A specially designed trenching excavator was built to dig a drainage line and lay plastic drainage tile at the same time. The drainage tile was coiled up on the back of the trencher, conveyed over the top of the machine, and placed into the freshly dug trench by a bucket. A trailing plow would push the dirt back into the trench, covering up the tile. The special design allowed a single machine to perform all of these operations at once. As a result, farmers could begin planting as much as four weeks earlier than when using up to three conventional pieces of equipment.
Workers would erect a single pole with a laser that rotated 360 deg., and a laser receiver on the trenching excavator positioned the depth of the trench. The laser output was tilted at an angle so that the drainage tile would be laid with a slight pitch to direct early spring moisture away from the fields.
The hydraulic system was controlled with proportional valves to maintain the proper depth of the bucket and plow. The system’s pump was located below the reservoir, with the case drain routed up to the top and into the reservoir. A standard filler breather incorporated a 25-µm filter element. The pump intake line, which came out from the bottom of the reservoir, had a ball valve shutoff.