Grading Grading bare limestone

[voyager3]

Hello. Is boxblade the right implement to fix deep ruts, potholes and erosion on a trail that is pretty much bare limestone? I have 'inherited' a JD5400 in more or less running condition and a box blade.
Unfortunately, I do a very different thing for a living but I'm willing to learn

. All I know is that mini-excavators have no trouble digging through it.

 

[gengine]

The bigger rocks will be troublesome, but I don't see any issues. The stone looks pretty fractured, so it may go really well.

 

[nyone]

The longevity of any road will be greatly Iincrease the faster you can get water off it.

 

[chim]

Welcome aboard. I can't tell much from the photos. When I was a kid, I spent time working in a local quarry. Limestone in my area is dealt with by calling in wagon drills and blasting. I have read accounts from people digging through limestone, but that doesn't happen here.

 

[voyager3]

The longevity of any road will be greatly Iincrease the faster you can get water off it.

True. Unfortunately, this is the path that water takes in heavy rains. I'm not sure what kind of drainage is right for this since it's not a driveway, just a trail/occasionally used road through the property that I want to keep passable but it's not worth investing heavily.

 

[Engineer42]

Hello. Is boxblade the right implement to fix deep ruts, potholes and erosion on a trail that is pretty much bare limestone? I have 'inherited' a JD5400 in more or less running condition and a box blade.
Unfortunately, I do a very different thing for a living but I'm willing to learnView attachment 3810861View attachment 3810862. All I know is that mini-excavators have no trouble digging through it.

Take your time, make several passes and see what you end up with. It will probably make it more passable, and you'll get better with it as you go.

 

[paulsharvey]

Without something for scale, I'm assuming your limestone is similar to our limerock; a mix of grades from maybe fist sized, down to powder. If so, yes, a box blade will work. As someone above pointed out, dealing with the water flowing down the slope is needed, but a box blade can and is often used for regrading limerock

 

[sandman2234]

I used a boxblade to level and grade the roadway going down past my house. I finally built a 3pt landplane to make the job easier.
A box blade will require a little bit of a learning curve, but if you have time, it will make sense as you work with it. It will take several passes to become flat and smooth.
David from jax

 

[voyager3]

The longevity of any road will be greatly Iincrease the faster you can get water off it.

True. Unfortunately, this is the path that water takes in heavy rains. I'm not sure what kind of drainage is right for this since it's not a driveway, just a trail/occasionally used road through the property that I want to keep passable but it's not worth investing heavily

 

[voyager3]

A couple more pics. Unfortunately, can't find an angle where the overall layout and the deepest ruts are visible together.

 

[dougtrr2]

I don't have a solution but I think you are going to have an ongoing battle. I have several forest trails that are dirt based. I would get erosion. I used my box blade to drag the dirt back up the hill and fill the ruts, packing it with several trips with my BX24. But the dirt in the ruts didn't "bond" with the other dirt and the ruts would be the first place to wash out again. After many years and numerous application of power line chipping I pretty much have it under control.

I think you may have problems with the fill washing out of your limestone ruts.

Doug in SW IA

 

[bdhsfz6]

A couple more pics. Unfortunately, can't find an angle where the overall layout and the deepest ruts are visible together.

Almost looks like a dry stream bed. Unfortunately, the more you loosen and break up what's there, the more it's going to wash out.
Can you dig a drainage swale and divert the water?

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

You may not be able to stop the "river" during heavy rains, but you can slow it down. Like mentioned about divert with small channels all along the trail. Then the volume of water will decrease as will the speed it runs out.

 

[voyager3]

You may not be able to stop the "river" during heavy rains, but you can slow it down. Like mentioned about divert with small channels all along the trail. Then the volume of water will decrease as will the speed it runs out.

I don't think it ever fills with water. Not sure how long it took the trail to erode like this, but yes, I guess diverting the water would be nice. For what I want to do with the property, I wish I'd inherited a mini-excavator instead of this monster tractor. I do have a plough though. Trouble is, I don't have a straight shot into the natural direction for the diverts because of the cross-fence. Thanks for all the good advice in this topic.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Not sure where you are but you can probably rent one for a weekend and get that and other tasks done.

 

[voyager3]

Another dumb question that I have is what the correct sequence to get going with manual transmission, no hydrostat and box blade? Should Iower the blade first and clutch out as normal or should I lift the blade and get going before lowering the blade with clutch fully out?

 

[2manyrocks]

My answer would be get going and lower ...but may not matter that much so long as you aren't loading up the box before the clutch is fully engaged.

If you could find a cheap dirt blade that can be angled, you could use it to create angled water bars even while driving with the direction of the roadbed.

 

[paulsharvey]

When I had my old manual one, I generally would get moving and lower; however, with a box blade, even down, you generally take a couple feet to "bite" in, so you really aren't generally fighting the box blade as you get moving. Now, all that is based on mine, without scarifier teeth, so that might change things

 

[RayIN]

That is called shale here, it's actually not limestone, it's between hard blue clay and limestone. It will continue to scarf away when it gets wet and freezes in winter.
IMO the only thing you can do is reroute the trail; otherwise you'll be fighting the natural waterway forever.
Keep in mind water is the most powerful force in nature; it cannot be stopped, only dealt with and re-routed. If water could be stopped, dams wouldn't need spillways.

 

[voyager3]

That is called shale here, it's actually not limestone, it's between hard blue clay and limestone. It will continue to scarf away when it gets wet and freezes in winter.
IMO the only thing you can do is reroute the trail; otherwise you'll be fighting the natural waterway forever.
Keep in mind water is the most powerful force in nature; it cannot be stopped, only dealt with and re-routed. If water could be stopped, dams wouldn't need spillways.

Thanks! Could be, I'm not a geologist . I thought shale was the moon dust-like stuff like what I saw on the dry lake beds while in Nevada. I'll look it up.