It's been a couple years and we just moved here permanently so here is an update and some questions.
First things first. I measured our driveway and the slope grade goes from 25% to 40%. The 40% grade is the last 50 feet or so at the very top. The rest of the grade is between 25 and 35% (no less than 25% at any point). The private road including the driveway is about 9/10 of a mile long. Our driveway (the steep part) is less than 1/10 of a mile. The rest of the private road is much less steep with a maximum grade of around 20% but mostly less than that. The driveway is steep enough that unless you have 4WD you cannot drive up it even when it is dry.
We ended up getting a Honda 4x4 ATV in 2016 and last year I put an 18 inch x 5 foot plow on it. We felt that was the better purchase prior to moving here as it can get us in and out and we use it to go to neighbors houses and other stuff. I use it to move my firewood around as well.
As far as plowing goes we had 2 feet a couple months ago over 24 hours. I had to put chains on all 4 ATV tires and I did plow twice. Once when a foot was down, then again when the next foot dropped. Took around 5 hours total. Having lived here through most of a winter and some of last winter we've learned that unless we get more than 6 inches of snow not to bother with plowing most of the private road. We just plow our driveway. Since it's gravel I never scrape all the way down so there is some ice/snow left over. We can get up and down just fine with the ATV or with our truck with chains. So what we do most of the time is park the truck or SUV at the bottom of the steep part and take the ATV up and down or if it is really cold put chains on the truck and take that up and down. I got the peerless auto-tightening chains for the truck so it only takes a few minutes to get them on.
With the snow, there have been a couple times where even with chains on my ATV I got a little too close to an edge of a hill and had to be very careful getting back to flat ground. I don't think I would want to use a tractor in the snow on my property. The rest of the private road is less steep.
Now we are seriously considering a tractor purchase but I'm concerned about the grade of my drive. I'm still considering a
L3800 4wd hst filled rears with a fel and also a backhoe. There is a lot of maintenance that is necessary on our private road and I'll be solely responsible for it soon. I'll need to be able to:
* mow the grass on the road
* add and spread gravel for the road
* do other road maintenance... cut the hedges and such on the sides, take care of fallen trees, clean out drainage areas, etc.
The good news is we have an area at the bottom of our property that is before the steep driveway. It is a large enough area that I could put a carport and park my tractor there. But I'd like to be able to maintain my driveway as well. Right now what I think I'd do is load gravel from the FEL into my truck bed and then just take the truck up some gravel at a time to drop it. Question is, do you think with widened/extended tires and filled wheels I would be wise to try taking the tractor up my driveway? The grade is just up and down, it is pretty flat otherwise. If not, I can use my ATV and plow to spread the gravel.
Thanks!
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