Any advice on how to knock down dirt piles with my 8N ?

Hi All,

I took down an above ground swimming pool (20ft x 40ft) and now I need to fill in the area which it sat, which is about 1 foot deep.

I've called a few places about getting some fill dirt, and not surprisingly the cheapest places will just have a truck dump the dirt and leave.

I don't have an FEL, I only have a back blade. Does anybody have an idea of how I could spread out the piles to the point that I could use the back blade ?

I toyed with putting a chain around the pile, say 1 foot from the top and pulling it to "slice" off a foot at a time, but I suspect the chain would just pull through w/o moving much dirt.

I need an idea to save me the expense of hiring someone with equipment to spread the dirt around :)

Thanks !
 
box blade is easy to move dirt. angle blade can do it too.

A good dump truck driver can use his tail gate to knock the top of the pile off too.. so it will not be sooo tall..

completely doable.


I moved many dump truck loads of dirt with a box blade and a dirt scoop with an 8N when i was building my house. took a while.. but worked.
 
(quoted from post at 13:00:50 08/19/14) Hi All,

I took down an above ground swimming pool (20ft x 40ft) and now I need to fill in the area which it sat, which is about 1 foot deep.

I've called a few places about getting some fill dirt, and not surprisingly the cheapest places will just have a truck dump the dirt and leave.

I don't have an FEL, I only have a back blade. Does anybody have an idea of how I could spread out the piles to the point that I could use the back blade ?

I toyed with putting a chain around the pile, say 1 foot from the top and pulling it to "slice" off a foot at a time, but I suspect the chain would just pull through w/o moving much dirt.

I need an idea to save me the expense of hiring someone with equipment to spread the dirt around :)

Thanks !

I've spread many dump truck loads of dirt and stone using just a back blade. Raise the blade as high as it will go and back back into the pile. Drop the blade and pull some of the material out. Repeat as needed. You can also reverse the blade and use it like a dozer to carve off chunks from the sides....

TOH
 

Thanks Soundguy. Unfortunately, I don't have a box blade either, just a back blade.

Having the dump truck drive knock some of it down is a good idea.

I'm probably going to give it a try. Partly because I like a challenge, and mostly because I'm cheap... :) :)
 
By the way, here are some pics of the project. I used the N to pull out the side supports. After 17 years, they were in there pretty good...

Pool1.jpg


Pool2.jpg
 
Ask the driver to dump a little and pull ahead and dump a little more and so on. That truck should have spreader chains on it. Ask the driver. It can be done.
 
It doesn't really look a foot deep to me going by the picture. Seems like you could have the truck back in through the long way and start dumping right at the end while pulling ahead and making one long pile right in the hole. If it is really a foot deep you could use your back blade to knock down one end so he had kind of a ramp to back into and pull out of.

Any good driver worth his salt should be able to spread the pile out for you.
 
Steve,

Sounds like this is an opportunity to buy a new tool,
I have a scraper blade, but I like the box blade
better for some projects.

I also have the rock rake, which does a good job of
smoothing the ground.

The pond scoop or as some call it, the pooper scooper
does a good job of moving soil, rocks around as
necessary.

However, just take your time and you should have no
problem filling in that hole with your scraper blade and a long handle rake for some final touches.
 

If you challenge the driver he should be able to spread it in that distance without even chaining the tail gate. On many jobs where the gravel can not be allowed to go wide it is spread in the direction of travel.
 
Like TOH I knocked down about a 10 YD load for my FIL a few years ago with my 8N and back blade. Backed up the pile as far as I cold and just dragged it down bit by bit. The pile I moved had sat over winter and had settled. Took a couple of hours but turned out good.

Rick
 
like said,
just like plowing 8' snow drifts with a little tractor.
drag a little off, peel some off the edges.
Your trucker can help you out some, but don't expect miracles.
Topsoil doesn't flow off the truck as nice as crushed stone.

Might want to drag some of that nice fine sand out of there first for other uses.
When I removed my pool, I planted a bush to hide the pump power box, and left it there.
The high amp, ground fault protected, power outlet out in the yard has been very handy over the years.
 
I'll echo the advice above to turn your blade around and push the dirt backwards - that way you're not driving over the pile compacting it down - you'll end up with a lumpy mess that way. Don't ask me how I know… :lol:

es
 
Bet the dump truck driver $20.00 he can't make the pile smaller/smoother.
Back up and watch him do it.
Hand him the 20,and say,"have a gooden buddy"
 
(quoted from post at 12:53:04 08/23/14) Bet the dump truck driver $20.00 he can't make the pile smaller/smoother.
Back up and watch him do it.
Hand him the 20,and say,"have a gooden buddy"

Would work for me.

Dirt Dummy
 
Thanks to everybody for their help.

As it turns out, the truck driver refused to drive through my back yard, and especially balked at the idea of driving into the pool area.

I'm not sure how legit his concerns of getting stuck were, but in the final analysis it didn't matter since he firmly refused :(

So, I ended up renting a Bobcat which made quick work of moving the piles from my front yard to the back yard.

An experienced Bobcat operator might disagree, but I found that I could do a much better job of smoothing out the dirt with my N and a backblade than I could with the Bobcat.

One problem that I couldn't overcome was that as the N drove over uneven surfaces the backblade would naturally rise and lower making it impossible for me to get a truly flat surface.

Here is the finished product before I started with a shovel and rake:

Pool3.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 12:03:26 08/28/14) Thanks to everybody for their help.

As it turns out, the truck driver refused to drive through my back yard, and especially balked at the idea of driving into the pool area.

I'm not sure how legit his concerns of getting stuck were, but in the final analysis it didn't matter since he firmly refused :(

Anyone that has ever got a loaded tandem stuck knows the pain ;-) Many years ago an owner operator delivering a $50 load of fill to me got stuck when a little unexpected shower rolled in and greased up the grassy slope he was backing across. He put the truck and load down the hill even further trying to extract himself and wound up so precariously postioned he couldn't even raise the bed to dump the load. The winch-out with one of Mark's Equipment heavy equipment tow trucks probably cost him 10X what he got for the delivery. The crane operator reeled that fully loaded truck up the hill like a little trout on a fly line laughing all the way ;-)

TOH

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