Is maintaining a grassy strip worth it when grading?

[oosik]

Now, now - ProjectKing - be nice. And if you can't be nice, at least be clean. I had a family of city folk come out for a country BBQ last summer. The city wife took me aside and asked why I didn't clean all the cow poo off the driveway. I couldn't help it - I laughed so hard I almost soiled my bibs.........

 

[ultrarunner]

On the farm we didn't have time to maintain any part of the road not in contact with the wheels...

Still remember my Grandfather always had a spot for rubble and gravel... over the years he had fortified the forest and meadow roads enough to eliminate the chance of getting stuck...

 

[Thomas]

Rear scraper blade or rake w/fold down blade and grader road,maybe add grass/weed be gone when done.

 

[ProjectKing]

Now, now - ProjectKing - be nice. And if you can't be nice, at least be clean. I had a family of city folk come out for a country BBQ last summer. The city wife took me aside and asked why I didn't clean all the cow poo off the driveway. I couldn't help it - I laughed so hard I almost soiled my bibs.........

Haha! (0:

I guess I'm confused about trying to maintain a road with grassy strip. I'm all for old roads. They have grassy strip because they aren't dragged. So I guess the new thing is to maintain a road that looks like it's not maintained?! I'm so confused. Lol!!

 

[ovrszd]

The grassy strip on a farm road is from lack of maintenance...

Yep.

 

[tomplum]

Yeah, it's one of those things that has appeal. The drive has a slight slope and curve. Don't forget the important things, got it. Though I seem to remember this grassy strip I saw late onna St.Pat's day bash... Thanks for the advise and the chuckles.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

IIRC a member here built a narrow land plane grader scraper and simply smoothed each side separately. Earlier this year he finally reworked the entire drive as the center was getting to high for the vehicles to deal with.

I think some of the one track drives look nice but they are not as smooth as a wider drive that can be driven on from edge to edge.

That is most likely me that you are thinking of. I haven't got to redoing the whole thing yet as other things have priority for the cash -- 1200 ft is a lot of gravel to buy. The biggest problem is my lane wasn't built right to begin with -- not enough base and not build high enough relative to the fields around it and too neglected buy the time I bought the place. If the lane was built right AND regularly maintained, I think it's doable to keep the strip. It actually wasn't the center was to high causing a problem but rather how much water now sits in some parts accelerating the problems. Once I do finally get around to rebuilding it, the grass strip will be left to return.

The link to my build is here http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/320911-lpgs-build.html?highlight=

I did build the LPGS with straight blades for simplicity but am considering building a set of angled ones for the same frame to see if I like them better.

 

[pmsmechanic]

So if you want to build up the gravel and leave the center grass alone, i've seen gravel trucks with a strip of rubber bolted onto the middle of the dump box and the tail gate. Then as they are graveling the driveway the center strip doesn't get gravel. Then if you build your tractor attachment to level gravel one side at a time you can do your maintenance and have the look of a country driveway

 

[gwstang]

I have a long sandy driveway and it does grow the middle grass strip. I have found that the middle starts growing and growing upward and I do have to cut it down with the box blade because it keeps getting higher.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I have a long sandy driveway and it does grow the middle grass strip. I have found that the middle starts growing and growing upward and I do have to cut it down with the box blade because it keeps getting higher.

Probably because the dust settles into the center grass and slowly raises the ground level. It's quite common in our area. We have a dry climate and prevailing winds. The grass beside the sidewalk will be considerably higher on the leeward side.