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Terracing my property
It's sort of a tough call. I think a 12% slope is almost 7-degrees, which is generally feasible to work with most tractors. It does depend on what's being done, soil conditions and the particular tractor though. A tractor having low CG, 4wd and ag tires would be an advantage.
If I were doing it and had confidence the tractor would be stable, I'd do it with my box scraper. My box is a foot wider than the rear tire tracks. I'd lower the uphill side of the box as much as I could with the side-leveler and then lower the hitch until the box end contacts the ground, and then a bit more.
I'd probably start at the top and work down. Some soil that the box cuts will come out on the downhill side of the box where the cutter is off the ground but some soil will remain in the box and can be dumped passed the end of the terrace. If you start at the bottom then soil from higher terraces will be dumped on the ones that are finished. I'd keep the depth of cut just deep enough so the box didn't fill up halfway across the terrace and carefully consider where the box is dumped. You probably don't want to end up driving over a steep pile of loose soil when on a side hill. If tractor stability is at all in question, you do have to be aware that if working top-down you'd end up driving over loose soil as you go down, which would increase chances of loosing traction and sliding. Using a box in like places side-thrust on it that would tend to push the rear wheels down hill.
It would take a number of passes before a level terrace would be cut. The side-leveler wouldn't have to be readjusted for each pass because the tractor will become more and more level as long as the uphill wheel rides in the cut the box is making. Using a rear blade would work about the same but it would dump all soil cut on the downhill side as the cut is made unless it's a blade that had end-plates. Angling the downhill side foreward would help keep soil on the blade. If I didn't have confidence working on the side-hill, the terraces could be dug going straight up and down with a loader and toothbar or possibly a box scraper.
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Terracing my property
I anticipated 'novice' so I concentrated on some safety stuff. Working on side-hills is a bit tricky. I also figured the slope is the long way and the 4,000 sq. ft. was probably a portion of the plot that is more steeply sloped.
The side leveler is on the 3ph and levels an implement side to side. Most rear blades have their own tilts and swings but I have to use the 3ph to lower one end of my box scraper to cut side grades. A rear blade may be the better implement for the job, but they tend to push soil to the side rather than carry it on the blade front.
Grading is something of an art with either a blade or a box. I wouldn't expect to get good results right off and might practice on something less demanding first. If there are erosion problems on the roads, improving the, may be a good place to practice. Roads on slopes are generally crowned and ditched. Rock fills in the ditch slows down erosion. For severe problems, culverts can be run under roads to shunt flow to a terrace. Terraces can be planned to have good drainage angles of about 4-degrees to someplace desirable. Alternatively, if the roads traverse the slope then the ditches may have decent drainage angles. The terraces on the steep part might be channeled into the road ditches.
But, all this is sounding a bit elabourate. Murf builds golf courses and he certainly knows the better ways of doing things. His comments about the number and width of terraces should be thought about. If the 12% slope was over the full length of a 200' slope, there'd be a 24' drop. Terracing it in five steps would result in 5' walls that almost certainly would need retaining walls.
What you want to do may similar to old style irrigation. If land was sloped, the terracing needed to get irrigation ditches so they'd work could get very fancy. It just wasn't practical for a lot of land--guess that's why sprinklers became common. If I were doing it, I might invest in a laser level (I use a water level myself) so I could plot a set of constant elevation marks points for each terrace. If the slopes aren't constant and the steep slope traverses the plot, the constant elevation points won't be a straight line. If I wanted the terraces to drain to a ditch, I'd calculate end points that would give a 4% slope and eyeball the points in between. Now this is sounding really elabourate so maybe Murf has better suggestions.
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Terracing my property
The job Murf and I have been describing is the biggest possible job--assuming that the entire 200' slope is a 12% grade and that run-off is a problem.
The job becomes smaller and may even be 'Bota managable' if the object is more of a landscaping idea where the entire slope wouldn't be terraced. Same issues apply though and it may be good to have gone through the big job issues even for a modest landscaping idea. Everybody here likely would be happy to talk more about implement use.
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Terracing my property
I was thinking about this on my way back from town yesterday. I noticed a loose rock retaining wall and several railroad-tie walls. We used 8" square timber from old rejected guard-rail posts for retaining walls. We're in the deep country here too and I appreciate the problem of contractor availability. Usually there is somebody who does township work in most areas. They do have fill time and that's the way the work gets done for private individuals asked or not. A small contractor can't schedule small jobs for individuals during the time they're contracted to do work for the only major client in an area. Get to know contractors who work in you area and you'll find out when they have slack time. Then you can do prep work and have fill-in work ready to go when a contractor is available. Please appreciate the safety comments made here as well. Our contractor's equipment got him once and he is an artist with it. He ended up in hospital with broken everything not expected to live let alone walk again. He still works and still is an artist and is very lucky. Accidents do happen even to very experienced operators.
Sound like Bvan might be able to speak to the visual aspects of your project. What was on my mind is that erosion may be a problem once the ground is broken and terraces without retaining wall likely would end up as dirt banks. If the idea to make walking around the property easier, walking up a terraced slope probably would be more difficult than the present slope unless stairs were installed.
I personally like the idea of plotting terraces sort like contour lines on a topo map rather than cutting straight lines across a slope. If I were going to do something like that It'd be an excuse for me to buy a decent GPS. I'd measure a set of equal divisions down one side of a slope and then do walks from each point across the slope that maintained constant elevations or sloped them about 4-degree for good drainage to the side. Getting the a plan in mind and plotting the terraces would save a contractor a bunch of time.
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Terracing my property
Good to hear that you waded through the safety stuff here and still decided to make it a do it yourself project. Also good to hear that I was taken to mean doing a walk around with the GPS. I'd probably do it while carrying a spray can of marker paint (they spray when upside down). A sack of flour works too.
I hope the 'hydraulic' part of the box is a top-link rather than retractable scarifiers. I think of hydraulic top-links as almost essential for box scraper work. I control how my scraper works almost entirely with the top-link and seldom tough the 3ph except for dumping the box. You can switch from cut to drag to spread on the fly with one. Sounds like you're doing pretty good if you're getting good initial results. For most people it takes a bit of practice with a box before they start getting acceptable results or taking all day doing it.
The scarifiers need to be down only deep enough to loosen to the depth of cuts you are making. On side-grades, it might be useful to have the uphill scarifiers set deeper than the downhill ones but you'd probably pull them all up after a few passes since you wouldn't want them cutting below the intended surface of the finished terraces. Over all, the deeper they are, the more traction is required and gentle probably is better on any sort of side-hill. At any rate you probably don't want them deeper than the topsoil initially.
I can't quite get a sense of the roads. I think they go across the slope but I don't know if they cross the part that's going to be terraced or are above or below it. I guess the turnaround is to go from one road to the other, but I don't know if it's going to be on the terraced area or what the horizontal distance is over the 8' drop.
I would keep in mind that dirt or gravel grades greater than 4% tend to erode and keeping a grade that gentle might make for a pretty long switch-back. A steeper grade could be sloped to the inside to channel runoff to a rock-lined ditch. Stability of the outside part of the road might be a problem particularly if used by heavy vehicles. It might be good to get an expert opinion here. If there's a problem a bed could be cut and filled by rip-rap, covered by gravel and finished with dirt cut from the terraces. The use of fill could help reduce the grade needed. I'm probably getting overly elabourate again but I'm just trying to illustrate potential problems and spending too many words doing it.
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Terracing my property
There is a terminology issue and kind of a convention is used here. 3ph is three-point hitch and there are others that are used to shorten up comments. Most of my comments are already too long. The terminology is sort of absorbed as you go along and is just part of a learning curve.
Rip-rap is a road building material rather than a tractor term. It is sizable chunks of rock usually from blasting that is foundation material for many roadbeds. I thought the turn-around may transverse a steep slope and more stability on the outside may be needed. Use of rip-rap would provide that as well fill to reduce the grade if needed, but from the road description that doesn't now seem likely. Never the less, roads are generally more durable if the beds are cut below grade and lager aggregates are laid down the finishing material. From the description I think that the roads go more down rather than across the slope so if there's not an erosion problem now then many possible problems aren't relevant unless the turnaround has a steeper grade.
I mentioned a hydraulic top-link rather than scarifiers. A box scraper's action is determined by the blade angle, which is adjusted by the top-link. Shortening the link produces a more aggressive cut. Lengthening it pulls the blade off the surface so it doesn't cut and a full box can be dragged to where it is dumped. Lengthening it even more allows material to come under the blade, which spreads material as the tractor is driven forward.
Good work with a box scraper requires very frequent top-link adjustment. Without a hydraulic top-link a person has to stop and get off the tractor to make them. With a hydraulic link, you can drive along a high spot and cut, when the box is full the link can be changed to drag the material to a low spot and then changed again to spread it--all without stopping. One will turn a day's fussing into a couple hours of relative happiness.
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Terracing my property
Sounds like you're coming along pretty well with all this stuff.
The way a box scraper works largely is determined by the angle of the cutter to the ground. A hydraulic top-link changes that angle. Shortening the link rolls the back of the box up and makes a sharper blade angle that produces a more aggressive cut, lengthening it reduces the cut and can reduce it to the point where it doesn't cut at all. Material just stays in the box and can be dragged around. Lengthening it further allows material to go under the cutter, which spreads the material. Top-link adjustments are reversed when using the rear cutter.
What I meant by 'on the fly' is that the top-link adjustment can be changed without stopping the tractor. There may be very fancy scrapers that have built-in hydraulics to change the blade angle. Most people have simple ones that require a separate hydraulic top-link.
What I meant by 'touch the 3ph' is change it. About the only times I change the 3ph is 'up' for transporting the box or dumping a full box and 'down' to start cutting. Occasionally I have pull up the box if I seriously run out of traction but that's when I make a mistake. It does mess up the nice grade I'm trying to work. Most times when I run out of traction I can reduce the load enough by lengthening the top-link. You may have figured out this top-link adjustment stuff already, but if you haven't it will make scraper work a relative breeze.
Getting the run-off to go in a ditch rather than along a road is half the battle. Then the ditch rather than road erodes. If a ditch does erode, it can be filled with large aggregate that will most times halt the erosion. For compacting, I get best results by holding down pressure on a fairly flat loader bucket and driving backwards. The technique usually requires brake steering and should be done on significant side grade only with extreme caution. I get fairly decent compacting with my box scraper by lengthening the top-link to max so the box rides on it's fixed rear cutter. In practice, I get compacting done by doing some of each. I don't know if your scraper has a fixed or swinging rear cutter but either will do the same work. Hope all these works help.
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Terracing my property
I forgot the about trenching question. I don't know the diameter of pipe or depth needed. I've heard of people using sub-soilers or middle-busters (lister plows) for similar work. They are a little like big scarifiers and I think they can be rigged for one cutter.
I think various width cutters are available for them and they do throw the soil in both directions, which makes sort of a furrow. Sizable rocks in the soil may give them trouble and they may not open a wide enough trench deep enough for the pipe. People also use one bottom moldboard plows. Since I don't have any of these I'd have to use my backhoe or rent a trencher. Rocks also give hoes and trenchers problems.
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Terracing my property
The web link below goes to an old discussion about using plows for shallow trenching. I don't know if any of the ideas would work very well for 18" minimum trenching or if there were many buried rocks. I also don't know how much HP and traction it takes to pull a sub-soiler 18" deep.
Full of 'I don't know's today' so I'll keep going. There was another old discussion where somebody rigged something to maybe a sub-soiler so it pulled line through and laid it on the bottom of the trench as the tractor drove forward. Trouble is that I can't recall if it was irrigation or electrical line and I don't have a clue what the subject title was.
Murf gave the basic solutions if the rock is a large but loose one. A bunch of rock faces in the roads around here are part of bedrock and there's no solution short of blasting or re-routing. Some rock does break pretty easy with sledges but that's not work I'm inclined to do.
I was able to move a slab of concrete by getting the loader bucket under a corner and levering it up the with bucket curl enough to pitch shovels of sand under it and a ramp in front of it. Eventually I raised it enough that I could get a chain around it and drag it out. The slab was way too heavy for my loader to lift, but the bucket would lever it up. Murf described similar ways a rock can be rolled rather than dragged. Have to take a lot of care doing this type work. There's always danger of the rock slipping off the bucket or shifting. I sure wouldn't want any part of me under of near the rock and I wouldn't want to be in a hole along with the rock.
If it's a big problem, building the road over the rock may be easier. Road building is a bit of an art and a permanent solution may require a level bed cut below grade either side of the rock and application of rip-rap and large gravel I mentioned.
Link:
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Terracing my property
If you're running the chipper below PTO RPM the shredder may be more prone to clogging. It'd be nice to come up with a simple solution. If it's leafs that are clogging it, I'd be pretty unhappy with the performance as well. I'm not sure if some shredders are more tolerant to wet material than others but I haven't heard complaints about clogging and there have been a fair number of discussions about them here.
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Terracing my property
Thanks! Good to hear, and the painting too. I've sold what I've created myself, although mostly music. Nothing quite like it--a real good feeling.
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