Check out what you can rent, might be more economical to rent a big pump to pump it down, then keep it down with your 3". We have a pair of 12" Chrisafully pumps that are pto driven for puming out ponds, one of those would make short work of your pond, might be worth seeing if anyone has one like that you could rent or borrow.
The other option (digging the new part and leaving a dam) works good too, I have done this many times. Just make sure that the dam is thick enough to holdt the water, and make sure that you can reach the whole thing to remove it. This lets you work the new part dry, the only wet stuff you have to deal with is when you remove the dam.

"ror235" wrote:

Check out what you can rent, might be more economical to rent a big pump to pump it down, then keep it down with your 3". We have a pair of 12" Chrisafully pumps that are pto driven for puming out ponds, one of those would make short work of your pond, might be worth seeing if anyone has one like that you could rent or borrow.
The other option (digging the new part and leaving a dam) works good too, I have done this many times. Just make sure that the dam is thick enough to holdt the water, and make sure that you can reach the whole thing to remove it. This lets you work the new part dry, the only wet stuff you have to deal with is when you remove the dam.

I will have to drive on the dam with my 225. How wide should I leave it?

I was thinking at least 3X the width of the UC?

Keeping in mind my soil is 7 ft of sandy loam soil before I hit any clay...

This is how I would plan on doing it:

usera.imagecave.com/bhaal/Ponds-4-6-2008/Pond2-walls.JPG

The red on the far left & right would be wet digging. The red in the middle would be dry.

I'd break the damn on the left first, starting at the island and working my way back, then do the right dam.

Where the right dam is, will be a bridge some day, so I might leave it a land bridge for now until I have time to put in my concrete pilings, then hog that out with the 225 and build the bridge.

I will have to drive on the dam with my 225. How wide should I leave it?

I was thinking at least 3X the width of the UC?

Keeping in mind my soil is 7 ft of sandy loam soil before I hit any clay...

This is how I would plan on doing it:

usera.imagecave.com/bhaal/Pon...ond2-walls.JPG

The red on the far left & right would be wet digging. The red in the middle would be dry.

I'd break the damn on the left first, starting at the island and working my way back, then do the right dam.

Where the right dam is, will be a bridge some day, so I might leave it a land bridge for now until I have time to put in my concrete pilings, then hog that out with the 225 and build the bridge.

Sounds like you have the idea. One width of the undercarriage should be fine for where you have to work from. I have worked off of similar soil conditions with a 235 and the bank cut vertical and not had any trouble, most of the time when the bank caves in you can feel it and have enought time to react and back out. For the dam that you do not have to have the machine out on - keep it as narrow as possable (to minize the amount of slop you end up with) for as far out as you can reach, ussualy 1-2' at the top and wider as you go deeper, depends on your soil. Just plan your work so you take as much material as possible out before you break the dam, then dip the rest out of the water. If you can dig a small sump that you can reach when you are digging the dam out to dump the real wet stuff in, let it sit & dry out for a while before you move it again.

I have only seen 2 ponds dug and both of them were buildt from existing small ponds. The first one had a similar situation as yours. We dug a long trench out from the low area all the way up to the pond. When we got close to the pond we carefully broke the dam. When it dried up we closed up and cleaned up the trench.
Pond #2 a couple of buddies of mine that work for a construction Co. were lucky enough to borrow some equipment in the winter months. This was constructed about 2 months ago.
They hooked up a 10" trash pump to this pond and pumped it down. It seems like it ran for a day or two. The ice was another problem. They used a backhoe to load these trucks and moved the dirt off site. This process took 3 or 4 days. Here are some pretty cool pictures! enjoy
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0250.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0251.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0252.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0253.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0254.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0255.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0256.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0257.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0258.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0259.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0260.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0261.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0262.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0263.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0264.jpg
i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk161/dratt_dozer/100_0265.jpg

Thanks for the replies & pictures guys.

Boy, I'd sure love to have an articulating dump for my project!

I finished the trash pump modification.

usera.imagecave.com/whitedwarf4/Trash_Pump/

I fabricated the angle frame, and took that fuel tank off the old International dump truck I bought last year, the one where the 3208 threw a rod when I finally got it started: usera.imagecave.com/whitedwarf4/New_Dump/IH14.jpg

I have a question about fuel delivery.

You can see from the pictures, I left the original 2 gallon fuel tank on the pump. There is a hose coming off the head where the injector is, I imagine it's for unused fuel. The old tank will serve as the catch can for that.

My question is there will be increased pressure from the fuel tank. Do you think this higher pressure will affect the injector pump in any way? Higher pressure means higher flow rate. I'm not sure how the pump works, but I imagine it is like a diaphragm fuel pump run off of a cam.

If the diesel engine is getting too much fuel, what will happen?

Not sure I ever posted pictures of the truck after I completed the box conversion. The rectangular tubing frame between the box and the truck frame was rotted out on the International I bought, so I had to fab up a new one. Held up well last summer.

usera.imagecave.com/whitedwarf4/Fixed_Truck/