Fantastic road base. But unless you own a quarry pit and rock crusher, it’s too cost prohibitive to do much road that way.I have the equivalent of railroad ballast under many parts of my 1/4 mile long driveway.
One year we had a flood, it washed 3-8" rocks into a neighbors field,, he was happy for me to take them.
So, my approach is to put the biggest thing you feel that you can afford, and can spread, down first.
After it is down, you can top it with "crusher run" type material.
If the driveway is level, you can put some gravel on top of that.
I had over 160 18 wheelers go up and down my driveway during the wettest spring ever recorded here.
The trucks ALL weighed over 80,000 pounds, they were not allowed on the interstate when loaded.
I had ZERO damage to my driveway.
In this pic, the trucks ran on a brand new piece of road, only using the railroad ballast.
The road held up, almost unbelievably well,,
This truck was on my existing driveway.
Heck, EVERYTHING came up my driveway,,
Fantastic road base. But unless you own a quarry pit and rock crusher, it’s too cost prohibitive to do much road that way.
I have a road (about 275 yards) through the woods linking two sets of pasture. The road is down a steep incline that winds through the woods. I have been able to keep the water from the pasture draining into the side ditch but the road itself collects enough water to wash. Years ago I had a shale/clay mix (some call it dirt rock around here) placed on the road. The shale made a good base but overtime it broke down and washed. It broke down under the weight of equipment and the weather. I planned on topping the road with crusher run but the material hauler suggested I use surge gravel. I have a few questions: 1. How easy or hard is it to scrape surge compared to crusher run? I have a 50hp tractor so I am not concerned with the ability of the tractor, I am concerned that every time I scrape the road it will be rough. 2. Crusher run will pack relatively quickly; I assume surge will not pack solid as quickly. Will the cows be reluctant to walk across the surge gravel?
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I have a road (about 275 yards) through the woods linking two sets of pasture. The road is down a steep incline that winds through the woods. I have been able to keep the water from the pasture draining into the side ditch but the road itself collects enough water to wash. Years ago I had a shale/clay mix (some call it dirt rock around here) placed on the road. The shale made a good base but overtime it broke down and washed. It broke down under the weight of equipment and the weather. I planned on topping the road with crusher run but the material hauler suggested I use surge gravel. I have a few questions: 1. How easy or hard is it to scrape surge compared to crusher run? I have a 50hp tractor so I am not concerned with the ability of the tractor, I am concerned that every time I scrape the road it will be rough. 2. Crusher run will pack relatively quickly; I assume surge will not pack solid as quickly. Will the cows be reluctant to walk across the surge gravel?
How does the water get onto the road? Every municipal road you've been on from residential to super highways routes water off of and away from the travel surface. Spend your time, money, and effort to keep the water off the road. Crusher waste is just that; waste. It is not a paving product. Trying to get lucky and go cheap with crusher waste in a losing argument.
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I think you are getting good advice, This stuff will not pack solid, but it will let water drain through it but not gather the speed necessary to move anything bot the finest materials unless you get a deluge. The company I retired from had a similar material, 2"-4" quarry spalls. We used that material dumped over raw dirt for construction roads. Mountain logging roads in northwest Washington used a blend of 2-4 and 4-8 spalls for road building.I have a road (about 275 yards) through the woods linking two sets of pasture. The road is down a steep incline that winds through the woods. I have been able to keep the water from the pasture draining into the side ditch but the road itself collects enough water to wash. Years ago I had a shale/clay mix (some call it dirt rock around here) placed on the road. The shale made a good base but overtime it broke down and washed. It broke down under the weight of equipment and the weather. I planned on topping the road with crusher run but the material hauler suggested I use surge gravel. I have a few questions: 1. How easy or hard is it to scrape surge compared to crusher run? I have a 50hp tractor so I am not concerned with the ability of the tractor, I am concerned that every time I scrape the road it will be rough. 2. Crusher run will pack relatively quickly; I assume surge will not pack solid as quickly. Will the cows be reluctant to walk across the surge gravel?
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