talking clay ranging from damp fresh out of the ground, to gooey sticky crap that's good for nothing. Last resort would be buying gravel, which would also be the ideal solution. Biggest issue there is the distance from the road to the job.
If theres any top soil some where on your job maybe try using a scraper and haul some up along you trench and use it to back fill part way over your tile line then finsh it off with the clay..Or try to build a set of bidders like are on the wheel trenchers to bed the pipe good luck.
Not sure about the size of the project or length of trench line ? I might even entertain the idea of spreading out the clay with a dozer & let it dry for a few days . Then run a heavy disc over it to help bust it down to suitable backfill . We have some of that stuff in my area . Pretty hard to deal with around plastic field tile . When backfilling with a dozer I try to stay well away from the exposed tile & let the back fill roll down the trench line covering the tile . Have even used a spotter to watch the tile while backfilling . Also helps to lay the tile in the corner of the trench closest to the spoil pile . Then when it gets pushed in it hits the opposite corner of the trench & rolls back over the tile . Have also covered it with a hand shovel about a foot deep for the full run . That works pretty good. Farmer sends out 3 or 4 hands to help & cold barley soda in the back of the truck . Best of luck with it watglen .
Depending on the length, I would use rock to cover the tile. May be the cheapest rock you ever buy if the tile gets crushed in several places..
I have considered all those ideas. Thanks guys. Just have to come to grips with the idea of spending more time and money on it. Its like everything else, the better you do it, the more it costs.
In the short it will cost more but in the long run it will pay off. If you lay a bed of pea stone or any sutible 3/8 -3/4 sized clear stone will make the tile stay cleaner longer. And when your customer sees that you take so much care for your work... You'll be recommended into more work. You say the better you do a job, the more it costs. I say "nothing costs more then doing it twice".
And quality ain't expensive, it's priceless.
What exactly are you doing, field drain tile, tile around buildings and are you talking 300, 3000 or 30,000 feet of tile, it matters as to what process would be most economical. My next question is if your in solid clay, how are you expecting it to drain water anyhow if you could blind the tile, with a trench full of clay, depending on what type of clay, not much is going to get into the tile anyhow. As ConstructO said, bring in some better dirt and blind with that or blend out the clay so it will drain when your done, we do this quite a bit on solid clay soils, even with the blinders on the back of the trencher. Next question is, how are you putting a grove in the bottom of the trench to help support the tile are you backfill, some call is grove, others call it a v notch, but whatever you call it, it helps support the haunch of the pipe are you go.