Mini Excavator Digs 300ft French Drain (LONG Video)

Digging a 100 metre (328 ft) 'French Drain' with my Chinese Mini Excavator and installing geo textile fabric, 100mm slotted ag pipe and 30/40 stone. One man, one dog, one mini digger and no idea.
This is a longer than normal video. Duration is 49 minutes. Sit back and chill out with a brew!
This is the link to the video on putting the tracks back on the UHI UME 12.
• Mini Excavator Tracks ...
UHI UME 12 Mini Excavator can be purchased from UHI Industries (Sydney):
www.unitedheav...
Content provided for entertainment value only.

[@mrfrankbosh]

Thank you for the long video, they are the best, you have a great clear voice and the sound of compassion for others in how you explain the way you tackled the job.

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

Thank you for watching Frank. Sometimes wonder how the Australian accent goes over with international viewers ( 95% of the channel viewers are in the USA) Cheers Dave.

[@davoradcliffe]

Love the long form video and seeing the project from conception to completion. Keep up the great work.

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

Many thanks - I wonder how many will watch it all the way through? Cheers Dave.

[@1BigSkiddy]

Nice job 👍 I bought my UME12 for the exact same reason, 150m of french drain to stop flooding suffered in 2022. Hasn't rained since the day I completed the drain....oh well I'm sure it will rain again in 10 years time.

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

Yep for sure it will rain again . . . one day! Thanks for watching. Cheers Dave.

[@dinomite_diggers3453]

Excellent job Dave, bet you're glad you have a little digger in the shed. And the tractor and truck did their bit too. What's that black thing with the single wheel? Is that some sort of Australian dump truck? If you want I can send over some of our surplus rain so you can test the drain out. Cheers bro.

[@davejaguar6532]

Ha ha the one wheeled dump truck, mine's been laying tits up on the scrap metal pile ever since I got my digger.........

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

G'Day Mike. Bit out practise with the barrow (it showed). I bought that one from Bunnings for $100 and the plastic bin split in the first week. My old one in the corner of the vege patch I have had since 1985 and only died last year when the steel bin rusted out - and of course you cannot buy just the metal bin anymore. Cheers Dave

[@peterdurnousow1003]

Paramount browns here in South Australia sell the wheel barrow tops j.i bought one for my old barrow.i had the same experience with the plastic barrow as well .

[@malwaite3539]

Hi I have uhi 19 and found to adjust tension on tracks a 17mm crow foot socket fast and easy to fit into the tight space. Great job hope it works draining is so important as we found out in the Lismore flood

[@davejaguar6532]

Like in your area, things seem to have dried out here in 2023 too but 2022 certainly was a wet year. One night In November we had the biggest flood at Perthville in over 30 years. The levee kept the water out of the village but your back patio area in this video reminded me of the house down at the bottom of North Street where the water was bubbling up out of the ground and flooding its yard almost up to the base of the doors. Trench digging is a nice way to relax and get used to a digger. As your video progressed you looked like you were getting faster and more comfortable with the controls of the digger as you gained more seat time. These little cheap diggers are perfect for this sort of project around the home, when you own one there's no rush to do the work in a hurry to save hire costs and there's so many other little tasks you can do. You're lucky you've got the little tractor loader to help, picking up and loading all that dirt with only the excavator would have been a pain in the butt (ask me how I know....). I also have to say I love the Monaro number plates on your teensie truck..............

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

Did you tell me before that your in Perthville? I built a mudbrick place on 7 acres just out of town on the Rockley Rd. Parent's and Brother's farm is still on Cow Flat Rd (now Gestingthorpe Rd). And yes the car is now on club plates. Cheers Dave

[@davejaguar6532]

Yeah, I did tell you in an email that one of my places is in Perthville (though I'm sure some of my emails just go into thin air so you may not have received it). I own the bluestone place just next to the bridge. Gotta love those club plates and their $46 rego, I've got five vehicles on them.

[@oby-1607]

Lucky you have the soil you have. Where I am at it is 50% rock and without teeth on the bucket one couldn't touch it for digging. Great work, I believe I will be getting a mini excavator soon. Too bad one couldn't install a concrete trough to prevent the growth from coming back in.

[@HomesteadingUncontained]

Great project - without the machinery it would have cost you a fortune.

[@harryiv6107]

Homesteading uncontained sent me here. Sure am glad about that! Great work.

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

Thanks for that Harry. Hope you will stick around and check out all our previous and upcoming videos. Cheers Dave.

[@harryiv6107]

@@TreeChangeFarmer absolutely!

[@kennethney4260]

Having done a few similar projects I think I would have gone a bit deeper so the start of the trench would have been a bit deeper. That would allow you to swale the starting area a bit to ensure the surrounding area can be pitched sufficiently.

[@georgezhou7961]

Great Video! 🎉

[@cjduey]

Can u ask if you bought the quick hitch right from UHI?

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

It came installed on the machine when purchased. It was part of the package that included the 9 implements. Not sure if they sell just the hitch by itself. The pins themselves are 25mm. If you get one, make sure the bolt is greased and just hand tight will keep the bucket on. If you use a rattle gun it can break the bolt. Cheers Dave.

[@showie67]

Very impressive job! May have happened a lot quicker if you had someone in to do the work, but would have probably been at least 5x the cost. From a complete layman's perspective, I understand that the drain will alleviate a lot of the subsurface water, but in the event of heavy or prolonged rains, is the top layer of soil going to still allow run off to go over the top of the drain, or will it be porous enough to stop the run off shown at the beginning of the video?

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

Hey Sean. The original drain that was above ground got overgrown with grass and weeds and the flow was slowed more than the volume feeding in, and so the water backed up and flooded the house. I am hoping now that I have 3 measures to help - the pipes, the stone and then the swale on the surface to carry any excess away. I tried to buy some grass turf or sod to put on top instead of the soil but not in the right season just now. Cheers Dave.

[@NaughtyGoatFarm]

What was that fuel tank you were using at 17:20 ? Does it have a hand pump?

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

It was from UHI with a pump in the handle. Not all that easy to use and very slow. After about 6 months the pump part failed and now leaks. Cheers Dave.

[@NaughtyGoatFarm]

​@@TreeChangeFarmerthanks for letting me know. I'll avoid that option then.

[@21Coins]

Great job! May have taken longer than anticipated and cost $2k but I would imagine the best part of $8k if you had it done professionally.

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Cheers Dave.

[@68mustangmustang77]

Nice job i learnt quite alot out of this video and will do the same around my shed. Have u had any storms to test it yet? 👍

[@TreeChangeFarmer]

We have had a bigger storm last week where we had 70mm of rain. Because the ground was very dry the rain was soaking in and not running down the inlet to the drain. There was some run off from the paddocks and I could see that soaking through the drain and saw water coming out the end into the dam. Must have a a bit though as the dam level rose about 500mm! Thanks for watching and commenting. Cheers Dave.

[@68mustangmustang77]

@TreeChangeFarmer no problem thanks for video. Keep us posted when a big wet finally comes through. Cheers 🍻

[@sawzallmanken253]

WRONG BUCKET !!!!

[@tracy419]

It got the job done🤷