Crowning Gravel Roads with BB

   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #1  

ededic

Gold Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
458
Location
Shelby, MI
Tractor
John Deere 2210, John Deere 6x4 Gator
Have been maintaining about 4 miles of roads in our association for about 10 years now. I do this with a 2005 John Deere 2210 and started with a York Rake. Loud and raked a lot of rocks. I needed the local contractor to come in two or three times a year to crown but washouts from storms would be terrible. Not a bad deal if you want more seat time but with many hills it can get old. About 3 years ago I rented a box blade. It was old and beat up but what a difference. Right after I got a new 60" HD Frontier BB iMatch compatible. Wow! I now have started to master the craft of crowning the roads by adjusting the lift on the right side. Using the front blade on each pass I am able to push material toward the center.


003 John Deere 2210 Crowning Roads.png
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #2  
That’s some nice work! That would be perfect for a land plane. Since getting a land plane the grader blade and box blade just sit. Can’t carry material like a box blade. Only moves what’s necessary and developments a durable surface that lasts a long time. Savings in gravel, time and maintenance has paid for it. 50” of rain per year, 1/2 mile driveway, 300’ elevation change.
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #3  
Great job there, ---- IF you stay on it and work a little at a time you can have a 70mph road!!
I was always lucky to have motorgraders but you can do just as good with box blades!
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB
  • Thread Starter
#4  
That’s some nice work! That would be perfect for a land plane. Since getting a land plane the grader blade and box blade just sit. Can’t carry material like a box blade. Only moves what’s necessary and developments a durable surface that lasts a long time. Savings in gravel, time and maintenance has paid for it. 50” of rain per year, 1/2 mile driveway, 300’ elevation change.
Thanks! I purposely use a Box Blade because of the hills. I need to pull the fines from the base to the top of the hill. Land Plane just may not do that, not having owned or used one I can only speculate based on the design and looking at both when purchasing the BB at the Deere dealer.
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #5  
In a majority of cases a grading blade that angles is useful in moving material up or down the blade as a pass is made...
...Not being able to angle a box blade is the one thing that keeps it form being "a perfect attachment"...
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #6  
In a majority of cases a grading blade that angles is useful in moving material up or down the blade as a pass is made...
...Not being able to angle a box blade is the one thing that keeps it form being "a perfect attachment"...
Exactly correct!
A box blade is a tool for moving material from place to place!
A grading blade, set at desired tilt and angle, is what is needed to shape and maintain a crown.
If land planes were so great, county road maintenance departments would use them.
The biggest advantage of land planes is that no operator skill is required for their use.
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #7  
In the pictures it looks like there is NO ditching along either side of that road so that makes the ROAD the ditch !!

I could never understand all you guys that use these land planes and the rippers on your boxblades to tear up a road that you've been trying to pack for years. When my driveway gets a low spot (or too high in the middle) I use my boxblade to either cut down the high spots and drag that material out to be packed in or buy a load of material and spread it out on the low spots to be packed in. It's taken me 15 years to get my driveway good and packed to stay where it is - I surely don't want to rip it up to do all over again every year or two. My driveway also has a good ditch on the uphill side that I started as a swale with my boxblade 15 years ago so I don't get washouts.
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #8  
Unless you are adding new material each time you groom the road there is a reason to scarify the topping...
...Over time every time it rains it washes fines away...depending on the material it is paramount to stir up fines from just below the surface...the fines once brought to the surface are what make a smooth packed down surface...
...without fines there will be nothing but loose gravel....
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #9  
Unless you are adding new material each time you groom the road there is a reason to scarify the topping...
...Over time every time it rains it washes fines away...depending on the material it is paramount to stir up fines from just below the surface...the fines once brought to the surface are what make a smooth packed down surface...
...without fines there will be nothing but loose gravel....
Yup!
 
   / Crowning Gravel Roads with BB #10  
I could never understand all you guys that use these land planes and the rippers on your boxblades to tear up a road that you've been trying to pack for years.

I tend to agree, but there are cases where the gravel has migrated down and the fines are all on top, or vice-versa, and people like to remix things. I don't know if there is merit in that. To me it suggests a problem with drainage or the road base sinking.

My crusher run driveway is 8 years old. About once a year I will fix any low spots with 1-2 shovel-fulls of material that I just drive over to pack down, then let traffic level it off. But that's it. I haven't used my box blade on the driveway in at least 6 years. It's packed so hard and tight I would not want to disturb it if possible.

At some point I may need to use an angled scraper to pull gravel towards the middle. It gets pushed to the edges when clearing snow. But we haven't had significant snow in 2-3 years now, and even before then I only cleared snow 1-2 times a year. At that pace, it has not become a problem yet. Plus I use a pipe on the edge of my snow blade which really helps minimize problems.
 
 
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