Grading with a subcompact to take out a slope

[ovrszd]

Friend of mine used fabric on a 1/4 mile of new driveway. Works great everywhere the drive drains properly. Not so great where it doesn't.

But then,,, where it drains properly it probably didn't need fabric.

 

[dakotagun]

I have a 2048L, and I use it all the time for driveway maintenance, road repair/maintenance, and smoothing bumps or moving dirt. use it as counterweight, with a few suitcase weights added, when doing fel work. used it for snow, too, until I added a rear blade last winter. now just need to add a QH so it is easier flipping between the two (or more) attachments. spent good money for the green painted thing, but it is durable and good quality.

 

[SpringHollow]

The only places where I had trouble with clay squishing up was where I did not have fabric. Putting fabric in those spots too cured the problem there as well.

Ken

 

[Tractor Seabee]

I do not believe fabric helps with clay or other squishy subgrade. When it gets wet all you do is push it down deeper into the subgrade. I have the best results by digging out a foot or so of the soft material and laying down compacted 4" minus rock. Put a layer of 1 1/2 minus with crusher fines over that and grade out. Maintenance will be to periodically add some fines to the top before grading.

Ron

 

[SpringHollow]

The fabric worked real well for me. Vehicles driving on the gravel were squishing up the clay to the surface. With fabric, it has been fine for 9 months. There is one spot I did not get to - the clay still comes up there. Removing the clay and putting down a base is best - I had the contractor do that but then I found out some got pushed back to build up some low sections.

Ken

 

[dmbtree82]

My wife's uncle who has been an equipment operator for 30 years came up to check it out. His thought was the ground is solid there so just stip off the top soil and skip the fabric. I'd say I'm about 1/3 to 1/2 way done. Hopefully another day or two and I'm ready to bring in the modified.

 

[john_bud]

I do not believe fabric helps with clay or other squishy subgrade. When it gets wet all you do is push it down deeper into the subgrade. I have the best results by digging out a foot or so of the soft material and laying down compacted 4" minus rock. Put a layer of 1 1/2 minus with crusher fines over that and grade out. Maintenance will be to periodically add some fines to the top before grading.

Ron

Ehhhhh ....
Fabric spreads the load out evenly so it won't squish. It is equal to 4" of well laid stone (more or less). It also keeps the stone from migrating down. But you still have to use enough stone on top to make the roadway act like a continuous unit and not individual rocks.

 

[ovrszd]

I've never saw fabric work in a location that I didn't think would have worked with the proper amount of base rock.