Best Implement to Maintain/Groom Driveway

[Kendrick]

How long is your driveway?
If it isn't too long the DR Power Grader is really good. I just so happen to have one for sale too. My road is just too long for it. I bought a Road Boss and don't need the DR any longer.

I have a 1k drive with a nasty up turn half way through. I would be intrested to hear whether you have any hills on your road and if it caused you some trouble.

 

[EddieWalker]

I guess I disagree with everyone. Gravel driveways are usually thick enough to get the job done, but not much thicker. Most people don't want to spend allot of extra money on rock, so they buy what they need.

Scraping the gravel with any impliment will result in thinner rock. When the rock gets to thin, it fails. You might make it smoother for a little bit, but you will also cut down on it's life span considerably.

The best tool for maintaining a gravel driveway is the one that carries the rock to the low areas. Alyways build up the low areas. Never scrape off the good areas to try and make a bad one good again. It wont work and all you end up with is more bad areas. In a very short time, you will go from one bad area, to many. It's just keeps getting worse.

Eddie

 

[Licklog]

I agree with Keving, if only one implement, get a landscape rake. I find that gauge wheels help a lot with getting even results and setting the crown.
I also have a tilt blade that I use for the ditch line and for making water bars to channel water off the driveway.

I am interested in putting water bars across my drive and was wondering how you went about creating them with your blade. How deep and at what angle? How do they hold up to traffic and how often do you need to repair them? Do you have any pics of them, maybe before and after?

Thanks

 

[GaryE]

The best tool for maintaining a gravel driveway is the one that carries the rock to the low areas.

Eddie

A box blade?

Sorry, could not resist!

Gary

 

[zzvyb6]

No question that a landscape rake with guage wheels will reset gravel to "smoove" if set at an angle and some weight is added. I also rip the gravel up using my 3 pt rototiller. I run it with the door raised and the tractor running in reverseat a crawl. Sounds like a good thing to do tomorrow so maybe I can get you some before & after pix. The tiller "reclaims" the 21AA gravel and the rake sorts it out. The guage wheels and a chain on the upper link float the gravel. Otherwize the tractor will cause humps to form. If you have teenagers this is a good thing... I also throw water softener salt on the driveway for dust and weed control.

 

[Kendrick]

eddie I would be highly intrested in your opinion as well. I know there are about a billion dirt roads in tx. duno if the winters here will cause a difference in the reactions.

I never had been around when my grandma's dirt road was maintained so I have no idea.

ZZ i would be intrested in pics and info about it. and how long you have maintained the road/how often you have to re gravle?

 

[EddieWalker]

eddie I would be highly intrested in your opinion as well. I know there are about a billion dirt roads in tx. duno if the winters here will cause a difference in the reactions.

Kendrick,

The original post was about a gravel driveway. Dirt is a whole different story. It really depends on the type of dirt and the amount of moisture, but the basic rule is still the same for all roads. Get the water off the road and away from it as fast as possible. That means crowning it and having drainage ditches on both sides to move that water away. This basic rule is the same in all roads. The only variation is how much crown and how deep to make the ditches.

Eddie

 

[SFish]

Licklog:

If you are interested water bars I suggest, instead, that you Google "rolling dips" to find the most recent information about good road building practices. A rolling dip is a way to get water across a road and to avoiding having to use ditches wherever possible. The search term should also get you into a lot more information that greatly reduces road maintenance.

Steve

 

[Kendrick]

my appoligys for using dirt/gravel interchaibly. we are getting a gravel road.

in My other post

The part lined in red is what we expect to own. the road in the middle leading to the house is what i am woried about. the dip is nearly 1 story from the shared gravel road to the maple house which is partially marked over. from there it gradually builds height back up to where we will be living. I suspect the length of the shared road will become our problem as well. Any thoughts would be wonderfull.

 

[Woody_NH]

I am interested in putting water bars across my drive and was wondering how you went about creating them with your blade. How deep and at what angle? How do they hold up to traffic and how often do you need to repair them? Do you have any pics of them, maybe before and after?

Thanks

I have a good crown on my driveway; see driveway A photo, so the water flows to the sides. On the right side the sheet flow goes right into a ditch and then off to the side.
On the left side the ground is flat and then drops off well to the side. About every 50 feet I cut a channel with a small berm on the down side to divert water off to the side. See photo driveway B. For lack of a better term I call it a water bar. They are angled 30 to 45 degrees to the driveway. They extend into the driveway only far enough to catch the water flow along the side.
I cut them by backing uphill to the side of the driveway with the blade angled, drop the blade and go forward a foot or two, then lift the blade. Later I pack the small berm down with the bucket.
I have to clean-up these cuts once or twice a year.
Photo driveway C is my lower driveway after a very heavy rain and with no side channels to divert the water. I have since re-engineered the drainage on that section.