Driveway maintenence - toothbar?

   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #1  

twosocks90

Bronze Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
75
Location
Blair, Nebraska
Tractor
MF35 Utility (gas)
I have a MF35 utility tractor with a front end loader and have been thinking about building a toothbar. It may be that I've come up with a good reason to do so..

We have a limestone driveway that's gotten pretty darn hard since we moved in six years ago. It was built with crusher-run limestone which has turned to an amazingly hard surface over the past few years. The problem is that potholes have developed in spots and they're growing. The damp spots in the upper left of the picture are where water is collecting.

The loader on the MF35 can't even begin to dent the surface. It just bounces along the top and occasionally digs up a loose rock or two and that actually makes the problem worse, not better. I'm trying to figure out the best way to fix this. I've thought about getting a toothbar in hopes that it'll allow me to dig the surface and reset the grade once again. Or, just dump more loose limestone on top and try to fill in the holes that way?

(The tractor pic is just to show the machine. There's no snow on the ground here now -- just slimy mud as things melt.)
 

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   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #2  
Try a Ratchet Rake, that should do it.
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #3  
Crusher run?...that looks like a creekbed! The area around any potholes needs to be scarified to full depth and re-graded. I'd rip it with BB scarifiers and re-grade the entire thing.
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #4  
That is my material of choice on my driveway. I use my Harley Pro 8 powered rake to chew it up. The S tines actually do a pretty good job of stirring up material ahead of the serrated roller.

What about a chain or diamond type harow harrow? Something with spikes. My concern is always to spread the stuff off to the sides and lose it.

Biggest thing. Tell people to drive off to the sides. Can't believe how dumb people are to drive in the same ruts as everyone else.
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #5  
I bought a tooth bar a few years ago and used it to keep a pile of dirt weed free and easy to dig in when I needed it. As to digging on a flat surface...I think there might be better implements like a box blade with scarifiers. The tooth bar has been idle for two years now. I own EA's Land leveler. I use it a lot on a 1000' gravel driveway. Great results and no having to go back and fix spots. That being said I still use the rock rake at times.
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #6  
Since I am by nature, a lazy tractor driver, I use the tooth bar in conjunction with the BB. I could jump off the tractor and set the scarifiers on the BB down to loosen up the hard gravel and then repeat the process to move the scarifiers back into the up position but I would much rather point the bucket slightly into the road and let the teeth loosen the gravel at the front of the tractor while the BB gathers it up behind the tractor all in one fell swoop. Works great.
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #7  
The area around any potholes needs to be scarified to full depth and re-graded. I'd rip it with BB scarifiers and re-grade the entire thing.

RDRANCHER KNOWS: For more than a temporary fix, you need to tear up the road surface to the bottom depth of all potholes, then regrade.

A tooth bar may be the least expensive attachment for the job; or possibly a Rip & Dig FEL attachment from Ratchet Rake, LLC. Maybe a potato plow? ((A Box Blade is the correct implement.))

http://www.ratchetrake.com/images/rip_and_dig_brochure.pdf


A regular Ratchet Rake would be fine for the grading work but it is unlikely you can get deep enough with RR to reach bottom depth of potholes.
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #8  
To "fix" the problem, I see 3 options. Either add enough new material to that inside curve, to let the water flow on, and not across so it doesn't collect. Cut a ditch so the water will flow, and drain beyond that point, or put a french type drain in that inside curve. and run it across the driveway, IF you have a place for it to drain out on the side the pic was taken from. That would be the very last option

Looking at the pics, I see the pot holes pretty well follow the path of the damp material. That tells me the water is seeping under the sub base material, following the path of least resistance, and your base just getting pushed down into the mud. I'd imagine the initial damage was done during the construction phase by large trucks delivering materials. If there was any topsoil left, or mixed in during the initial cut/fill construction of the drive, this will hold water also, and pump, or let the base material sink into it.

If it were me, I'd get what we call 304, #4 limestone, down to bug dust, and build up the inside curve, so the water will flow on down the grade. It's large enough, that maybe it won't wash too bad. Then get enough 67D, 67's down to dust, to fill in the holes. You'll want both materials damp, so as to pack. 67D will be fine enough that you can grade it, and not bring a large rock to the top to be kicked around, until it makes it way to the edge.

Ripping clear down through, and the possibility of bringing clay up will make a mess. Wet clay will literally pump every time it gets wet. Worse in the spring thaw. If a gob of clay gets worked in between the layers of limestone, it will simply make a pumpy spot, and eventually a mini pothole.

A lot depends on the limestone you're using too. You don't give a location where you're at, so don't know if you have both types. There are two kinds. Fresh water, and salt water limestone. Here in Ohio, we have both types. The fresh water limestone is softer, and smaller sizes will breakdown and turn to mud within a few years. The saltwater type, not so likely to do so.

Your tractor is plenty heavy enough to roll the material in as equipped in the picture. Just make sure the material is good and damp, not necessarily mushy wet. And probably best done in early spring when all other material in the drive is still workable, so as to bond, and blend in.

Just my two cents...
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #9  
Potholes are formed when the ground molecules in that particular area form a vortex and everything within the vortex event horizon will suck down into it, never to be seen again. You can rip it up, concrete it over 10 feet down and the pothole will still come back. So with that in mind, any fix for potholes is merely temporary. This scientific fact is substantiated by any road, left on its own over a span of time.

No charge for that information. ;)
 
   / Driveway maintenence - toothbar? #10  
I have a tooth bar on my loader, and find that it doesn't work nearly as well as the scarfers on my box blade when trying to break up potholes in a crusher run driveway. The tooth bar will bite in, but not nearly as well. So it takes 4 times longer, and the loader takes a beating trying to break up the hard pack with the bucket. I would say if time and loader wear are not a concern, then the tooth bar is certainly an option that can get you there. YMMV.
 
 
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