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Pickup "Plow" Lays In Cable, Pipe
No fancy trencher is needed for 2-in. dia. or less pipe, conduit or cable with this 4-WD pickup "plow". Simply slide the Hitch-N-Ditch into the pickup receiver hitch, and you can bury lines fast and easy.
"You can do in an hour what it takes 20 man hours to do by hand or 10 hours with a trencher and backfilling
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Pickup "Plow" Lays In Cable, Pipe MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 31-4-19 No fancy trencher is needed for 2-in. dia. or less pipe, conduit or cable with this 4-WD pickup "plow". Simply slide the Hitch-N-Ditch into the pickup receiver hitch, and you can bury lines fast and easy.
"You can do in an hour what it takes 20 man hours to do by hand or 10 hours with a trencher and backfilling," says Christopher Montgomery, co-developer of the Hitch-N-Ditch.
With 50 years of electrical contracting between them, Montgomery and Tim Ramsey had done their share of trenching or waiting for a trencher to finish the job. Working in the sandy soils of northwest Florida, trenches had to be as wide as they were deep to prevent cave-ins. They figured there had to be a faster way.
Montgomery first tried pulling a moldboard-type plow behind his pickup to open a trench. Shifting sand was still a problem, and the trench still had to be filled in after the pipe or conduit was laid. However, they liked the idea of being able to hook a device into the receiver hitch of their pickup to lay underground lines.
"We came up with a design that digs up to 18 in. below grade with a small wedge attached to a blade to cut roots and things," he says. "We can attach a continuous length of pipe, conduit or cable so it lays itself."
Over a period of two years, they developed a prototype of the two component pieces in single unit molds to add strength.
The blade and wedge are at the bottom of an upright iron shaft that slides inside a bracket that fits into the receiver hitch. Multiple holes in the upright match up with a hole through the hitch unit. The operator can easily adjust working height simply by digging a hole to the desired depth, dropping the wedge to that depth and inserting a pin to lock it in place.
Underground lines can be installed at up to 5 mph. Best of all, the tool is priced at only $289.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Hitch-N-Ditch, 7634 McElvey Road, Panama City Beach, Fla. 32408 (ph 850 235-2600 or 850 258-2582; fax 850 235-0051; hitchnditch @knology.net; www.hitchnditch.com).
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