What size roller for gravel driveways/parking lots?

[Foxtrot08]

Looking to get a used roller to help maintain our long gravel driveway (1/2 mile) and parking lots at work for our semi-trucks.

What size should I be looking at? I found a Ingersoll-Rand DD22 about an hour from me, in my price range with low hours on it. It's a 2-4 ton machine with vibration. Plus, still easily transportable at a 3 ton weight.

Is this enough, or should I be looking bigger?

[sdkubota]

Actually you don't need or would you receive any benefits from roller vibrating an existing road. If you are initially putting a gravel road down then yes it would be usefull combined with a water tank. Loaded truck tires will put plenty of weight on your gravel and once hard will only need to be dressed from time to time with a blade.

[Foxtrot08]

The issue that we're having with the trucks is when they turn, they're tearing up the gravel. We re-grade it back down, but it comes right back up. We have a little tamper we use right now, which helps - but it doesn't seem like it's big enough. The roller I believe will be better then the tamper.

For the driveway, it's fairly new and still sinking into the clay a bit. I believe we're going to tear it all back up, re-grade it, lay matting down then put a fresh layer of gravel on it. Which is where the roller is really needed.

[sdkubota]

The issue that we're having with the trucks is when they turn, they're tearing up the gravel. We re-grade it back down, but it comes right back up. We have a little tamper we use right now, which helps - but it doesn't seem like it's big enough. The roller I believe will be better then the tamper.

For the driveway, it's fairly new and still sinking into the clay a bit. I believe we're going to tear it all back up, re-grade it, lay matting down then put a fresh layer of gravel on it. Which is where the roller is really needed.

The gravel will continue to get torn up regardless of the method used to compact it. Any chance you could place a concrete pad in the area where a majority of your turning occurs? Notice I didn't say asphalt pad as that too will be torn up during hot days. Wheel packing achieves as good of compaction as anything else. Roller vibratory compactors are made for hot asphalt placement. Actual multi-tire compactors work better for gravel because they also knead the material but they have no advantage over normal tire loads except more tires...faster results.

[Foxtrot08]

We would need close to a thousand yards of concrete to cover our parking area for our trucks. Even if we did where they 'turned', we would need several hundred yards. So it really would be an expensive endeavor.

Right now my boss is dead set on getting a roller... And I'm not going to argue. (A toy is a toy.) I just want to figure out what sort of one would be the best to get, in our price range.

[Buppies]

For proper compaction would suggest a 3 to 5 ton roller as a minimum weight classification with vibratory such as a dd30 . The larger the better

[sdkubota]

We would need close to a thousand yards of concrete to cover our parking area for our trucks. Even if we did where they 'turned', we would need several hundred yards. So it really would be an expensive endeavor.

Right now my boss is dead set on getting a roller... And I'm not going to argue. (A toy is a toy.) I just want to figure out what sort of one would be the best to get, in our price range.

If that is what the Boss wants then get one but smooth drummed rollers are virtually never used to compact road gravel. They compact asphalt that is 300+ degrees. I hope his other decisions are better.

[crashz]

Not true. Smooth drum rollers are used for road construction and most large earthwork projects around here. Pad foot rollers too. Tire and sheep's foot rollers are for more specialized compaction usually involving clay, silts or other unique soils.

Get a vibratory roller. On hard packed gravel, it will shake your fillings out, but you don't have to use it all the time. On large lifts, holes or patches it will compact better than anything else.

[Cigar Face]

Not true. Smooth drum rollers are used for road construction and most large earthwork projects around here. Pad foot rollers too. Tire and sheep's foot rollers are for more specialized compaction usually involving clay, silts or other unique soils.

Get a vibratory roller. On hard packed gravel, it will shake your fillings out, but you don't have to use it all the time. On large lifts, holes or patches it will compact better than anything else.

this statement is accurate. We use sheeps foot rollers only on our jobs that have a lot of shale or loose rock that needs to be broken up during lift phases and compaction. Smooth rollers are only used on road compaction and while stoning a road for sub grade and in fill areas that have nice clean fill dirt. Put a sheeps foot on a gravel road that is already compacted, it will a.) not do anything,or b.) make a mess. My buddy owns a large paving company with 4 paving crews and 2 prep crews. The only rollers he owns is smooth drum. For compacting road ubgrade, stoning, and for rolling ashpalt

[yellowdogsvc]

I've been building roads for 16 years using crushed base. Even if I rehab a road, I compact it with a 3 ton minimum vibratory roller on a big Bobcat. Not only can I crush rocks into fines, I make sure that the material is compacted down and locked tight to seal out runoff and keep dust down a bit. Compaction is often overlooked in my opinion. I see a lot of jobs where the operator has the dump truck driver "roll" the road. I do not find that acceptable but that's my opinion. I think for a compact roller, vibration is a must.