I have had a few internal conversations with myself if I should post on this or not, but decided I might as well. For the last couple of weekends I have been working on the leach field for our septic system. The leach field needs to be 12 feet wide and 76 feet long. I dug 2 trenches 14 feet apart outside edge to outside edge.
I thought originally I would be able to just make a third pass through will the SEE on the ground between the trenches. It was too narrow for that, so I dug out between, then when I had enough space I dropped the SEE into the bed of the leach field, and dug out the dirt between the original 2 trenches. At least that was the theory.
It was hard to clean the spoil out; it was also weird digging above the level of the stabilizers. As I went, I thought after I got what I could with the backhoe I could use the front end loader to remove the spoil the backhoe left behind. That turned out to be not as easy as the thought made it seem.
I have been using the front end loader and I retract some of my disparaging remarks on the front end loader. My initial issue was a slipping belt on the front hydraulic pump. I am still learning how to work it, but after I tightened the belt, it is pretty functional on loose material. I have learned to get a full bucket and it will be a lot more effective at grading the bed once I have removed the bulk of the material, but loose or not it seems really slow to make progress using the front end loader with all the driving around to fill and dump it out. The laser level says I need to remove about 18" on the high side. I intend to work from low to high, thinking that pulling the bucket into the deeper material will allow me to get the spoil into the bucket. The problem before from the pictures above was there was nothing to act as backing when I pulled the soil down.
If anyone has any suggestions on a better approach, or if you think I should stick with the front end loader, I am all ears.