Ground conditions dictate everything….. then cost and being practical
We have some houses we roll in with a $100K Vermeer RTX1250… and go 4ft deep… Yes, a house…. Rural setting farmyard We are a Vermeer shop, but we are all about “do it right” and Ditch Witch had the best for what we wanted We also have a non-articulated RamRod on tracks too…. We buy tracks for everything possible. This is what works for us…. Everyone will need to evaluate what works for them. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Jason McKemie Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2017 11:47 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Vibratory Plow How deep can the zahn go though? Last I looked, it was considerably lighter duty than the 410sx. On Wednesday, March 22, 2017, Joe <j...@highspeedcrow.ca <mailto:j...@highspeedcrow.ca> > wrote: We did extensive testing… Our LM42 we bought was great with direct burial, but not good with a chute for ¾” pipe. It was reliable, but in harder ground it was an issue – no setting for the angle when going shallow. We even custom built a chute… great concept, but not practical for our ground conditions Single tires with good rubber is OK, duals are better for harder ground. We went with a zahn (mini skidsteer) that is tracked and articulated. The angle of the plow can be fully adjusted to the conditions With a serrated blade, we can easily go through roots… even a couple inches of frozen ground We use a “Bullet” style to pull the conduit with a carrot or kellum grip (Chinese finger trap) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9JhOQYxbwM video is for a silt fence, but it gives the idea of why this works very well A team of 2 guys can easily do 5-8 houses in a short day (conduit). Tracks, and articulation…. Is the secret. So is slow and constant speed Rushing the install….. results in stretched/broken conduit. We also bought the “mighty mole” attachment for compaction boring under cement driveways. This wasn’t cheap, but it is very effective / clean / fast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fGpRuNXjnM make sure to sleeve under driveways with good conduit before pushing through fiber or a smaller conduit where needed For some of the bigger acreages, we pull in with the RTX1250 and use a bullet with 3/4 conduit or chute with 1.5” The ground disturbance is more, but doing this… it impresses the farmers when we are “rolling black coal” We also protyped a conduit pressurized with water and a jet where we attach a carrot. The water helps for sure, but at some point… the added work for the water/equipment was just a little bit too much to be practical. Another one we looked at was sending a stream of water down the plow itself, but then we need the water source moving… and it used a lot of water to be effective. Think of how a big tree mover sends the big knifes into the ground easier with water…that was the model we compared it to. Very functional… just impractical in practice. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','af-boun...@afmug.com');> ] On Behalf Of Jason McKemie Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 2:55 PM To: af@afmug.com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','af@afmug.com');> Subject: [AFMUG] Vibratory Plow I'm trying to decide what make/model of plow to get. The options, as I see them, are the Vermeer LM42, Ditch Witch 410SX, or Case Maxi Sneaker. I'll be using this for customer drops as well as some main-runs. I like the mini excavator attachment for the LM42, although I don't know how limiting this will be for the machine if I'm also using it for customer drops. The drill attachment for the 410SX also seems like it could be useful. Anyone have experience with these machines? Recommendations? Also, does anyone know what model of Case Maxi Sneaker this is? http://i.imgur.com/APCL4TK.jpg Thanks. -Jason