Winter Maintenance on Slippery Private Roads

[zzvyb6]

Snow tires, I have them on the truck and all the cars. truck runs them year 'round. Plow for snow removal, but real snow tires are the only way to travle in winter.

 

[Tomtint]

Up here, I get a load of salt/sand dropped off. Its like 75.00 per ton delivered.

 

[LouNY]

Damn, Lou
You in some STEEP country.

The driveway is mostly about 14 degrees with some 16 degrees so about a 24-25% slope. With the studded snows on our vehicles we can usually make it. I sand when we get an ice storm or are expecting company or we start getting excessive slippage even with the studded snows.

I cut the center out of the trailers rear to get a bit more tongue weight and it makes it handy for checking the gas engine on the sander.

 

[Hoss710]

My driveway is a 18 to 19% grade 960 feet long . I normally snow blow it. then quickly salt it as it's asphalt, and quickly turns to ice once the snows removed.

 

[LouNY]

Just as a side note while salt works good on paved driveways, too much salt will take the frost out of gravel/dirt driveways and provide a thawed layer of slop.

 

[bdhsfz6]

We had the neighbors over for a pre holiday get together last night. We discussed the idea of getting a small storage container to store aggregate. 20 footers go for around $2k here. I can get a 20 ton load of cinders delivered and put it in the container with the FEL. Can't use salt or calcium for fear of rotting out the container but if the cinders stay dry, it should be easy enough to back in the spreader and load with a shovel.

 

[airbiscuit]

How big are the cinders?

 

[civilian]

Can the container beplaced on a hillside? Especially if container has doors on both ends. Top side doors, load cinders in with FEL. Bottom side doors are placed at height of spreader top. Kind of like a walk out basement. Fill wheel barrel in container, roll to bottom side doors, dump into spreader? Or maybe use some type of scoop to push cinders across floor into spreader. Jon

 

[jyoutz]

There are four property owners that share maintenance expenses on our 1.25 mile, very steep private road. We all share the plowing chores but I'm the only one with a spreader. Right now, two of us burn coal and I spread ash when the road gets slick. Yeah, I know, coal ash is considered toxic but we handle it as such using a cabbed tractor, masks, gloves and goggles. There have been no issues during the 40 years we've been using it.

The two of us with coal stoves are switching to heat pumps this year and the coal ash will no longer be available. In the past, I've experimented with various aggregates but they are expensive and difficult to store. If stored in a pile outdoors, it freezes up and gets covered with snow which makes tarp covers difficult to remove. After fighting to remove the cover, sand, cinders & fine gravel have to be broken up with a hammer. The chunks then get caught in the modified ag spreader I use. Mixing with calcium or rock salt helps but it's expensive and difficult to effectively mix with the aggregate.

Right now, we store the lightweight ash in 30 gal cans which are weather resistant and can be dumped into the spreader. Heavier aggregate needs to be loaded with a shovel. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal for many but the youngest property owner is 70 and the oldest is 85.

I realize this topic has been discussed many times but I keep hoping for some new ideas, tricks or equipment.

For those who maintain private roads, what aggregate do you use and how do you store & spread it?

In my area the highway department uses mostly fine crushed volcanic cinders or sand. If cinders aren’t available in your area, maybe consider crusher fines.

 

[jyoutz]

How big are the cinders?

Just as a side note while salt works good on paved driveways, too much salt will take the frost out of gravel/dirt driveways and provide a thawed layer of slop.

Yes, and is hell on trees. On some of our mountain highways, all the pines are dead within about 100’ of the highway shoulders. Due to de-icing chemicals.