Ditch Witch - Trenching rental? Beyong Help?

[eblend]

Anyone know where I can rent a ditch witch to make a trenth for a power cable to the garage, and how much it would be? Any beyonders have one and willing to lend it for some cash?

[Pollywog]

Edit: Forget it, the place doesn't exist anymore.

[Davetronz]

Dude, just dig it.
I dug a 3' deep 35' long trench for my garage electrical from my house and it took maybe 2-3 hours.

[FiveFreshFish]

If you dig by hand, buy a trenching shovel.





I dug 140' x 18" manually. Took me a couple of days.

[seer_claw]

Original Post Removed. (Please read the Forum Rules and Terms of Use before posting again, or risk getting banned).

The Cat Rental Store

Not necessarily a ditch witch, but should still help in excavating. Plus its a lot quicker than a shovel.

[eblend]

My initial plan was to just dig it by hand, but after the first 5 inches of soil...it is pure clay. I figure instead of breaking my back over this, I might as well just pay a bit and use a machine that can do the job in 1 hour vs breaking my back for 8.

The CAT idea won't work for me unfortunatelly, has to be a much smaller machine as I have to go in between two houses, I have maybe 1.5M to work with at most.

[seer_claw]

Originally posted by eblend
My initial plan was to just dig it by hand, but after the first 5 inches of soil...it is pure clay. I figure instead of breaking my back over this, I might as well just pay a bit and use a machine that can do the job in 1 hour vs breaking my back for 8.

The CAT idea won't work for me unfortunatelly, has to be a much smaller machine as I have to go in between two houses, I have maybe 1.5M to work with at most.

Those smaller ones are actually less than a meter wide. They are really small and look ridiculus when you get one. The top picture doesn't really do it justice and it should work fine for your solution. The 301.8 excavator is exactly 1 meter in width so should fit fine into your backyard.

301.8

Here is the caterpillar website that has a spec sheet on the dimensions, page 9. Width = 980mm.

[GT.....O?]

Rogers rent all in the northeast has a irragation trencher.

I have used one for work and they work great. Makes a trench 4 inchs wide so if you need wider you could try another pass.

Not the bobcats or skid steers but under that.

http://www.rogersrentall.ca/equipmen...t=9&subcat=161

And it only costs less then 300 bucks for a full day.

[eblend]

Originally posted by GT.....O?
Rogers rent all in the northeast has a irragation trencher.

I have used one for work and they work great. Makes a trench 4 inchs wide so if you need wider you could try another pass.

Not the bobcats or skid steers but under that.

http://www.rogersrentall.ca/equipmen...amp;subcat=161

And it only costs less then 300 bucks for a full day.

Thanks for the link, seems like the smallest one for $125 a day would be just fine. 75 bucks for 4 hours, should be able to dig that trench in that amount of time, it is a straight line afterall.

The escavator ones just seem excessive to me, with the small trencher I should be able to toss it in the back of a truck.

[Nufy]

Don't forget to do a one call first.

Utilities are not usually near the property line but you wouldn't want to be cutting into a gas or electric line.

Just a suggestion........

[sputnik]

Home Depot rents them.

[Mitsu3000gt]

You can get a bobcat w/ trench attachment for roughly $200/day at RONA assuming their rental department is the same as when I worked there. It's fun to drive too haha.

[Hounddog]

Just a suggestion that worked well for me. I too hit rock hard clay when I was trenching to my garage. I ran a soaker hose over my intended trench path for about 30 minutes. It actually softened the soil enough to easily dig, but it wasn't muddy at the same time.
If you can't get a Ditch Witch this might lessen some of the grunt work for ya.

[ExtraSlow]

Originally posted by Nufy
Don't forget to do a one call first.

Utilities are not usually near the property line but you wouldn't want to be cutting into a gas or electric line.

Just a suggestion........

THIS!!

I just had one call mark my place before some landscaping work and they identified two items that weren't where I expected them. They usually show up with a couple of days.

[eblend]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I called One Call long ago and had stuff marked out for the last month or so, I appear to be clear where I plan on digging.

[legendboy]

holy fuck some of you guys can dig fast lol

it took 5 evenings of digging to dig mine by hand

i wish i would have had room to bring in a ditch witch

[Masked Bandit]

Fish Creek Rentals used to rent trenchers a couple of summers ago as well. I'm only assuming they still do.

[sillysod]

Get it from Home Depot.

Yes I dug mine in about 5 hours because I had to go deep cause I have water, gas and power in it.

[eblend]

Originally posted by Masked Bandit
Fish Creek Rentals used to rent trenchers a couple of summers ago as well. I'm only assuming they still do.

Fish Creek rentals is very close to me, will have to check them out, as well as home depot which isn't far away. Will see who has the better looking one and choose from there, hopefully it is something i can toss in the back of a minivan.

[sillysod]

home depot is a lot more forgiving if something were to "happen" to it while you were using it.