Backfilling and Tamping our Electric Trench

[@rondeal3823]

Brother i ve been digging utilities for 38 years. If i may. When your whacker packer starts to dig in. Lean it toward u and push hard down on the handle bar. Get the foot facing upward and throw your hip into it and you can climb over most lips.its worth the time to haul it back up the hill .tamping up hill will kill you.tie a 3 ft length of rope on top and snag it with a tooth and haul it. Backfilling rock. In chattanooga our contract doesnt call for gravel pad. Most times when digging rock,i find a layer of good dirt on top. Set your soil 2 ft back from ditch . Gives a better work area .makes you osha compliant on depth and gives you dirt on both sides of ditch ,you can skim off for padding. Get a foot of good dirt on pipe.roll your bucket into it to compact, or lightly tamp with bucket. Your bottom foot is very important to tamp. Next layer ,backfill small rock and dirt.tamp. next pull in your big rock .eeven if you have to widen the ditch to make it fit.fill your ditch . Do this all in one set up .dont make 3 trips. As you move forward keep right track on ditch ,you can crowd your boom to line up with ditch. If yo do this ,the movement of working the next set up backfill will tighten the one your sitting on. Work your entire ditch .looking back you will see your track has left a 6 inch depression in your ditch. Clean up. Turn around and start raking what small rock you have into the 6 inch trench smack it with the bucket if needed and rake dirt over . Work the whole ditch and roll the chit out of it. Little to no rock . No whacker packer .and your ass got a little wider cause you aint doing all that labor. I have one laborer working with me. We lay power and fiber in big subdevisions and i make the machine do most of the work. If you dig your other utilities. You might be able to do 100 percent of the ditchwork yourself. Just tryin to help brother. Good luck.

[@rondeal3823]

Im sorry. I didnt look at the timeline. Your probably done by now.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

haha thanks for all that good advice! We did finish, albeit much slower than a pro would do it 😄

[@bradleytuckwell4854]

Props for trying to give the compactor a run great job thanks for sharing

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Haha it’s like taming a bull!!

[@thetundra]

My back hurt just watching this job!

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Haha same!!

[@aaronmickels]

Nice work guys! Love your channel.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Much appreciated!!

[@susanm2117]

Enjoying your journey! 👍👏🏼🏡

[@paularipepi4458]

Looks like Paula gets to go shopping again Alex!!! 🤪