Quality seat time - road work

[ejtaylor822]

After having gone several weeks with little to no seat time, finally got some time to do some much needed work on our gravel road. Took some pics to share.

After a lot of much, much needed rain last week, then Ernesto coming through, had some big ruts washed into our road. Our road is "crush and run" gravel that was put down about 4 years ago. Couple times a year I scrape/finish it. Haven't touched it since early last winter when I put a good crown on it. Today, I just tried to get the ruts out and smoothed. The "pros" are coming out in a couple weeks to add more road bond, gravel and put on a good crown.

Anyway, thought I would share some of the before and after pics. Attached a picture and the URLs to more "before & after" pictures are linked below. As a point of reference, the tractor is pretty much in the same place in all the pics where it is visible.

This was the worst part. It is the steepest part of the road, but just a slight incline. This picture is at the intersection looking up the main road.

This picture is looking down the main road. Our property is on the right, on the other side of the road going to the right.

This picture is looking down the side road. The insets show some of the ruts from a different angle. Our property is on the left side of the road.

This picture is of the intersection

Anyway, just thought I would share.
Eddie

 

[jayhaitch]

Thanks for the pics. Very nice job. I'm reading all I can about driveways/roads, as my 230 ft gravel drive was installed in the wrong location! I'll be moving it next year, along with installing new about 150 ft of horseshoe drive infront of our house.

I'm pretty sure I'll be buying a box scraper for the driveway work. Which brand do you have?

 

[bmac]

Eddie,

Would you share your technique with us? I'm new to gravel drive maintenance and need to pick up some tips.

Thanks

 

[drm]

Very nice job. Looks as though you did the hard work for the "pros" getting it evened out real well.

 

[Nomoregears]

Nice job! Are you compacting your layers?

 

[ejtaylor822]

Hey guys,
Thanks for the nice comments. It was a lot of fun, was a lot of work, but I like the seat time. Like I have seen someone else post - just because I enjoy it, doesn't mean that its not work. We have great neighbors and about all have thanked me, which has been nice and means the most.

jayhaitch,
Sorry your driveway is in the wrong location. Sounds like you will be getting plenty of seat time next year . Think a Box Blade (BB) would be your best choice. You might want to start a post/thread when you are ready to do yours and get everyone's feedback. Some folks are partial to scrapers and they are really nice for smoooooth finish work. But, I like the BB and can get it pretty smooth. Think you would definitely need one if this will be a new cut.

I have an "Atlas". Pretty sure it’s a re-branded Chinese. Now, I don’t do commercial work, so not sure how it would hold up under repeated heavy use, but for my needs it’s perfect. I hit the road a couple times a year and use it a lot on our property in pretty soft clay soil for clearing.

I am VERY happy with this BB and had it for about 2 years. It is a 6' with large steel scarifiers and think it weighs in around 550 lbs. The scarifiers appear to be the some ones that I see at TSC that KingCutter and other brads use. To me, the BB is very well made. The box, rear blade and front channel is about 3/8" thick steel with fully welded seems. The rear blade is “reversible” - can have the bottom edge replaced/swapped if one side gets more wear than the other.

bmac,
I don’t know if I really have a technique. Just keep going over it until I get what is needed. Usually takes a lot of practice and patience. The one thing I have observed on this site is that I think folks may go too fast using a BB. I go real slow, not creeper, but low gear and never higher than 2nd speed. Any faster for me and the BB will bounce over rough ground. Also, going slow will allow adjustments to be made as needed. The other critical part to me is the angle of the box and scarifiers which of course is adjusted with the top-link. This is purely trial and error practice and varies for each tractor and BB. I just know where my sits and works best.

When I started the BB had a slight downward angle to really dig in the scarifiers and chew up the road bed. I used some sway/stop chains to limit how far down the BB would sit/fall so I was not constantly adjusting – float control is a real plus if you have it. As time went along I adjusted the top link to take away some of the bite and smooth and fill in the ruts with some of the material I kicked up. For the final smoothing and finishing, I turned the scarifiers upside down so it was the blade only on the surface.

Of course, I started on the low parts of the road and pulled the material “up hill” since most of it had washed down to these points. Like I mentioned, did not crown this run, but when I do crown I tilt the BB. I park on the driveway, fairly level, and put a brick under the left side (looking at the back of the tractor) of the BB on its side to get about a 4” height difference. Any higher and I seem to get too much material building up in the lower side and not filling in. I then adjust the down links to fix the position – much easier to do this way (with the brick) than hanging – trust me. Then I alternate “up” on the right side and “down” on the left to create the crown. This usually takes quite a bit of work and a lot of patience. There’s probably a better way, but, that’s just the way I have learned to do it.

DRM,
Thanks. I just hope I didn’t mess up the pros. Sure I will hear about it if I did. Of course, they could have done it in a fraction it took me. But, we needed something now. One rut was over 8” deep.

Nomoregears.
Thanks. The only compacting I do is that I will run the tires through the area where the deepest ruts were at. I will also get a pretty full scoop in the FEL, lower and float it with a flat to slightly up angle and pull (in reverse) back over the material. Helps with some compaction and gets it smooth.

Thanks again all,
Eddie