Grading First Time Road Grading.. any tips

[CowwFace]

Hey List,

Well today is the madien voyage at road grading on my tractor. I've got a private road that 4 of us live on.. it's only about s1/4mile long, but has flat area at the top .. a Hill (about 6-7 foot elevation loss over 40 feet) .. and then a flat area at the bottom. Hill is almost exactly in the middle. I'm using an 8foot tilting / offsetable blade. I was planning on making a nice drainage ditch about 1-2 foot deep along one side using the tilt, and then working on the crown.. I can't do a ditch on both sides b/c one neighbor does not have a culvurt (I see another TRACTOR project)..

Any words of wisdom before I undertake this?

Carry on,
Phill

PS: I grew up on farm, so tons of time on tractor's, but only in the fields.. this is first attpempt at tractor on road.. sounds funny even saying it to me!

 

[Johndeere3720]

A grader blade is the ideal tool for grading a driveway. My dads driveway starts going down hill to a 10' long flat spot and then back up to the house. I looked on google earth and from the bottom of the driveway to the house is a 100' climb. So it is a steep driveway but since its 3/4 miles long that helps. Anyway, when I grade I angle the blade either left or right and go up one side and down the other. This works pretty good and if you put the cutting edge of your bucket at a slight angle on the drive way it will help cut off the wash board. Or you can just go back up the driveway and down and it should work. When I grade my moms driveway I use my blade to pull the loose gravel into the middle of the driveway then hook up to my boxblade (imatch system helps a lot) and pull the gravel to the pot holes. Then I put the blade back on and angle it left or right in reverse to get a smooth finish.

 

[KennyV]

After a few hours it will feel like a life time of rear blade work...
You will get a permanent crick in your neck from looking over your right shoulder.

The most overlooked, but important adjustment on a rear blade, is the angle of the moldboard. If you are cutting a ditch, you will need to lengthen the top link... when smoothing a road surface you need to shorten the top link, (leaning the top of the blade to the direction of travel). A lot of better blades have adjustable links on the blade itself for this adjustment.

Keep a look out at your older farm auctions for a tow road grader, like the Adams Road Patrol... you can easily adapt it to a tractor 3pt lift drawbar, For one person operation.
Also watch your township, county and state highway department auctions for towed graders. You can usually find them very reasonable and there is no better tool for maintaining short gravel roads. KennyV

 

[KennyV]

other things to remember...
Grade after a rain, when things are wet, bit not with standing water.
Don't loose the crown and
NEVER incorporate organic material into your road. (no leaves grass or weeds)...

Have fun grading, get things shaped nice before winter and snow removal should be easier. KennyV

 

[CowwFace]

Kenny and JohnD,

Thanks for the info.. I'm glad you said something about weeds / organic matter into the road... I've got some high weeds that I was going to just scrape into the pile..but I'll hit them with (aka: have "the boy") hit them with the weed wacker before I go... I'm going to try and get some pic's of before and after to post as well... Some "gentle rebukes" will probably be in order with the results... I said GENTLE!

Thanks guys!
Phill

 

[CowwFace]

Yeowzers!!!!

OK.. for 1/4 mile road that was the most difficult 7 hours I have ever spent! I made a wonderfull drainage ditch along the low side, but every time I tried to pull the ditch material (fillings) away from the ditch... it would ball up and just push soil back into the ditch... dang!! After 6-7 hours of up/down the road tractor time (which I have to admit was fun) the road looked very simalar to when I started... at one point the neighbor came home with his new subaru and had to get out and push some soil/rocks off of the center of the road to get by... I'm..... uhh not goood at this road grading stuff.. but I willl keep trying..... DANG!!!

 

[Redbug]

Hi Phill,

If your road is pretty flat and wallowed out, with the box blade, (or your tilting blade), I would drag material at about a 45 degree angle from the ditch to the middle of the road. I would go back and forth along the road, first one side, then the other side, depositing material near the middle. Then go up and down the road smoothing things out and packing things down. The idea is to put a crown on the road so it will shed rain and run off into the ditch. If you have clay and it's wet with mud, it's probably better to dig the wet stuff out and deposit dry stuff in the depression. Otherwise, mud will make more mush and it will remain a hole. Actually...doing all this is good therapy!

 

[MarkV]

One trick that I have used after you have done your rough grading, which pulls the loose material you are talking about up, spin your blade 180 degrees so you are working with the back, non cutting edge, of the blade. This will smooth and distribute the material without digging more or moving what you have already placed.

MarkV

 

[CowwFace]

Hey Red.. and Mark,

Thanks for the tips.. I'll try the reversed blade that sounds up my alley..

The sun has risen on day #2 of Me vs "The Road"... let the battle begin!

Phill

 

[Willl]

2nd Amendment RIGHT protects all the others!

CowwFace, I don't understand what your saying here ?

 

[Redbug]

Oh, and hey Phill...take a pic or three for us to see...

 

[CowwFace]

Hey Will,

The only differeance between a free man and a slave is the ability to protect oneself from thoes that would attempt to enslave him.

If we loose the ability to protect our rights, our government will most certainly take them away. Try to practice free speach / Free press, Right to privacy etc when there are others that have a bigger stick AND will use it against you.

Carry on,
Phill

 

[/pine]

Grade after a rain, when things are wet

I could not agree more with this...
There is a huge difference in the "workability" of wet material over dry...

Also...it will take mother nature (rain) to "finish" the job once you are done working the material...you won't know exactly how good of a job you've done until you get enough rain to "set" the gravel etc...

 

[KennyV]

Well Phill, you should be getting pretty good at 'roading' by now... well anyway you should be getting a stiff neck from looking over your shoulder, like I mentioned in my first reply.. Ha ha
enjoy, I always liked road building and maintaining.

I had not noticed your "2nd Amendment RIGHT protects all the others!" comment earlier...
That is so true and can never be stated often enough.
I exorcise mine regularly... KennyV

 

[kthompson]

The comment to work it when wet, could that depend on type of material the road is? If a true dirt road with no gravel it would seem best when dry. Maybe not brick harden dry. There is a small private drive over our property the county does work and so have I and when dry it works very well but work it when wet you have mud. I very much realize soil type varies a lot, even within a short distance.

 

[KennyV]

Well you are right ... it is never a good idea to work mud... unless you are working an oil rig. KennyV

 

[Paul004]

Yeah i do quite a bit of grader work on some farm road. Sure does give you a crook neck after a while. I perfer my road to be dry after recent rain. Currently its rock hard and can only cut it with the edge to shift soil.

What sort of grader blade are you actually using in this situation? I use an Australian made 6ft grader. It give me quite a few different options including rotation, skew and tilt.

Here's what it looked like new.

 

[KennyV]

The neck ache is part of a rear blade operation... If your neck is not complaining you are probably not doing it right. That is the main reason I bought a CAT motor grader, WOW what a difference.
The wet/dry= If you are trying to grade mud it's too wet, if you are making dust it's too dry.
I actually used a water trailer to wet my roads when the weather didn't cooperate.
Paul, nice looking blade. KennyV

 

[CowwFace]

Maybe road grading is how The Duke got his sideways gate?

It's possible?
Phill

 

[AchingBack]

Yeah i do quite a bit of grader work on some farm road. Sure does give you a crook neck after a while. I perfer my road to be dry after recent rain. Currently its rock hard and can only cut it with the edge to shift soil.

What sort of grader blade are you actually using in this situation? I use an Australian made 6ft grader. It give me quite a few different options including rotation, skew and tilt.

Here's what it looked like new.

Such a handsome blade - makes me wish I had a bigger tractor. How much does it weigh? Does it have gauge wheels?