Driveway gravel

[Beaver Cove Deere]

Always used a Echo Power Broom (rubber paddle) for clean up as have 99% of the people (or their landscapers) around here use.
Very fast. No hard work. I have the broom, saw blade, string trimmer and hedge pruner. I really should sell the pruner and get the little roto tiller. All runs off one powerhead.

 

[nyone]

I too had to do major raking in the spring after I plowed all winter. Then i started not plowing anything less than 3-4in and let the driveway become packed snow/ice. I'm on year 3 of this and only had to kick a few rocks back into the driveway.

Stop plowing down to the road surface.

 

[deezler]

I too had to do major raking in the spring after I plowed all winter. Then i started not plowing anything less than 3-4in and let the driveway become packed snow/ice. I'm on year 3 of this and only had to kick a few rocks back into the driveway.

Stop plowing down to the road surface.

Easy to say. And works fine for me and my wife with snow tires on our vehicles. But then we get granny dropping the kids off, or an 18-year old driving for amazon, and they have no idea how to confidently carry speed up the hill on a very icy driveway.

If I plow down to gravel, then some rocks pop out for traction, and it all melts off quick in the first thaw. This year I left a lot of snow on the driveway, and kept my gravel pretty intact. But my reward was a stuck amazon van in February, and visitors afraid to drive down to the house. Sections of my drive turned into 2-3" of glare ice, and it took a few weeks to finally melt off.

Asphalt would be nice. What does a 3" lay of 10x1000 feet cost? 30 grand? oof.

 

[gstrom99]

Latest (last?) update:

Using the shop vac worked okay, but slow. I bought a Stihl Yard Boss, and the paddle (and wheel) attachments. My local JD Dealer is also a Stihl dealer and had it IN STOCK, to my amazement... Not cheap ($740 total), but it does a much better job than I thought it would. Also it did not tear up the (still pretty wet) grass. I ran it "backwards", pulling the stones towards the user, like many uTubers said to try. Pulling it toward me was much easier than pushing it away, plus you could "drive" it back forward (with light throttle) for the next pass. One more power tool added.

Happy guy here.

 

[shooterdon]

Latest (last?) update:

Using the shop vac worked okay, but slow. I bought a Stihl Yard Boss, and the paddle (and wheel) attachments. My local JD Dealer is also a Stihl dealer and had it IN STOCK, to my amazement... Not cheap ($740 total), but it does a much better job than I thought it would. Also it did not tear up the (still pretty wet) grass. I ran it "backwards", pulling the stones towards the user, like many uTubers said to try. Pulling it toward me was much easier that pushing it away, plus you could "drive" it back forward (with light throttle) for the next pass. One more power tool added.

Happy guy here.

Having the fight tool is great if you can justify it.