Clearing mud from gravel 'road'

[guyd]

Hi - been a bit of a lurker - so hope you don't mind the question.

I have a YM1510 yanmar 18?Hp compact tractor in the UK, with three speed 540 style PTO, and three point, with crude control (up, down, fixed).

I have a pathway / road which links the house to the fields, which we made up from stone chippings (known locally as 3/4 to dust - the name is failry self explanatory).

When exiting the fields, large lumps of mud (heavy loam) are trapped in the tyres (sorry - tires ) and this is dumped on the gravel / packed stone road.

If it were concrete, I would use a plain old yard scraper (which I don't own - yet). If it were a broken up stone road - I would use a box blade.

What would help 'clear' this path? The wife is in a wheelchair and surface hardness and smoothness is critical (she uses the road to feed the pigs etc)

 

[dangerdoc]

I've never tried to get mud off gravel, seems like a difficult thing to do. I maintain a half a mile of gravel. In my experience, if you keep driving over it, the mud just turns into the fines portion of the gravel mix.

It should pack into and mix with the stone. I top dress with washed stone so maybe it makes the extra mud less of a problem.

 

[MarkV]

I know you have some damp weather over there so I suspect this a problem for more than a short part of the year. With your wife's needs and an ongoing problem I think you need to add more stone chippings, we would call 3/4 to dust 'crusher run' or road base. With enough base and compaction it will become very solid. At that point a blade, box blade or landscape rake would be able to provide a clean smooth surface for your wife's needs.

MarkV

 

[beenthere]

Does it stay mud, or does it occasionaly dry out? If it dries out, then back blading it to spread the dirt/dust.

If it doesn't dry out, seems backblading it with blade angled would squeegie the mud to the side. But wouldn't get rid of it.

Is your wife feeding the pigs from the wheelchair?

Now, any possibility of cleaning the tires (tyres ) before using the lane? Or driving along one side so there remains a wheelchair path without mud?

 

[Matt_Jr]

I don't know what your dealing with, but you'll probably have to find a way to raise the area enough so that water flows away from it, and laying down some fresh gravel there and pack it down. If water flows through that area, and settles there when the rain stops, you'll have to put in a culvert.

 

[Grandad4]

It would no doubt be a hinderance for you to stop and remove the worst of the mud from your tires each time you leave the field, but that might be your best alternative since you must otherwise go back and clean it up from the road.

That said, you might want to investigate a landscape rake (Example: Appin-Woods Machinery Ltd - Equipment - Equipment Price Guide) for catching clumps of mud, rocks and various debris on your road. It does a nice job of scraping the surface of a dirt or gravel road without actually breaking up the packed base.

 

[jenkinsph]

Hi - been a bit of a lurker - so hope you don't mind the question.

I have a YM1510 yanmar 18?Hp compact tractor in the UK, with three speed 540 style PTO, and three point, with crude control (up, down, fixed).

I have a pathway / road which links the house to the fields, which we made up from stone chippings (known locally as 3/4 to dust - the name is failry self explanatory).

When exiting the fields, large lumps of mud (heavy loam) are trapped in the tyres (sorry - tires ) and this is dumped on the gravel / packed stone road.

If it were concrete, I would use a plain old yard scraper (which I don't own - yet). If it were a broken up stone road - I would use a box blade.

What would help 'clear' this path? The wife is in a wheelchair and surface hardness and smoothness is critical (she uses the road to feed the pigs etc)

I have been dealing with this all winter around my house in town. I have gravel drives and several areas around the house that are ready for planting grass in a few weeks. In my case I keep the equipment off the fresh gravel that was put out in early December. In your case the best way is to build up an approach from each field to stop the tractors on and clean the tires. It may be time consuming but takes less time than fixing the road problem.

 

[guyd]

Thank you for the input.

Yes - the crazy girl feeds the animals from her wheelchair - why not? She's a tough little cookie (biscuit? ) We only have two pigs and three Dexter cows.... (3 cats, 1 dog, 12 chickens, two polytunnels.....)

The road is raised from the surrounding grass. Its not that much wider than the tractor, and either side is lawn - and very very soft at the moment. Its also cambered, with soft edges, so I dont fancy driving along the edge.

The mud is fist size clumps that fall off the industrial tyre pattern (skid steer type - like a blocky open centre type). At the moment - the entrance to the field has turned to bog - I have to use the FEL to drag myself through it (if I have to go anywhere near it). Plus all the mud that falls off the mudguards (fenders? ) and the chassis.

At the moment - its pemenantly wet - and will stay that way for a couple more months.

Thanks again.

I'll look at a landrake. I wondered if a chain harrow would work?

 

[jimgerken]

Buy your poor wife a darn ATV dude.

 

[greg_g]

I lived up a 1/2 mile track in Caithness for several years, so I know exactly where you're coming from. I now own an indexing landscape rake (land rake) and a chain harrow, but use the harrow to tidy up after the actual work has been performed by the rake. Wish I had them in Scotland. In addition to breaking up the dirt clods (and/or manure), the rake ( http://www.trwengineering.co.uk/machinery.htm ) can pull the outboard gravel back into the tracks AND redistribute that which has been pushed between. And believe it or not, a three point hitch landscape rake can do a reasonable job of clearing snow as well.

//greg//