Gravel drive repair

[7snakes]

Love my boxblade too and am just now reworking the drive after 17 years have passed since the last stone was put down. Granted, it has not been driven on everyday of those years, but we think we sure got our money's worth. I think trying to keep ditches open on both sides of the drive has helped tremendously.

 

[Recoveryhill]

I keep up with over a mile of mountain dirt road. The flat spots have enough stability in the clay and rotten rock that all it needs is to hit it with a york rake, a couple of times a year.

On the steep sections, I spread gravel with the rake, go back and hand place powdered cement, here and there and rake it in with the york. I let nature provide the moisture and pack it in with my vehicle, as I come and go.

After five or six layers applied this way, I have a stable hard and smooth road, even on the steepest of hills. No washboard, no pot holes, no nada.

Manage the water on a dirt road and the dirt will take care if itself. (pretty much) Frost heave is another issue altogether and one I thankfully don't encounter.

There is nothing worse than broken concrete, or concrete patching of bad spots, on a dirt or degrading asphalt road.

 

[DKCDKC]

The use of ground asphalt is a real option around here in some circumstances. The local towns, budget strapped as usual, even use it sometimes to pave streets. They spread it in the spring, roll it a lot, then let the hot summer sun melt it into place. They may spray some sealer on it. Makes a good pavement for 5 years or so, even with moderate traffic.

I have debated using in on my tough spots, but not sure how it would do on hills, and the flat areas do fine without it. I have one neighbor who has used it on a hill and it makes good pavement, but he now has more problems when it ices up.

I may try it anyway. It is cheaper than regular stone around here.

 

[radair]

...Manage the water on a dirt road and the dirt will take care if itself....

I've been involved with building and maintaining mountain bike trails for many years. It has been often said that water will win any battle with a trail (or road). The trick is to never let it play the game.

Now all I need to do is get it out of my fine soil!

 

[MacLawn]

I like the looks of that leveler in everythingattachments.com video. Anybody here ever used one of those?

Whoever said about putting down #57 gravel, the cover with crusher run I think is right. At least that worked for me on my drive in GA - the 150' part on my land to my house, that is. I still have about 500' that is used by my neighbor and me. He had large rock, maybe bigger than #57, put down many years ago, and it works good on the slopping drive, but it is a little rough. Our next step is to put down some crusher run. And, right, crown and ditches on sides, got to have that. Reminds me, this week, I have to do a little scraping on that drive and clean the ditches...

And, I have learned here - old (really young) Eddie and many others here give good advice!

 

[SPYDERLK]

Whoever said about putting down #57 gravel, the cover with crusher run I think is right. At least that worked for me on my drive in GA - the 150' part on my land to my house, that is.

And, I have learned here - old (really young) Eddie and many others here give good advice!

Its easy to lose track of critical variables in a thread. Anecdotes are local and therefore their indications can often be specific to those circumstances. The most critical factor for a drive is base and grade/no possibility for standing surface water - a puddle. Second is frost incidence, and depth of. -- Base is established with large enuf gravel for the soil, wetness, and traffic conditions. [Heavy trucks will mobilize a base when wet- your tractor and cars are surface effect only.] The base is interlocked rocks consolidated with fines. On top of the base you put a surface; finer gravel or crusher run. Crusher run has ample fines and packs to a good surface. Gravel has few fines but makes them as traffic grinds it. The problem with CR is it holds a little water in the interstices of the fines and will emulsify with a frost heave and become really ugly if it also rains along with frequent traffic during a thaw. You now have a saturated paste on top of your base. Its not going to re pack til Spring. A gravel truck brought in now will fill the ruts it makes with gravel. Not optimum - best to wait til the surface is stable if you can stand the current condition. In frost areas gravel serves several functions; *] it spreads tire load some, *] it doesnt hold water, *] it insulates the consolidated surface beneath it limiting frost penetration, *] it sinks into that surface slightly during a thaw, interlocking and continuing to spread force, etc. Iv found crusher run to be a bad deal for a drive that experiences both frost and traffic - this comes very close to excluding short driveways on the "traffic" issue. Not only do you not get much volume with crusher run, but fines are excessive and range to too small. On a drive that is driven on, its best to incidently make you own fines. With a light gravel topcoat the worn in surface below is well set for winter just so you drive all over it to avoid making any ruts. Intelligent traffic is a great tool. Makes some of the other ones last longer. Even tho most traffic on our moderately "busy" 1mi drive is not intelligent the gravel only has to be scraped back into developing classic wheeltrack shallow depressions about 3 times a yr.
larry

 

[MacLawn]

Wow, thanks, Larry! So, in my case, you think I should use maybe just a smaller gravel on top of the large stuff instead of crusher run? The shared driveway is holding up quite well, but the rocks are really big and make for a rough ride on it. It is one long sloping drive with a very small curve. We do have ditches on each side and I try to keep them cleaned out. Water usually runs in them without getting on the main drive.