getting new tile

[flying belgian]

Next to a good fertilizer program tile is the best thing you can do improve your farm.

I've heard it said...If you can't afford both tile and fertilizer, choose tile.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

tile machine is here and started working

Used to run a 2600 hydramaxx, great machine!

 

[paul]

How big are the old crock tile smaller or just can't flow the volume at the same size? We have sod waterways for erosion but with what we get for heavy rains and spring thaw run off it will wash ditches in the hollows if we didn't have them. I know our rains are not anywheres near 4-8 inches some places get and more but a couple inches will wash fast if it comes fast. Yes we only get about 30 inches annual rain fall. When topsoil is only about 6-10 inches deep and less on top of hills we need to keep all of it we can.

There are tile flow calculators on the Net.

Smooth inside tile walls flow water faster than the rippled, corrugated thinner plastic tile, but the thinner plastic is cheaper and easier to work with so the slower flow rate is fine, just plan for it. Often cheaper to put in a thin corrugated 6 inch tile than a double wall, smooth 5 would be.

The old clay and concrete tile actually flow very well, and are top notch.

Across the county there sure were a lot of different designs. Clay was not real common here, most of the old tile is concrete tile 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, and bigger sizes. 7 is a rare size but you run into it.

Plastic came around here in the 1970s, and is more common for the smaller sizes. 4-12 inch. Some areas use 3 inch and there is a 2 inch available, but not at all common around here. They need to be laid very accurately any ripple will collect sediment and plug them, and they can’t flow a whole lot of water to begin with, if you want to lay tile down an 80 acre field the long way.

Plastic comes in the inexpensive corrugated, the stronger and able to flow more water but inflexible dual wall 10 or 20 foot segments, and now the flexible dual wall styles. Each has its place. The bigger the pipe the more likely you want a stronger or higher flow dual wall version.

Then there are all kinds of slot types (hole, slot, micro slot, slit, etc), and woven socks that can go over the tile to prevent certain soil types from causing problems. In challenging soils it can be difficult to choose which works.

The clay or cement tiles used the seams between the tile pieces to allow water in.

There are several plastic tile manufacturers Around me, and one good concrete tile maker as well. The concrete company depends on big govt and industrial type uses of big strong pipe for their bread and butter, but they still make the common sizes of concrete farm tile, enough is still used.

 

[glennster]

here is a few more pics from today. they are going deep!!

 

[glennster]

No animal guards? Around here the muskrats and other critters will craw up the tile and plug them. joe

not yet they will go on when done they are putting in a little over a mile of tile.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

here is a few more pics from today. they are going deep!!

always wanted one of those boots, we did a job a ways north of me, we were running 8 inch, for about 400 feet I had to push dirt off ahead of the trencher, deep point was about 5 feet, I pushed the black dirt one way and the deeper stuff the other, wanted to stay on the trencher because we were only running .5 percent grade, ran the trencher through then I graded stuff back, that was an interesting one!

 

[Fritz Maurer]

What does he do if he comes up against a rock that is too big to go through the trencher? You have to pay over the proposed estimate to get it dug out?

 

[cumminstinkerer]

we always just dug them out and went on, it really sucked when you had to pull the trencher clear out to get out, then get back in the ditch and back on grade, we considered it a hazard of the job. one time we dug through a mounted cultivator, that was still attached to an F20 Farmall, when we got past the dirt fell off the side of the tractor!

 

[glennster]

What does he do if he comes up against a rock that is too big to go through the trencher? You have to pay over the proposed estimate to get it dug out?

there is a track hoe right there, no problem, no extra cost