Grading Gravel Road Maintenance

[Rebeldad1]

A compactor is a bit crazy.
A few times a year I run a landscape rake over our road after a long rain spell. Looks beautiful.
To compact it we order stuff from Amazon and UPS compacts it for us.

Your case the road is going to be tough because its so hard. Maybe have someone come in and grade it for you. Have a few truck loads of crushed rock spread by truck. Before the last truck leaves have him make a few passes over it to compact it.
Fresh crushed rock is ok by itself but ....adding dirt and organic fines over it, working that into the crushed rock is much better.

All in all driveways and roads require a fair amount of maintainance. You truely get what you put into it.
A great reason to bond with your tractor.

 

[/pine]

Potholes develop because they hold water...stop the water from laying in the hole and you have solved the problem once it's filled...

 

[ovrszd]

And in the beginning it just takes a tablespoon full of water.

Now we are back to repetition. When you look at your drive and realize you haven't graded it for awhile, do so, whether it truly needs it or not. Move a little bit of material many times rather than moving a massive amount of material once.

 

[dlctcg]

Agree with almost everything mentioned here... Especially ovrszd's comments...

Definitely forget the tamper... unless you have access to a big vibratory roller... lol... (which I'm fortunate to have)

The OP did mention purchasing a "Land Pride grading scraper, probably model GS2584"... I will say a Land Plane / Lever will make a bad operator look good.... a good operator look great... & a great operator look... well we would have ask someone else because I'm not one...

I have a LP Box Blade, a LP Landscape Rake, & a EA Land Plane, which at times I use all three to maintain our 1/2 mile ++ drive which is approx 14ft wide with a steep grade. That said the Land Plane is the easiest to use & the quickest to get
great results, with the least amount of adjustment. When it comes to operating... I am the error & it makes me look like a pro.... :thumbsup:

 

[Jaylegger]

Landplane works excellent but disturb as little of the surface as possible. Been grading for sometime and never achieved any value in digging out the bottom of a pothole over just filling it. The more depth you disturb the more loose gravel that is required to be compacted again, therefore the greater the chance of uneven compaction. Pot holes form from driving over standing water, standing water is caused from uneven grade. Digging out the bottom of a pothole, ime, does nothing to remedy the root cause nor does it slow the creation of another pothole all else being equal.

This is based on my own experience. I've heard for decades about having to dig out a pothole and would love to here about the advantages of doing this???

 

[MtnViewRanch]

When using a land Plane (LPGS), time is what really makes the implement worth every cent. When performing general road grading maintenance, a LPGS does the job of a box blade, rear blade or landscape rake in less than half the time.

So whenever the road even seems like it could be better, go out and grade it with the LPGS. It's relatively fast and easy. No "good" reason to ever let the road get bad again.

I maintain 1 3/8 mile of road, the first 1/2 mile of that is shared with 4 neighbors. My roads are never "bad". :thumbsup:

 

[griesheimer]

Gentlemen, this is great! You have already provided much valuable information. In particular, I now plan to leave the plate compactor at the store, using the $ to help pay for a grading scraper.

There is a related problem that I neglected to mention. The people who built the road started with an underlayer of shale. The shale varies in size from pebbles to rocks almost two feet across. These large shale rocks are in places now clearly visible, especially on hills where the top layer has somewhat (mostly?) washed away. From my limited box scraper experience, it appears that these shale rocks, while providing a strong foundation, are likely to resent anything I might try to do with either the box scraper or a grading scraper.

My gut feeling is that I should leave the shale alone, but add enough 3/4 minus as needed to keep the grading scraper from noticing the big rocks. If I try to rip out or break up every shale rock that is too big for the grading scraper, it's going to get messy. I can see that if I dump clean gravel on top of these relatively flat shale rock surfaces, there might be an anchoring problem. So, what comes to mind is applying an inch or two of 3/4 minus mixed with a little soil before grading.

Finally, I do have plenty of time available for driving back and forth. Repetition sounds good.

Thank you again for your assistance.

 

[s219]

Skip the compactor, that is borderline nuts!

Whenever I do a new driveway or refresh an old one, I do the grading and then drive up and down with the tractor to pack the gravel down. Stagger your passes so that you get tire tracks the whole width of the driveway. Then let rain and time do their thing. The fines will lock everything up in no time.

 

[Rebeldad1]

Great thinking on adding more first. My preference would be 1 1/4 minus as it holds up better. Top it off with some sort of binder like dirt/organic fines of some sort.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Much also has to do with the amount of traffic and if drivers are aware enough to drive in a manner that preserves the roadway. I drive, and instruct visitors to dive at the very edge of the driveway, helping to keep vegetation at bay. I just shake my head when I see someone just drive through the biggest pothole! I guess someone has to make work for the mechanics and grader operators.