It seems that most people who haven't used a landscape rake, and therefore can't imagine how effective they can be, think of them as a "surface scratcher", and indeed that is what they look like. If you use them on hard-packed, well traveled and rutted drives on a hot dry day, that is what they will do. However, if you wet the surface (or wait until mother nature does it for you), then the rake can dig in as deeply as you wish (or deeper/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif). That is when the gauge wheels would come in handy. You can easily dig down below the level of the ruts with a rake if the ground is damp.
I, too have an 800 foot driveway that is mostly uphill (or is that downhill/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif). Every 3 years or so I get 60 tons of crusher run (or 2a modified). After that is tailgate spread by the driver, I box blade the gravel without the rippers to spread evenly and crown the road.
On the years when I don't get more gravel, I use the rake. First I cut deeply on an early spring day (read wet/damp gravel) with the rake set perpendicular to direction of travel. When the entire road is all stirred up, down to about 6 inches, I angle the rake AND slope it a bit for the crown. I make a pass down the center (with only about 3/4 of the rake in contact due to the crown/slope). At the end of that pass, I turn around and stay on the center, but the return pass rakes on the other side of the crown. On each pass downhill, I stay on one side, moving GRADUALLY to the edge with multiple overlapping passes. On each pass uphill, I do the same, but on the other side of the road. Finally, I roll it with a 1600# roller. Rolling works best IN a moderate rain/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. Finally I continue to drive with vehicles on the crown and edges for a few days/weeks. Only takes 6 hours, going slow with the rake, or about 10 hours with the box blade (extra time for spreading new gravel) Good luck with your method, and let us know how you made out.
