James T":1nb6sre6 said:Haven't experienced a clean out yet but, it seems that the cattle guard itself will come out the same way it went in. I position my FEL bucket flat over the first few guard rails (over the first half) and about an inch above, wrap chain around two of the bars and back up over the bucket (did this on both ends of the bucket), then lift it straight up. You can then reverse the tractor to get the guard out the way for clean up and then set it back in place after your done. The concrete beams should stay where they were, in theory anyway.
If the fence is offset to one side or the other you can run your bucket right between them. If the fence goes to the center you better have a gate on one side. It needs a post welded to the cattle guard so when you lift the CG out you can flip the gate open and clean it from that side. If not you are doing it by hand.
At best... if you put thought in to it... its a days work. In my world time has a cost. In the O&G business and crew to do that will cost $1-2K... even if I do it myself with a helper it still will cost more than stringing out some more gravel.
But when you do things for family they do it the cheapest way at the monent because if it needs to be fixed out cleaned out... the guilt you back in to doing it... for lower than market wages. Most of us have all been there. ;-)