Grading Fixing washboard with 6 way blade

[Taters525]

Anyone had success removing washboard with a 6 way blade. So besides everyone telling me to get a land plane scraper. I help maintain a gravel road with a Short steep hill that develops washboard quite often. I have a box scraper but when I pull it straight it tends to follow the up and down if the bumps. I've started doing a zig zag pattern and that seems to help but not the easiest. My thoughts were to put the 6 way blade at about 45 degree angle to the road that way it can't follow the bumps. Any thoughts

 

[Ford850]

That's how I use my blade. I angle it and use my lowest gear to barely crawl along at an idle. I do have wings on my blade now so that helps pull large amounts without spilling out the sides. But a slow pace with an angled blade makes a huge difference. Most times now I get the blade set to barely skim some material so the blade builds up material and holds some, and then drive and let it do it's thing without much adjustment.

 

[/pine]

The key to removing washboards is ANGLE...with scrape blade or rake etc...will work better if you use scarifiers first and break up the stratum...

...If you just cut the ridges and fill in the troughs the washboards will recur quickly...not much different than just filling in pot holes

 

[dlctcg]

Taters525 - Do you already have a 6-way blade to use? If so I would use that over the box scraper & like Ford850 said going slow will help dramatically...

 

[TractorGuy]

The last time I fixed the washboard on ours I made a series of short diagonal pulls with my landscape rake followed by a few straight passes. For some reason after a couple of times doing this the washboard hasn't come back or at least not bad enough I needed to fix it. In fact I haven't had to do ANY repairs in a year on the flat areas.

If i ever have to do it again I plan to attack it with the rake set at an angle. Both my landscape rake and grader blades have excess play in the pivot so I have the angle locator bolted down solid with a 3/4" grade 8 bolt. It makes them more solid but harder to change the angle on.

 

[Rebeldad1]

Washboards are common where the gravel or crushed rock doesnt have any/enough organics or binder mixed in.
After its "fixed" maybe top coat with some dirt, sand small gravel etc. There are plenty of posts on ways to do this.

 

[Taters525]

Thanks for help. I just bought a scraper but haven't used it yet. At least not this one. Definitely going with it next time I have to fix the road

 

[LouNY]

Your 6 way blade at an angle (the more the better) will do a good job on washboards,
as a final pass(s) I swing mine all the way around and keeping it angled pull it backwards to finish dressing the driveways.

 

[PILOON]

I've re worked many a hilly gravel drive.
Like a 3 bladed angled drag the best but also been successful simply using my back blade at an angle.

The drag is faster overall compared to many passes with a BB.

On hills actually driving techniques is the answer.
Speeding up B4 climbing on hills while gentling backing off is best technique.
That or manually shift to lower setting and stay with that.
Most drivers tend to accelerate 1/2 way and then the auto tranny shifts which starts a bump that increases at every new vehicle passage.