Another road question

[aarolar]

So I want to regravel my road soon and I'm curious if I should remove this center median first or just leave it. I've never had a bit of trouble from this road in the 5 years I've lived here just want to freshen up the gravel. It's probably 6-8" in places and grassy.

 

[joeu235]

Find someone local with a land plane. It works wonders and you might not need any more gravel. I perform road maintenance here in central Texas.

 

[JDL538]

So I want to regravel my road soon and I'm curious if I should remove this center median first or just leave it. I've never had a bit of trouble from this road in the 5 years I've lived here just want to freshen up the gravel. It's probably 6-8" in places and grassy.

View attachment 492838

If it were mine I would scrape out the middle first, it looks high..Nice road.

 

[aarolar]

Yeah I'm rather jumpy about fooling with it because I don't want to mess it up like I said I've never done anything to it and we've been through two hurricanes that dumped tons of water in a short time. Nothing is traditional about it at all it has no crown and no ditches.

 

[boomer1025]

So I want to regravel my road soon and I'm curious if I should remove this center median first or just leave it. I've never had a bit of trouble from this road in the 5 years I've lived here just want to freshen up the gravel. It's probably 6-8" in places and grassy.

.
If you never had trouble with it I wouldn't mess with it.

 

[Wnc3]

I agree, it looks nice as is. If it has weathered that well with no pot holes that is all you can ask for. The center has grass on it and helps hold it together, cut/level it down and you may be creating future headaches.
I bet it is quiet to drive on and you add gravel it will be louder and your tires will throw rocks at your fender wells.

 

[RNeumann]

The product to use is a road base or 3/4" minus. It depends on what your query calls it but it's basically some 3/4" rock and inorganic finer material to bind everything. The strip down the middle would go away if you added anything, as most implements will cut that out. I've never used a land plane. I'm a box scraper guy. But I have hydraulic top and tilt which makes things much easier.

It all depends on the look you want and the time you want to spend. I keep mine maintained and would tune it up if I saw anything start to grow in it. But I have to agree it does look good as is!

 

[two_bit_score]

So I want to regravel my road soon and I'm curious if I should remove this center median first or just leave it. I've never had a bit of trouble from this road in the 5 years I've lived here just want to freshen up the gravel. It's probably 6-8" in places and grassy.

View attachment 492838

Looks like a lot of driveways I've seen in East Texas that don't get much traffic and no really heavy vehicles. As long as the use is not expected to change why change the road when it is in good shape?

 

[bcp]

If I wanted to keep the grassy center, here's what I would do.

Find a dump truck driver who has done it or is willing to try: Place a piece of RR tie or concrete block against the center of the tailgate before loading. When tailgate-spreading the load, it will come out in a stream on each side but not the center, filling the ruts but not covering the grass.

Grade and maintain the road with a road-width landscape rake with the center teeth removed, and with gauge wheels.

Bruce

 

[aarolar]

The reason I care to remove the center is its getting too high for compact cars like my in laws drive it's starting to scrub the frame. It sees no less than 4 trips a day during the week as my wife and I both work.

 

[aarolar]

If I wanted to keep the grassy center, here's what I would do.

Find a dump truck driver who has done it or is willing to try: Place a piece of RR tie or concrete block against the center of the tailgate before loading. When tailgate-spreading the load, it will come out in a stream on each side but not the center, filling the ruts but not covering the grass.

Grade and maintain the road with a road-width landscape rake with the center teeth removed, and with gauge wheels.

Bruce

So basically you feel just add gravel back between the center grass to level it all out. I have no issues with this at all and it's actually easier on me. I'm wondering since I have a nice super compact gravel base what about using crushed limestone or something similar that packs hard.

 

[Looking4new]

The in-laws dragging their bellies on it is a bad thing? I can't see anything wrong with the road the way it is. There has to be better things to spend money on than the road.

 

[jenkinsph]

Whether you decide to dress it up or not is up to you.
I would use a five ft. wide landplane first and see if I needed more material after that.

 

[radioman]

if it scraping a subcompact car frames .. i would guess its time to remove that hump or lower it. i agree landplane is the best tool then the box blade is second choice but it can be messy with box blade with all that grass.

I dont know if you got a brush hog but have you tried lowering the height to scalp that grass crown down? I Think would be least invasive to the driveway but can be hard on your equipment if you have decent sized rocks hidden in the center grass.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you have a straight blade, I would just shorten the top link as much as I could, then drag it down the center. Leave the blade fixed at 90 degrees to the road so that any scrapings go equally to both sides. I suspect that the center has enough gravel to recoat the tire tracks very well. I used to do this on the gravel road that my parents lived on. The center would get so high that it would drag on a pickup in some places. I would just drag off the top while running at a good clip and the rocks would just scatter all across the

If you don't have a blade, just about any heavy object can be dragged down the center, even a big tree or cross tie would work. Either way may require more than one pass depending on how well the gravel is packed or held by the grass.

 

[airbiscuit]

What do you have for implements?

 

[aarolar]

What do you have for implements?

Box blade and a 3pt Road Grader, the Road Grader is full mount though so I'm not real sure my tractor will handle it.

Blade with tail wheel is what I'm calling a road grader

 

[airbiscuit]

Box blade and a 3pt Road Grader, the Road Grader is full mount though so I'm not real sure my tractor will handle it.

Blade with tail wheel is what I'm calling a road grader

In that case, I would use the box blade to skim off the middle hump (nice if it has scarifiers), then use the blade with tail wheel to smooth things out and make a bit of a crown.

I was going to mention using a disc to take out the middle hump if you had one, but a box blade will do nicely. You don't have to do it all in one pass, and you can adjust your top link to keep it from digging in too much.

Post before and after pics.

 

[aarolar]

In that case, I would use the box blade to skim off the middle hump (nice if it has scarifiers), then use the blade with tail wheel to smooth things out and make a bit of a crown.

I was going to mention using a disc to take out the middle hump if you had one, but a box blade will do nicely. You don't have to do it all in one pass, and you can adjust your top link to keep it from digging in too much.

Post before and after pics.

I have a harrow as well thought about turning the top link way in and just using the front gangs to work the dirt/gravel outwards. Seems it would work better than the box blade considering all the grass.

 

[joeu235]

If your doing it your self with compact equipment, spray round up on the vegetation two weeks ahead of time. Will make it much easier.