How to Work in Sandy Soil: Tips and Best Practices
Reliable traction is hard to come by on soft terrain, and it gets even more difficult when you are working on slopes. Loose ground limits your traction, threatens trench stability, and puts extra strain on your equipment that firmer soil doesn’t. The tips below will help your crew stay productive while digging in sand.
Match your excavator tracks and CTL tracks to ground conditions
Reliable traction is hard to come on soft terrain, and it gets even more difficult when you are working on slopes. For sandy soil, we recommend wide, high flotation excavator tracks or compact track loader tracks. Wide tracks spread the machine’s weight over a larger footprint, which lowers ground pressure and makes it far less likely that your equipment will bog down or sink.
Pick skid steer tires with deep tread
If you’re running non-tracked machines, like skid steers, both solid and pneumatic options can deliver workable grip in sand. The deciding factor is tread depth. Skid steer tires with aggressive, deep tread patterns bite into unstable ground and give you the control you need to maneuver across sandy soil, gravel, and similar types of terrain.
Take your time when digging in sand
Precision matters more than speed if you’re digging in sandy soil. Loose material shifts easily, and cave-ins happen far more easily than they do in dense, cohesive dirt. Make sure your operators are working in smaller, deliberate scoops and holding a steady pace. Slowing down improves stability, reduces the risk of a collapse that could injure a crew member or cost you hours, and keeps your excavation job on schedule.
Choose the right excavator bucket or skid steer bucket
The bucket you mount shapes how cleanly any digging or loading job goes. For loose, sandy ground, a general purpose excavator bucket or skid steer bucket with wide teeth and a curved cutting edge is usually your best option. This design disturbs less soil as it digs, but still allows you to move high volumes of sand quickly. Whichever excavator bucket you run, make sure it's sized correctly for both your machine and the application.
Clean your undercarriage throughout the day
Sand makes its way into the undercarriage and grinds against moving parts, accelerating wear on your excavator tracks and CTL tracks. Whenever you get a break in the shift, clear packed material out of the undercarriage with a shovel, then use a pressure washer to flush grit from the tight spots you can't reach by hand.
Keep everything well greased
Sandy soil is highly abrasive, and it takes a toll on the undercarriage, the bucket, and the pins and bushings. We recommend greasing these components generously and re-lubricating several times a day, or roughly every five hours of operation. A fresh pump helps keep grit away from sensitive parts, and any sand that does work into the old grease gets forced out as the new grease goes in.
Use the correct trench protection system
Trench protection matters more than ever in sandy conditions. Sloping and benching, where you cut the trench wall back at an angle and build steps for entry and exit, tend to underperform in sand, because the particles don't hold together and the walls won't stay put. We recommend shoring and trench shields instead. Both use metal supports to brace the trench walls and guard against cave-ins while your crew works below grade.
Test the soil before you dig
Soil testing is fundamental to jobsite and structural safety, and it carries even more weight in sand. A test tells you what combination of sloping, benching, and shoring the excavation will require to stay stable. Knowing the physical and chemical makeup of the ground also lets you judge whether it can support the weight of the dig and the construction that follows, and how much compaction the site will need.
If you have any questions about operating on or excavating in sandy soil, which excavator bucket to use, which skid steer bucket to use, or digging in sand in general, contact our team today.