3 pt rollers - do they work?

[RSR]

I have 3/4- crushed stone on my driveway and the private road I'm on. Whenever bringing in gravel, or regrading the existing, if I can pack it down well, it locks together and gives a nice flat smooth surface.

To get there, though, it requires repeatedly driving a car back and forth, back and forth, ad nauseum.

So my question is, how do 3 pt rollers work for packing down gravel roads? The heaviest one I can find is a 6 foot wide one that is about 1,400 lbs. Comparing the weight, and area of contact with the road, the amount of pressure (Force/Area) it can generate doesn't seem like much of an improvement, if any, over the pressure from car tires driving back and forth. The only unknown is the rigid drum should create a bit more of a point (or line) of contact in comparison to a car tires, and therefore may generate significantly more pressure depending on the area of the contact patch with the gravel.

Does anyone have any practical experience using one of these?

 

[oosik]

No experience - practical or otherwise. Go to Google, upper right corner. Enter earth roller, compactor, home-made rollers/compactor. About a year ago there was an excellent thread about home-made rollers. One in particular caught my attention - welded frame, concrete weights for weight, standard auto tires were what it rolled on. Looked like it could be made to accommodate almost any weight.

Unfortunately - I'm in the same boat as you. Back/forth with my tractor.

 

[4570Man]

Anything that doesn’t vibrate would take enormous weight to do the job. Keep using vehicles or the tractor to roll it with the wheels.

 

[LouNY]

I have thought about getting an axle out of a trailer (tractor trailer type) narrowing it and adding a third wheel to each side then adding a mafia block for weight.
Tire will do a better job of compacting then a steel drum as the gravel will get pushed sideways as well as down.
This would be for drawbar pulling, a 3 point would not work well if any turns where involved.

or this;
PT13 & PT15 Pull-Type Pneumatic Tire Rollers From: WRT Equipment | For Construction Pros

or even nicer; a bit hard to justify the cost,
New Rubber tire road roller/ 26 tons pneumatic roller/road roller RP26 with certificate of Road Roller - guangzhoudaikun

 

[metalbender]

Rent a small roller, prob has vibrate feature. One pass equals twenty with the car.

 

[4570Man]

I bought a little roller for packing dirt. It does a good job but it’s slow.

 

[Peter 315]

You can rent a 1.5 ton roller with vibe for under 200.00 for the day.....

 

[i7win7]

Hoelscher Commercial Products - RB Scraper
When roller is empty, use it on the lawn in early spring. Also shears off mole hills.

 

[RSR]

I'm guessing by the lack of responses of those going this route for compacting a gravel road, it's not a very useful approach.

It looks like the answer is "just keep driving over it with a car".

It's not important enough to bother with the hassle and cost of renting, and as interesting as a dedicated wagon roller is, I really don't have the skills or time or space to fab something up like that and store it.

 

[LouNY]

It is the most practical some times.
Besides which you didn't mention if your driveway was flat or steep,
I have seen several of the smaller rollers slid off the roads when they have been preping them for paving.

 

[Tinhack]

I've got a couple of those 24" compactors. The type with an engine and centrifugal clutch driving a counter weight. Heavier than heck but move by themselves when powered up. I've given thought to adapting those to a three point hitch for my dirt driveway. Just haven't got a roundtoit yet. In the meantime, I run back and forth with my little dozer. It has flat street cleats so it works pretty well. Another reason to not spend time building something that will be slow and narrow. Unless I run across another compactor or two, I'll stick with the dozer.

The thought of a PTO driven gang of compactors crossed my mind--In a blur. :laughing: