Driveway Marker

[truckdiagnostics]

Don't know what everyone else is using but this is what I found works best for me.

It is 1/2 inch rebar 5' long, buy it in 20' lengths, it is in the ground about a foot. On top is clear soda bottle with reflective tape around the out side. I like the rebar, because you can hit it, it bends over then you can just bend it back. Also, when it goes into the ground if you hit something it is not a big deal.
Well after fifteen years of pounding them in final got smart.

Around here the soil is clay with rocks, sliding the rebar in the tube keeps it from bending and controls the depth. Only issue is need someone needs to load the rebar. sure is better than pounding them in.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I know where my driveway is. I haven't forgotten where it is in over 20 years. I don't need markers. I have it's location memorized.

 

[Will_C]

I know where my driveway is also, but they have a way of moving when it is 15 degrees, 5:00 am and you are plowing 2' of blowing snow!

Will

 

[kevinwak]

Don't know what everyone else is using but this is what I found works best for me. <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/snow-removal/445935-driveway-marker-imag0227-jpg"/> It is 1/2 inch rebar 5' long, buy it in 20' lengths, it is in the ground about a foot. On top is clear soda bottle with reflective tape around the out side. I like the rebar, because you can hit it, it bends over then you can just bend it back. Also, when it goes into the ground if you hit something it is not a big deal. Well after fifteen years of pounding them in final got smart. <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/snow-removal/445936-driveway-marker-imag0518-jpg"/> Around here the soil is clay with rocks, sliding the rebar in the tube keeps it from bending and controls the depth. Only issue is need someone needs to load the rebar. sure is better than pounding them in.

the rebar is a great idea. I have probably spent near $80 on reflective markers from the hardware store, and I only expect to get a year or two of life out of them. I think I will built some for life out of rebar! Another way to drive into hard and or frozen ground that I see surveyors do around here is to drill a hole. Get a long auger bit of a diameter just smaller then the rebar and drill a hole and then tap the rebar in.

 

[Rustyferrious]

I use the 5/16" fiberglass rods from Lowes. $2.00 each, last forever. I pound them in with a length of 1/2 iron pipe with a cap on the end. place point of rod on ground, slide pipe over the top. 4 whacks, done. 20 rods took less than 15 minutes today. easy peasy. Your re-bar system is very heavy duty, but kinda looks like something the gov would do to make a simple job complicated and expensive. IMHO.

I also know where my driveway is too, but the wife????????? eh, I wonder.

 

[3930dave]

My driveways are well defined by big hedges. I added strips of hi-viz tape to the gate posts on the main one a number of years back...... a friend of mine was showing up here around 1:00am after pulling a 20' trailer across the continent, so it seemed a prudent addition....

Weather/visibility can be hard to control..... same for who is using the driveway, esp. w/o a gate. Deep ditches around here, and I've seen plenty of "just turning around" vehicles end up in them.

I wasn't home at the time, but years ago a furniture delivery truck driver managed to lay the truck down on its' side in the ditch in front of a house I owned in Eastern Ontario. Nobody hurt, and it was the biggest excitement on the street in some time.

With good visibility, level ground and no ditches you may not really need markers, but for many of us it is a help esp. when city folk happen by....

Typing this.... reminds me of my uncle talking about having to get the tractor out years ago, when a couple of young women tried to turn their car around in the middle of his farm lane. He had to pull them out of his ditch on the side of the lane..... nobody born in the countryside would have attempted to make that U turn.

Rgds, D.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I use the store bought ones. Had them for 5 or 6 years and they are as good as new. Ed

 

[johnems]

I have fond this site and their products are top notch and chapter then what I can get locally.

https://discountsnowstakes.com/

Thanks John

 

[skyhook]

I do about the same as the rebar except I put about a foot of old rubber hose painted orange instead of the bottle.

 

[coobie]

I know where my driveway is. I haven't forgotten where it is in over 20 years. I don't need markers. I have it's location memorized.

With my old eyes and snow & wind blowing 40 mph its hard for me to find the edges of my driveway while plowing snow at night.OP good idea on the rebar.

 

[Al 2]

I just use 2x2's ripped from a 2x4 or whatever. Like others have said not always easy to know where the drive way is in a whiteout and also not all visitors know where it is under new snow. Unfortunately I usually wait fro the ground to freeze before I install them. My reason for using wood stakes is that they don't mark a vehicle as bad when I run into them and they go thru the snowblower easier.
Al

 

[jcummins]

Something to mow around or hit with the mower. Don't want them.

 

[GLyford]

The wife put a flowerbed along one edge of the drive, so I put up the row of fiberglass reflectors. Also, since the house is at an odd angle to the street and the drive isn't exactly square to either, it helps for guests and delivery people. As it is, I still have to straighten up or replace about a half dozen of the markers a winter...oddly, most often when there is no snow, but the ground is still very frozen.

I haven't had the town push back the snowbanks on the corner and move my cable and phone pillars with them since I started marking them, too.

I also have markers at the storm drains, because the drains function a lot better when dug out, which the town never bothers to do. Otherwise, the intersection at the corner turns into a rink, and the ice backs up to the foot of my driveway. Clean off the drains, and the whole issue goes away.

 

[herringchoker]

Don't know what everyone else is using but this is what I found works best for me.
View attachment 445935
It is 1/2 inch rebar 5' long, buy it in 20' lengths, it is in the ground about a foot. On top is clear soda bottle with reflective tape around the out side. I like the rebar, because you can hit it, it bends over then you can just bend it back. Also, when it goes into the ground if you hit something it is not a big deal.
Well after fifteen years of pounding them in final got smart.
View attachment 445936
Around here the soil is clay with rocks, sliding the rebar in the tube keeps it from bending and controls the depth. Only issue is need someone needs to load the rebar. sure is better than pounding them in.

"
Great idea with the bottles. I already use 1/2" rebar.....I'll be using the bottles too this year. Which reminds me - almost time to put them out again.
Thanks for posting.

 

[Pillager]

I know where my driveway is. I haven't forgotten where it is in over 20 years. I don't need markers. I have it's location memorized.

I had the exact same mindset as you for 20+ years, then I put up markers for the first time and realized how much easier it was, especially in the dark which is when I move most of my snow, won't go a season without them now.

I use the fiberglass posts with the reflective tape, work well for my situation and if you hit one with the blower or tractor tire only the post gets damaged, not the equipment.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I'm retired, my wife is retired. There's no one that lives here that has to get out in snowy mornings or any one that has to get here, so I plow out when it's convenient for me. Even when i was working, if it was snowy, I plowed out in the morning when I got up and then went to work whenever I got done....lucky I guess.

I don't have to do it during a storm or at night, although I kinda like moving snow at night under the lights, but even then I have plenty of lights to find the memorized spots that contain the driveway.

For nearly 50 years of married life I've always managed without markers, can't imagine needing them.

 

[PILOON]

I also went the rebar route.
I find that slipping some PVC pipe over the rebar helps visibility and best still is blue 1" PVC piping that I had left over from a well installation.

Light blue is a color that really stands out day or night as it contrasts well but light enough for night as well.

 

[nybirdman]

Put a couple in this year,just the plastic ones.The other side has a hedge.We didn't do for ourselves just the old farts that visit and can't back up........funny were the same age.

 

[Pixguy]

I use the orange reflective fiberglass ones but set them back a foot in the grass. I stay a foot away with no issues. I even have a few so old the orange has faded.

 

[Rustyferrious]

Last winter, after a series of storms, the town decided to clear the intersection where our private road intersects two town roads. They showed up without notice and a big JD front loader then started lifting and pushing the snow mounds back from the road. Only problem was that the main underground electrical connection box for the entire neighborhood resided at that corner. Well, the JD found it and ripped the white fiberglass cover right off its foundation. The 440V wires came up with it. The operator was EXTREMELY lucky he didn't get fried to a crisp. Power was out in our neighborhood for two days in below freezing temperatures. Markers can come in handy.