Gravel road

[jspool]

I have a recreational property that I want to put in a circular road for my 40' motorhome. I have never done this before, and am wondering whether my BX25 is up to the task, or do I need to get it proffesionally done to make sure it is fully compacted. Don't want the big rig to sink in! If I were to get the gravel spread out, and run a thumper over it, would that do the job?
Any advise appreciated.
Jonathan

 

[KennyV]

Jonathan...
Welcome to TBN.
Fill in your information to show approximately where you are located.
The road youare going to build will vary according to the type of soil you have... How well it drains, if it has a lot of clay?
What ever you do make your circle much larger than the minimum turning radius of your 40' motor home. KennyV

 

[firefighter jim]

I have a recreational property that I want to put in a circular road for my 40' motorhome. I have never done this before, and am wondering whether my BX25 is up to the task, or do I need to get it proffesionally done to make sure it is fully compacted. Don't want the big rig to sink in! If I were to get the gravel spread out, and run a thumper over it, would that do the job?
Any advise appreciated.
Jonathan

For our home here in Ohio, We had a contractor build our driveway (about 1/4 mile long). First, all of the sod and topsoil was removed with a bull dozer then many dump truck loads of shale were spread, then limestone gravel (34's then 57's. It was more involved than I thought (to do it right). The way I understand it, you can't just spread gravel over your existing sod and dirt and expect to have a good solid based driveway. Jim

 

[ehchvac]

Some of my questions would be,...
Is this a regular motorhome or something else.
How much does it weigh.
How many tires are on the ground.
And here's why,...

My motorcoach is a marathon bus conversion and it has a much larger turning radius than a "motorhome".
It also weighs close to 50,000 lbs, not around 25,000 like a motorhome.
It also has a tag axle for a total of 8 tires on the ground, spreading out the load.
Now all that being said it still is the most usless thing in the world in mud and almost as bad in wet grass, and I'm not moving at all in snow or ice.
Zero traction when wet, soft surfaces.
Ive had it on my lawn once or twice "by mistake" and it squashed the ground about half a foot, thats on semi hard soil, pick up or tractor never even left a divit.

 

[RadarTech]

jspool,
Assuming that the land is flat, and you have a box blade and all the time in the world...
you can do it....
however, if your time is short, or you have any hills-- get it done professionally...

After it is put in, you should be able to maintain it easy enough...

But my money would have it done for you. At least have the sode pulled off by a dozer and then work with a dump truck driver to tail gate spread the rock...


Jim

 

[apease]

Hi Jonathan - I also have a recreational property and a 26' travel trailer. The previous owners put in a driveway with a driveway circle. It's gently sloping, and the earth is very hard - lots of shale. It's in northern California, so there's virtually no frost, there's no rain in the summer, and the soil drains beautifully. They just dumped (I'm told) some 20 tandem trailer loads of base rock and didn't remove any soil. I'm not sure how they compacted it, but I'd think they had a contractor with a roller (not just a walk-behind plate compactor or rammer). I use a box scraper to maintain the road, which is about 400' long. It takes about half a day a few times a year to scrape the weeds out. Even with the box scraper I find it challenging to reduce bumps and not exaggerate them each time I go over them with the scraper. So, if you have the same soil type, you might be able to get trucks to set their dump doors partway open and drive while dumping, so you have an approximately even layout of gravel, level it with a box scraper (and maybe some sort of dragging system after that for fine finish). Be sure to make a crown in the middle to keep water off, and make sure the slope of the ground is such that water doesn't want to wash over the driveway and create a gully. After shaping the driveway, you could probably rent a roller at United Rentals or a similar outfit, probably $700 for two days with delivery would be my guess. If you really want it to last, and don't want to scrap it every year get it chip sealed (about $2/sq ft around here, if you do it yourself, renting a hot pot).

If you don't have the nice stable and well-drained soil we do here then I'd agree with everyone else here that you'll need bigger equipment to remove the existing soil to get a stable base. Even with good soil, I'd imagine this is a big project.

Grading is really hard. It looks easy when a friend of mine does it, since he's been running heavy equipment full time for 20 years. When I try to do it, I go over and over the same ground, and still wind up raking by hand.

 

[jspool]

Thanks everyone,
The motorhome is a regular motorhome, probably has a GVW of 36,000.
How many wheels on the ground? Well last I checked, all of them! (6).
The soil is pretty sandy, as the property is in a river valley, prone to flooding (Cowlitz River between Randle and Packwood). My property didn't flood in 2006 when the floods were real bad.
Putting the road in sounds like a pretty big job to do it right. A friend of mine laid in 8" of 4" rock as a base, tyhen 4" of 1.5" on top of that, and then some 5/8- to cap it off. Said that if you do it right the first time, you won't get pot holes and gullies, and weeds. I'll probably have it done by a pro, as time is a precious asset for me, then use my own equipment and time to maintain it.
Jonathan

 

[FrogLick]

Sounds like your friend did it right. If your conditions are similar to his, I'd get it done right the first time and just do the maintenance myself. Done right with attention to any runoff drainage to begin with the maintenance will be minimal.

 

[TripleR]

Thanks everyone,
The motorhome is a regular motorhome, probably has a GVW of 36,000.
How many wheels on the ground? Well last I checked, all of them! (6).
The soil is pretty sandy, as the property is in a river valley, prone to flooding (Cowlitz River between Randle and Packwood). My property didn't flood in 2006 when the floods were real bad.
Putting the road in sounds like a pretty big job to do it right. A friend of mine laid in 8" of 4" rock as a base, tyhen 4" of 1.5" on top of that, and then some 5/8- to cap it off. Said that if you do it right the first time, you won't get pot holes and gullies, and weeds. I'll probably have it done by a pro, as time is a precious asset for me, then use my own equipment and time to maintain it.
Jonathan

Good decision, this is not a project you want to use to learn on. You should be able to easily maintain it with your tractor.

 

[dodge man]

Something that you didn't bring up is how long is it? If its 500' long or less, it would be pretty easy to do by your self. If its 2000' long, hire it done. I cleared some trees and built a turn around for a driveway in very little time with my BX, maybe 10-12 hours of seat time. I spead out 80 tons of rock in a single morning.