walk behind trencher

steven in Tn · Feb 18, 2015

anyone ever used a walk behind trencher? i got about 1500ft of water line to bury and thats the only kind of trencher the local rental place has. i dont see it working to good in our hard chert ground think it would just bounce around and not dig but could suprise me.

Russ from MN · Feb 18, 2015

We used one to put in a sprinkler system, worked OK, only down about a foot, you probably are going a lot deeper than that. A lot less mess than using an excavator.

wisbaker · Feb 18, 2015

They don't like hillsides or un-even ground, both tend to make them not want to go straight (or maybe a previous renter hit something with it and messed up the cutting blades on one side?) For me this was a problem as I was trying to bury pipe, 3" galvanized pipe doesn't have much flex to it.

cole in mo. · Feb 18, 2015

Rented one several years ago for a water line, spent more time putting the chain back on the bent bar than trenching. Outfit did knock off an hour for my inconvience.

ObsoElitist · Feb 18, 2015

I rented a walk behind crawler and put in some gas lines, I just had to curve a bit when i found some rocks. A year later I got an old ditch-witch at a ranch sale with very little wear on the cutters. The company has many manuals onlike, but not mine, they said it was from around 1962, and they faxed me one. Works great, put in a sewer line last spring. Not as nice as the crawler, but it only cost $35.

Richard G. · Feb 18, 2015

One of the worst days of my life was behind a walk behind trencher. And I had a friend helping.
Richard in NW SC

OliverGuy · Feb 18, 2015

They are not fun, especially for 1500 ft. Hire someone? We do it all the time for people, Or pull sleeves.

Brendon-KS · Feb 18, 2015

I rented one a few years ago to get a water line back to our livestock pens. I believe it was a Ditch Witch 1820. We have very tough gumbo ground (but no rocks) and it did chew through it without much trouble. I was going about as deep as it would go which was around three feet. BUT, I only had 250 feet so a few hours of work and it was done. Going over a quarter mile would be a long, slow process, probably over multiple days. The machine was rated to go to four feet but I couldn't get that deep. If you are needing to get to a certain depth then apply some generous tolerance to the machine's specs. Three feet is enough for water lines in our area so I didn't worry about it.

Kerry50 · Feb 18, 2015

Rent a mini excavator. You'll feel a whole lot better at the end of the day.

notjustair · Feb 18, 2015

I used one for about 300 feet last year. It was a track machine that did its job. Like stated, it didn't like going much deeper than three feet. I kind of think it was underpowered and also the hydro got pretty hot. It was a hot summer day, but I ended up letting it cool when it started smoking. It wasn't any work for me, but it was lots of inching backward at a snails pace. I honestly think it was less of a headache than the skid steer attachment I rented a few years back. Mostly because it had been better cared for I think.

Don't expect to be done by dinner.

Mark - IN. · Feb 18, 2015

I've used them about three times. They're self propelled, all you have to do is guide and walk. The first time I used one was brutal, but my fault. When the guy showed me how to engage the drive tires, he showed me on one side without mentioning the other side needed to be engaged as well, and I didn't think about it. When it came time to trench, I engaged the one side, not the other, so one side doing all of the propelling, it tried to propel in circles. Took a lot of umph to stop that, UMPH for about 300 feet. I was about 10' from done when I happened to see the engage lever for the unpropelled drive tire. The last 10' went very smooth and very straight. Second and third times using one didn't make that mistake going about 700' or so both times. Big difference if you let it do the work for you.

Good luck.

Mark

donjr · Feb 18, 2015

They're not bad if you have no rocks along your line or don't have to go deep. But, you may be faster and better off renting a trencher with a small backhoe on it, and you can use both ends....

huntingreen2day2 · Feb 18, 2015

Owned 2. They hate rocks and if you have rocks you will hate it.

jm. · Feb 18, 2015

Rocks ever where here in Stewart county. They would not rent me one. I bought a pretty late model used one and dug over 1000 ft without too many problems except it is work. Would sell the unit for $ 800.00 bucks. Been in the barn for two years but should still be fine.

JayinNY · Feb 18, 2015

We used one, it worked ok. What worked even better was the one my brother rented to mount on the front of the skid steer.

ss55 · Feb 18, 2015

It can depend on what your time is worth. Get some quotes from professionals to do the whole job with their equipment. If they are looking for work they can be very reasonable.

Paul from MI · Feb 18, 2015

I borrowed one 40 years ago to bury water and power about 320' to my barn. I never have put in a harder day!!!!! It stalled on every stone it hit, and there's a lot of them in Michigan. The old Wisconsin on it started on the first pull every time otherwise it would have been impossible. I did get the line buried, but I'd never do it that way again. If you don't have stones it might be OK. I did help a neighbor with one in muddy conditions, and we ended up pulling it with a Bobcat because the tracks just spun in the mud.

Wheatfarmer · Feb 18, 2015

Water Line? Walk behind normally only digs 24" deep. I rent a mini track hoe for $219 a day.

ditchwitch · Feb 19, 2015

walk behinds are pretty good for small jobs that you dont have to go any deeper than about 18 inches any deeper and depending on soil type they can get pretty bouncy. For 1500 foot i would concider a small ride on trencher like a 2310 ditchwitch or something that size. The walk behind also tends to trax one way or the other. Its not a pretty straight ditchline but it works

MarkB_MI · Feb 19, 2015

It depends on how deep you need to go, what kind of soil you have and what sort of trencher it is. 1500 feet is a long run with any machine. And you may need to clean out the bottom of the trench by hand to get the full depth.

I've used a couple of different walk-behind trenchers. Neither one was fun in our hard clay, but they got the job done. The trenches were both only about 150 feet long. The first one was for a water line and I used a 48" walk-behind. This was a pretty good machine and worked well until it started raining. You definitely want to do your trenching on a dry day, because walk-behinds don't work well on wet grass.

The second trench I dug was for an electrical cable and I only needed to go down two feet. I used a 24" trencher (all I could get) and it didn't work as well as the larger one had, but got the job done in the end.

Both of the units I rented were quality Ditch Witch trenchers. I've seem some cheaper units for rent at HD that I would not bother with. And for a quarter-mile long trench in hard ground, I think I'd either hire it done or at least find the largest unit I could rent, even if it meant a long drive. Trenching 1500 feet is going to be an all-day job with an average-size walk-behind, you might as well spend a couple of hours towing a big unit from out of town instead of walking behind a too-small unit.

Geo-TH,In · Feb 19, 2015

My last water line, I hired a man who had a very large trencher. I was happy to pay him $500 for a 100 ft trench, all parts included too. His dad was a plumber. He knew what he was doing.

W_B · Feb 19, 2015

I rented one several years ago to put in water and electric line from the house to the barn. Only about 150 ft. Went very well for me.

Blackhole49 · Feb 19, 2015

When I ran gas and electric to my barn (120'), I was going to dig it by hand in June. My wife called the nearest rental house (gotta love that woman) and found I could rent a 4" Ditch Witch walk behind for $50 for 2 hours. I went and picked it up (7 miles one way) and had it back in an hour and a half. Was only going 2' deep.

El Toro · Feb 19, 2015

I would call someone that does trenching and get a price for that distance. The ground is frozen
deep here in ne MD. Suppose to drop below zero
tonight. Hal

Dean Olson · Feb 19, 2015

That's too big a job for a walk behind. It will work you to death. Rent a big ride on or hire someone to do it.

dr sportster · Feb 19, 2015

Even though they are self propelled they operate on your muscles. If they sink in soft ground it will take two guys to get it back on track. It is not an easy workout.

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