Waterway job

[Fieldman12]

Well, this is one of my first big projects on the farm. Been doing lots of little ones. Dad needed a waterway put in behind the barn to catch the water runoff from the field. It's about 250' long and curves around the barn. I have just rough cut it in and still have a bank to cut beside the barn and make the parabolic shape. at the Center its about 1' and on the deep end behind the barn about 2'. You cant tell in the pictures except by looking at the piles it was a muddy mess but had to be done soon so we can get the piles out of the way to plant corn in the field. When it dries out maybe tomorrow I'm gonna go in and shape the banks better and cut the other bank. Any comments or ideas on things I should do. I was really impressed with the digging power of the 250 series II Deere. I did have the hydraulic temperature over heat come on after an hour but I had dug 200' already in the center and was working it hard in the mud. Any one had this sensor come on? Is this normal? It never came on any more after that. It was full of fluid. A dozer would have been handy for this job.

[ksss]

I would say you have a sensor problem. If the sensor is not malfunctioning and the hyd. oil got that hot from that small amount of work I would assume there is a problem with the machine.

[RockSet N' Grade]

Fieldman....you asked for comments or suggestions.......so here is one for you...........don't ever move! don't ever take for granted the awesome lifestyle you have got! your farm looks beautiful and I wish I was there to enjoy the solitude. Plus, I wish I had another nice barn like yours here at my place. They're crowding us out here.....600 new homes up to our pasture lines, can't pull out the driveway anymore without a long wait, livestock gets out and goes on the road and these new tourists accelerate and aim for them......so enjoy the green grass and open spaces.......

[YellowDogSVC]

not sure about deer but on a bobcat I have seen a dirty or clogged radiator cause a temp sensor to go off.

[dozerman21]

Besides the obvious of making sure your hyd. fluid is topped off, you might need to change your hyd filter(s).

It looks like you're headed in the right direction with the cut. If the stacked dirt isn't too wet or doesn't have too much sod in it, you could spread that on the banks of the swale and make a more defined "V".

[tallrick]

Fieldman....you asked for comments or suggestions.......so here is one for you...........don't ever move! don't ever take for granted the awesome lifestyle you have got! your farm looks beautiful and I wish I was there to enjoy the solitude. Plus, I wish I had another nice barn like yours here at my place. They're crowding us out here.....600 new homes up to our pasture lines, can't pull out the driveway anymore without a long wait, livestock gets out and goes on the road and these new tourists accelerate and aim for them......so enjoy the green grass and open spaces.......

I second this statement! Here in Florida we all got "crowded out". Hopefully I will be out of this hell hole and back to the country by next year. Don't know what's going on but it seems like all the rural areas are being swallowed up by the real estate bubble.

As for overheating check your oil cooler and the radiator fan. No skid steer should overheat from grading like that. It's nice to have soil to work with instead of sand and rock like here. A lot easier on your machine!

[Fieldman12]

Rockset N' Grade, yeah we like it here very well, this is the biggest of our five farms. There is 81 acres here all together with about 21 in woods. We actually plan to build a new barn out front of this barn in the summer close to twice this ones size. As to the other comments I am going to change the hydraulic filters and possible the sensor. I'm guessing the sensor is going bad. All the wheels have power to them and plenty of break out force unless you really stick in in the ground to see what it will do. It is days like this I wish I had a CTL.

[tallrick]

"A dozer would have been handy for this job."

Truer words have never been written! A nice angle and tilt blade with a dozer would have made short work of that ditch. I have seen a PAT mount for CTL's that seemed to work well, on a small scale. It's always more work to try and cut a ditch with a skid steer and bucket. Probably got dizzy from all the bouncing and turning while in the JD?

[Scag48]

For jobs like this, use what you have, don't invest more than fuel and your time into it. Who cares if it takes you a little longer, just get the job done with what you have and take some of the money saved on rental fees and buy yourself a 6 pack of brew for the end of the day.

[tallrick]

Yes that's how it always ends up getting done, with the tools on hand. Just comparing techniques and thinking of possible improvements. Anything is an improvement over pick and shovel.

[Fieldman12]

Actually it was not that bad of a job on a skid steer and a Deere does not really bounce that much. I had to each time take a cut and back all the way out of the ditch so I would not disturb the future banks because of the very wet ground. I got about three dump truck loads all together of dirt out of the ditch. I got all of the dirt spread out today. Some he decided he wanted put in some low spots in the yard. When they dry out more he is going to disk them in and then see what he has. The banks turned out really well with good slope. What I did was decide where the ditch center woud be and cut that entire piece out first and then drop right tire in the hole which gave me the slope and just worked it all in together. Only thing I would have done different was remove the sod also on the top of the bank slopes before trying to cut them because they where a pain with the sod on them. We really was not worried about getting all the sod removed on the tops though since he plans on ligtly hitting them with a small tiller before the grass seeding. The entire ditch also is designed with a slope going from one end all the way around the barn and into the other big ditch. Where the ditch goes around the barn he did not want two slopes on each side of the ditch with the same slope. I had the hydraulic temperature light come on once today and went off after five minutes. I will get the filter changed and look into getting the sensor replaced. Did make sure everything was good and cleaned with the air hose. All and all it was a good experience for my first big job and showed me what the machine is capable of doing. I wanted to get some seat time under my belt before going out and doing any other jobs. I have run a Cat D4 some and a 931C Cat crawler loader, but wanted to know what I could do with this machine.