driveway

[GPintheMitten]

Finer particles. Rather than just homogeneous size. So a mixture of size like 3/4 ", 1/2", 1/4", 1/8" etc down to dust.

 

[darrenjttu]

Yes I have a good mixture

 

[MarkE]

I second that vote for a land plane! Mine is the best attachment I've ever bought. It makes quick work of my 1.5 miles of driveway and my neighbors additional 1 mile. This summer I put down 240 tons of roadbase with it.

 

[jk96]

In maintaining our 1 mile drive I've found that loose gravel will washboard, especially on grades. I use a landscape rake once it washboards to smooth out. Usually only takes one pass. The washboards will lesson as the gravel compacts.

 

[PILOON]

What we found:
Automatic transmissions are killers for grades as they tend to shift always at the same place and every shift kicks up or digs a wee bit. That when repeated creates that first bump which multiplies and then comes washboard.
One trick is to lock the tranny in a lower gear and drive gently up the hill with no shifts. Try it.
The other thing is not to drive very fast as the suspension bounces and the 'bounce/skips' start that washboard effect.
In fact attack a hill a bit on the faster side and gently back off on the gas as you climb and you will greatly diminish the washboards.
\
The big problem is that everybody wants to get there before he leaves and then most folks tend to step on the gas when they see a hill,
Do the opposite, back off the peddle and the car will coast up on its own and NO BUMPS!.
Practice and time it so that the car crests the hill with your foot off of the peddle and you will no longer have washboard.

 

[Egon]

Does your gravel consist of fractured rock and range in size from large to small pieces?

 

[Egon]

Yes I have a good mixture

Okay. When scarifieing go as deep as you can and make multiple passes. Then try an mix the loose material well before levelling.

 

[darrenjttu]

Its a normal gravel road. No pea gravel so I guess its fractured rock. Yesterday I went as deep as I could go with the scarfiers and it was really clumpy from the moisture. I kept going over it raising up the rippers every time to break up the clumps. By the end every thing was broken up and smoothed out. I am going really slow on the road while it is not compacted.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

As much as you do not want to spend the money, get yourself a land plane grading scraper (LPGS). You will find that it will cut your road maintenance time by half at the minimum if not more. And because of that, your road will never be bad again, at least not for very long. All of these washboard issues are typically taken care of in a single pass. When the road is nice and takes a small amount of time it keep it that way, you do and therefore is always nice.

Trust us, everyone of us that have LPGSers would not trade it off for anything. :no: Heck, some of us have more than one just for different applications. :thumbsup: