Pedestrian Trenchers

[Geoff]

Hi, I need to excavate a ~250 metre long tench at a depth of 0.6 metres in a relatively open area of woodland to accommodate a 70 sq.mm, 6942X mains electricity cable. Would a Pedestrian Trencher be up to the job? It will certainly hit tree roots in the heavy clay soil. Space is too restricted to use an excavator and a mini digger would, I would say, struggle to rip through the roots plus the site slopes quite steeply in places causing stability problems. I would prefer a pedestrian trencher as it digs a narrow trench (100 mm) and deposits dug out material at the sides of the trench which makes for easier back filling.

TIA

[dennis]

Are you allowed to damage the trees or will you have to hand dig around the roots?

[R]

Taken slowly it will do the job nicely.

Don't be tempted to rush it and all will be fine. I've laid hundreds of metres of pipe and wire with them.

If you want to hire an alternative a Bobcat Skidsteer with the trencher attachment is even better

[The Natural Philosopher]

I'd still use a mindigger.

In conjunction with a chainsaw with a gash blade for root cutting. Or if you can get a three tonner in that will rip up any root more or less..takes time tho

use excavated soil to level the slope if sideways..don't worry about slopes up or down the axis of the trench..the diggers will do up to about 30 degrees.

And yes, I have tipped one over. We used another one to push it back ;-)

Backfilling is easy enough with a mini digger. Just use the bucket edge and blade to swipe it across and then smooth it down.

[Andrew Mawson]

Using a chainsaw for cutting roots will be a futile exercise I'm afraid. The first contact with the smallest stone and the blade will dull to the point that it totally ceases to cut - yep I talk from experience. If there is room to swing a felling axe it will be far more effective on the roots, and can be very easily sharpened. Possibly a petrol disk cutter with a multi purpose diamond blade might work if it has reasonable clearance (for wood pulp) between the segments, but my money is still on the felling axe.

AWEM

AWEM