Digging a Ramp for a Tractor

This past weekend I was digging swales with my tractor mounted backhoe in a bowl shaped depression that's on a few acres of my property. To get into this area, I need to drive down a slope that is about six feet high with about a 35 feet of run (basically, a 5:1 slope). While the tractor had no issues going down, the tires spun out when I tried to go back up. Admittedly, the ground was a bit soft and eventually I was able to get out by driving up a 45 degree angle to the slope, but I would prefer not to do that again. While I was contemplating ways to winch the backhoe out of the depression I came to the profound realization that “I have a backhoe” and in a few hours could just dig a ramp with a shallower slope (I know, quite profound).

Anyways, does anyone have any tips or tricks for turning a steep slope into a shallower ramp? Currently, the slope rises about 6 feet in a 35 foot run, but I am thinking I could dig out a ramp that has the same rise spread out over 70+ feet for about a 10:1 slope. Tractor is a 40 hp 1967 Massey Ferguson with a backhoe having a 24” wide bucket and a front end loader. My current plans are to aim for an 8 foot wide 70 foot long slope with a few feet of steeper slope/sidewall on either side of the ramp. I would probably to start off using the backhoe to make a rough version of the ramp followed by the loader bucket to smooth things out.

Has anyone done something similar? Thanks for any suggestions!

Wow. It looks soggy. Does stone or gravel exist in the area? Perhaps you could line the top of the current grade with stone, which would add traction...

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Wow. It looks soggy. Does stone or gravel exist in the area? Perhaps you could line the top of the current grade with stone, which would add traction...

Adding gravel is a good idea. My wife suggested doing that as well, and it wouldn't be too difficult to get a truckload delivered.

The bottom of the area is soggy. By adding the swales I was hoping to create strips that are drier and strips that are wet. That would be more useful to me that having everything just soggy.

Does your tractor do better reversing up slopes? I was moving a full IBC tote recently with a forklift and needed to go down an incline. It was just steep enough that I was worried about the tonne of water pulling the forks down and lifting the back end up, so I went down backwards instead.

Phil Stevens wrote:Does your tractor do better reversing up slopes? I was moving a full IBC tote recently with a forklift and needed to go down an incline. It was just steep enough that I was worried about the tonne of water pulling the forks down and lifting the back end up, so I went down backwards instead.

That's a good idea for most tractors. With my tractor, reversing up a hill is about the same as just going forward as the backhoe adds something like 3,000 pounds in the back and the weight distribution fore and aft of the rear axle is relatively even.

Maybe some switchbacks are in order ...

Do you need to go straight across the contour, can you create a track on an angle and put down rock so you do not slip sideways.

My son built one so he could get the tractor up to the next terrace to get building materials to the house.

I just used whatever soil and stone we dug up from behind the house.  started piling it in the corner of the cliff, then just kept putting the soil as high as I could.  if I couldn't get very high with the tractor, then it was too steep, so I put the soil lower down to let the tractor go higher.  also, took a pickaxe to the top corner of the cliff to taper it down slightly

He would load soil up into the link-box on the back of the tractor and reverse up the ramp as it was built to unload it and build the ramp higher.



Then when he finally tested it driving forwards he tied an old concrete sink to the front end to weight it down it a bit.



The finished ramp.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I finally started working on the ramp today. My backhoe was only able to reach about halfway down the hill, so I was only able to work on the top half, and will need to attack the bottom half of the ramp from the bottom. After digging with the backhoe, I used the bucket to smooth things out a bit, and the results (so far) seem pretty good.