199 mph wind!

[dirtworksequip]

With the weather getting nice I decided to clean up the stone that I windrowed off the road while doing snow removal. I am always careful to not get carried away with pushing the snow to far off the roadway,because no matter how careful you are you are always going to get some stone with the snow. Especially if you have alot of wet snows. So, I got out the Stilh backpack blower and went at it. I was supprised at how good of a job it did. It is far easier than hand raking and you don't get much grass. It does take some time though depending on how much stone is off the road. Hope this might help some one else that finds after the snow melts they have alittle more stone off their road than they thought.

 

[Renze]

So you're using a leaf blower to blow gravel back onto the road ??
I never knew a leaf blower could be that powerfull... How many seconds does it take before a gravel pellet starts moving in the air stream ?

 

[dirtworksequip]

It's pretty much instant results. Some of the pieces that where a little into the dirt or grass take a few fractions of a second longer. It actually floats the stone up out of the grass. I had used it a little last year for the same thing and got good results,but this year because of the snow conditions I had a lot more stone off the road than last year. If you are going to use this technique try and do it before the grass starts to grow. Once the grass starts to grow it doesn't work near as good. The new grass seems to hold the stone in place.

 

[shaley]

Take the curved tip off and place a basketball in the jet.

 

[Renze]

hmm that isnt a bad result then... my neighbor is complaining about the poor functioning of his leaf blower after a rain, because the wet oak leaves stick. gravel is harder to move on its own, but gravel doesnt stick

 

[turnkey4099]

Hmmm...I was just outyesterday raking chips, etc out of the grass around the woodpile. Grass already up a few inches and raking didn't do a very good job. I think I will try the blower idea.

Harry K

 

[GaryM]

That's a great idea! I'll have to get my backpack blower out and give it a try. Better than raking.

 

[Ford850]

Dirt,
You're a genius! I don't have a backpack blower, but I have the largest hand held model that Stihl makes. I was reluctant to even try it since I thought it would be underpowered. I have over 1000' of drive with stone spread at least 10' off in the grass. The blower worked about 2 times faster than raking, and I wasn't tired or sore afterwards. Thanks for the great tip.

 

[Ray2210]

Another tool that is amazing for the same job is the rubber sweeper attachment for some of the Stihl and Husky trimmer/combo tools. I have one of these rubber flap sweepers for my Stihl trimmer and though expensive is worth every penny. I can clean up all of the gravel form the previous winters plowing in a few hours. even stuff that's embedded. It's also sweeps grass trimmings from the sidewalk and light snow from the sidewalk. It rolls and tosses rocks, leaves, wood chips and anything else from the lawn without hurting the grass.

 

[dirtworksequip]

Ford, although I don't know what my tested IQ would be, I doubt that it would be near high enough for genius.lol. Glad the blower saved your back. I'm getting to the age that manual labor hurts, so I guess I just look for easier ways to perform task. WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER.

Thanks for the complement!

Sincerely,
Dirt