Backfill blade apparatus

In a walk-behind self-propelled trencher having an elongated endless digging chain that rotates on a roller boom extending therefrom with a hollow horizontal restraining bar attached thereto and extending thereover, and all of which comprise a roller boom/digging chain assembly of said trencher, the improvement comprising:

• a removable backfill blade assembly mounted on said trencher in front of the said roller boom assembly for refilling a trench dug by said trencher, said assembly including a blade being disposed at an acute angle to a longitudinal axis of roller boom assembly and having a front end and a rear end;
• a mast vertically mounted on the front end of said blade and from the top of which a horizontal rod extends back toward the restraining bar to provide a releasable coupling means coupling said mast to said restraining bar;
• a horizontal stabilizing bar affixed at one end to the rear end of said blade and releasably secured at the opposite end to said trencher, said stabilizing bar extending substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of said roller boom assembly;
• and
• said mast being dimensioned to suspend and position said blade horizontally in front of said roller boom assembly and said stabilizing bar being dimensioned to hold said blade at an acute angle to a longitudinal axis of said roller boom assembly.