Grading a driveway

[bstnh1]

I have a MF GC2300 w/FEL and need something to keep a 400 ft hard packed crushed gravel driveway in shape. Any ideas on whether a ratchet rake would do the job? What about a Belon mini tooth bar?? Any suggestions?

 

[EGo_SmAsH]

I think a rear blade would do the job

 

[MtnViewRanch]

One of these for your tractor would be my choice.

Box blade
Rear blade
Landscape rake

 

[DMW]

I use a 48" box blade with scarifiers on a 300'+ driveway. A tooth bar won't do as good a job of removing potholes and spreading the gravel evenly. The box blade is also used as a counter-weight for FEL work, only coming off for the snowblower in winter. You might be disappointed with the tooth bar while back dragging with the loader for a smooth finish. I previously used an older, much larger tractor with a rear blade for the driveway, but the boxblade on the GC2300 gave me much better results, lasting longer before having to rework the driveway for potholes. I usually only have to touch it up a couple times a year. When using the rear blade, I was out after every big rain repairing the washouts.

 

[Rustywreck]

I've use my back blade pulling backwards from the way it was intended to be used to smooth out my driveway. I never have big issues with the driveway, just need to redistribute the gravel. Using the blade backwards move the gravel around enough to accomplish what I need.

 

[DennisArrow]

Just depends on how bad it is. I finally got a crown on mine using the back blade. To remove a bit of washboard and smoooooth it out good I use a 6' length of 8" I beam with chainlink wrapped around it. Just the I beam "cuts" to much so I put on the chainlink to smooth instead. A hole is cut in each end of the I beam to attach a chain and I drag my 1/4 mile of gravel with it angled so that any fines are distributed towards the center to maintain my crown.....Having been using this method for perhaps 10 years now and seems to work for me....Good luck........Dennis

 

[Nik]

Check out the DR power grader. Seems something like this would work well for you.

 

[Bumble Guy]

I have a MF GC2300 w/FEL and need something to keep a 400 ft hard packed crushed gravel driveway in shape. Any ideas on whether a ratchet rake would do the job? What about a Belon mini tooth bar?? Any suggestions?

Just a idea ,asphalt grindings spread out to grade and compacted ,makes a reasenable driveway and will hold up to rain washout,grindings can be had sometimes for free becouse when asphalt companys grind up road its cheaper to dump somewhere close than to haul back to plant

 

[anojones]

I've been trying with a boxblade with mixed results, I just purchased a grader scraper by Landpride (GS1560)- the original is a Duragrader (do a search on this forum for other threads). This scraper worked perfect, it's idiot proof and got rid of my washboard in two passes. They aren't exactly cheap but it works very well for a gravel drive.

 

[Thomas]

Might consider rear rake w/fold down blade..two for the price of one.

 

[GE222]

Bumble Guy, your suggestion is a good one.

I have a farm friend that put the road grind material put on his entry drive. Part was on a slope, and was continuously washing out during a heavy rain. After one summer, the road material was firmly packed down and it all but eliminated the washout problem.

It was firmly packed down every day with a quad axle milk truck.

I have found that running a rear blade on an angle is the easiest way to remove wash boarding. Although most of the time I prefer to use a box blade for general maintenance.

 

[Licklog]

I have a 900 foot steep driveway. I have six foot blade(reversed) that I initially used to smooth out any wash-boarding and generally keep the driveway in good shape. A few years ago I bought an five foot box blade in order to capture the gravel from the sides as I smooth and relocate it back into the middle. I use the box blade 90% of the time now when maintaining the drive.

If I need to move some snow off the drive I'll go back to the blade (reversed) and move the top layers of snow off to the side. My neighbor has a blade that allows him to offset, tilt and pitch it which gives him much better flexibility than just a straight blade.

One practice that has helped me keep my drive in the best shape is to NOT drive in the same places on the surface. The drive is from 8 to 10 feet wide and we use all of it so the entire surface is packed, no ruts.

We both worked on another neighbors steep drive last week that had completely washed out back to a sea of mud. That neighbor plans to get his driveway paved but not until it dries out in the spring. We spent all morning grading and smoothing the mud. Midday the gravel truck arrived with 3-4 size gravel but he could only make it up 80-90 feet before he became bogged down. He dumped the load on the road at the base of the drive and we spent all afternoon hauling up the drive with our FELS and smoothing with the box blade and straight blades. Lot of work but at least he can now get up and down his drive with his 4wd truck.


Licklog

 

[Bumble Guy]

Bumble Guy, your suggestion is a good one.

I have a farm friend that put the road grind material put on his entry drive. Part was on a slope, and was continuously washing out during a heavy rain. After one summer, the road material was firmly packed down and it all but eliminated the washout problem.

It was firmly packed down every day with a quad axle milk truck.

I have found that running a rear blade on an angle is the easiest way to remove wash boarding. Although most of the time I prefer to use a box blade for general maintenance.

Thank you GE222 ,the asphalt grindings also dont kick up all that dust like a stone driveway,I also see your from northern Illinois ,I reside in Belvidere have, small paving business.

 

[Mousefield]

I have both a 6 ft box blade and a 7 ft back blade for my CK35. The box blade does a much better job of grading the road (filling in the pot holes) than the back blade. Reason I occasionally use the back blade is to get rid of the wash board and move some edge material back onto the road area. I do about 3/4 mile of private road.

 

[Gordon Gould]

My road is 1 mile long and I have been maintaining it for 10 years with
a rear blade. I dont have a box blade and that is the reason for this question.
You guys seem to prefer using a box blade - why?
My road gets rutted up during mud season and I get a hump in the middle and a hump on each side.
I have to cut down the outside humps and move the material towards
the middle and cut down the middle hump, less to keep my crown, and move the material to both sides. With the rear blade angled it cuts and moves
the material in the desired direction.
How does your box blade move the material across the road? I just dont
understand?
I should probably borrow one and try it - before I started looking at TBN
I just thought a rear blade was the way to go.

gordy

 

[Mousefield]

Not sure of the "right" answer but having used both, the box blade is better. It fills in the potholes better and I get a cleaner, smoother finish. If I could only have one it would be the box blade. Perhaps because the box blade has a fair amount of material in it and the design and weight of the box blade packs the fill into the potholes better.
Hope someone else has a better way to explain it.

 

[zzvyb6]

If you raise the boxblade on one side higher than the other by an inch or so, it will comb material towards the raised side. You still get windrows, though. For that you need a landscape rake set at a small angle (20 degrees) to feather it out. Once its dug up, the rake is all I ever need after that. I have the crushed asphalt and its quiet, dust free, stays put and looks better than limestone. Don't ever have to dig it back out of the mud, either.

There are some videos on YouTube all about using a boxblade for this task. Note, the cleanup with the rake always looks best ("finished").

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Not a box blade, not a rear blade, nor a landscape rake remove wash boarding like the twin blades of the land plane grader blades. I have all of these types of blades. In my opinion, a good rear blade is the best implement to build a road using an AG-CUT utility type of tractor. A land plane grader type blade is the best to maintain a dirt-gravel type road. A box blade works great when material needs to be moved to alter the road in one way or another. A landscape rake works well to finish groom a road, it can be used to grade, but does not work as well as the other implements in my opinion.

I'm sure that others will disagree, and a different implement works best for them, this is just my opinion with what I have and the type and length of the roads that we have.

 

[DMW]

I agree with everybody's comments so far. Getting back to the OP, he has a Massey Ferguson GC2300 23hp subcompact and was asking for advice on the suitability of a tooth bar for maintaining his driveway. Using the FEL with a tooth bar seems to me as an unsuitable implement for such a task. The GC2300 is pretty light weight and no down force on the 3ph.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I have both a 6 ft box blade and a 7 ft back blade for my CK35. The box blade does a much better job of grading the road (filling in the pot holes) than the back blade. Reason I occasionally use the back blade is to get rid of the wash board and move some edge material back onto the road area. I do about 3/4 mile of private road.

Mousefield, with 3/4 of a mile of road to maintain, you would be amazed at how well and faster a land plane-grader blade would work for you. Your box blade works better for you because it is heavier than your rear blade.