Cutting grass on septic leach field?

[Gun guru]

How big of a tractor can I use to cut grass over the leach field pipes of a septic system. Most of the pipes are 12" under the surface and the pipes are PVC flexable type. (the kind that easily flex). I am thinking no more then 1500 lbs. Give me your opinions here.

Thanks.

 

[jlmtractor]

it all depends how long the pipes have been in ground but that would be fine just dont go running some huge tractor on it and it should be fine oh yah dont run exactly on the ditch because then you will crush the pipe

 

[scott#2]

Ya, I wouldnt go much higher than that on plastic. I drive a 5000 lb tractor over mine for the last 10 years but this field is 2 feet down and clay tile. It has also been there a while and settled in for about 20 years before I started driving over it. So far, so good.

scott#2

 

[Dick L]

You can drive over them with any size tractor if your not cutting deep tracks. The bigger the tire and the less compaction on the pipe. They will drive a backhoe over them when covering them.

 

[jlmtractor]

they do drive a backhoe over them but the size of tractor matters and plus what they put the tile in with and many like me us a mini excavator which doesnt put as much weight on the ground as a backhoe

 

[Bus Driver]

Are your pipes 4" round or are they the chambers with an arched top, about 3' wide? The chambers can be severely damaged by traffic that is too heavy. How much is too heavy? I use only a riding mower over mine.
Chambers

 

[Gun guru]

My pipes are 4" round real flexable with holes every foot or so.

 

[Leland]

Mine is the 10" gravel less pipe and I drive oner it all the time with pick up's and equip it can handle quite a load .

 

[Andy C]

The pipe, if buried deep enough may not always be the issue. Soil type and how it yields to compaction may be the bigger problem. The liquids must infiltrate the soil or the system will fail. Very much like the hardpan from equipment traffic. Only difference is that we cannot subsoil our septic beds. Less PSI pressure the better.

 

[Dick L]

If you are not talking muck once the ground settles you do not get much weight of what is over the top on the tile. The ground on the sides and under the tile would have to be displaced some how to flatten the soft tile. When it would crush down it would get wider at the same time as it went down. It just don't happen in settled ground that is not in a soft condition. If you only feel safe mowing with push mower so be it. They are using up to 10 inch plastic pipe for driveway culvert in our county with less than a foot of gravel over the top. The county must approve every new drive now.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Most of the systems I've installed, have been backfilled with a small d3 size dozer, always running perpendicular to the pipe, not problem running on the system because of the low ground pressure, no real point loading like tires, did the same when there was only a backhoe, but pushing and riding the fill in the same direction so as to use the dirt as a cushion and empty the bucket taking the weight off the front end before crossing pipe, when you cant't reach with the bucket and had to cross pipe, I used to mound up a bit for added protection, or adjust my gameplan somehow to minimize running on the system, never run parallel to pipe.

Reason I mention it is it don't take much to crush or damage a pipe in some circumstances when the cover material is not deep, or soils are soft. If it's wet or moist in there, a few passes is all it takes, dryer firm type soils, much are more forgiving, but around a leach field it can most certainly be soft. I'd not want to be running on that with a tractor that has narrow front tires, they cut in deep when it's soft.

I can remember a private school job where we installed 6" water main to the new building going up, and one of the loader operators kept running on the freshly filled trench, it was compacted in 12" lifts, and tight, but it still broke the main, spent the entire weekend on site dealing with it, graduation was real close, what a mess this was, he could have gone around, but hey we got lots of OT that week because of it !

 

[RobMD]

Chevrolet silverado 1500 landed one wheel in a sinkhole in which the pipe similar to yours collapsed. what's the weight of one tire distribution? Probably around 1000 pounds.

 

[Walt Davies]

My neighbor has one of those fields and I drive my Case LA on it all the time just make sure its been down for a couple years. Also is it wet or dry on top and what kind of dirt did he back fill it with. Normally you can pretty drive anything on them after the first year.
Walt