Gravel driveway groomer

[GaryE]

Herb,

I have built / used drags on my driveway, road and fields. Some of them seemed to do ok. But I have found, much to my surprise, my box blade seems to work the best. I was NOT a box blade believer, but I have to admit it is probably the best bang for the buck when is comes to leveling a roadway with a compact tractor.

Gary

 

[jcmseven]

Having used about every combination known, I think a heavy duty wheeled landscape rake is about the best gravel driveway groomer around. I used mine today and it makes my long steep driveway look like coarse pavement.

John M

 

[Farwell]

I have an old set of bed springs that will do pretty much the same thing and I paid $5 for them at a garage sale.
I made a similar groomer out of slotted angle and added old sickle bar mower teeth to the rear angle, this worked pretty good as well.
Farwell

 

[Slamfire]

The woman down at the front of my driveway, paid me $20 to remove the tongue from her trailer. Towed with the wide part forward it scoops the stray gravel from the edge of the road and the top of the crown and dumps it out in the wheel tracks. Once I got the grade right using my rear blade, the water runs off at convient places and the drive stays pretty hard. I haven't had to rake or drag this year.

 

[HEC]

I would like to thank everyone for all the helpful info , this site gives one many ideas for sure.
Thanks again,
Herb,

 

[gvhicks]

I ordered this Driveway Groomer Junior on 12 Dec 2010 and haven't seen it yet. They won't answer emails either. Anyone have a problem like this and how long did it take to get your groomer? The website says order and get in about 5 days.

 

[Industrial Toys]

First you need to educate and scold anyone that drives down the same tire tracks in your driveway. OR, worse, like an idiot, through potholes!

Gravel has become so expensive, or the trucking actually, that it is imperitive to keep the gravel on the driveway. I prefer limestone screenings myself. Many grooming methods loose too much material off to the sides. I recently welded a couple of railroad rails together in parallel with two inch heavy wall tubing, and this grades well, except for loosing material off to the sides.

My Harley Pro 8, works only so well for this, in that it leaves an annoying washboard, and I have no control over tilt. Having said that, I can't imagine using anything behind a truck where you can't see what's happening.

Some decade ago, I borrowed a spring tooth style grader blade, and I seem to recall that it worked rather well. It grades, is agressive but not overly so, has an accumulation of material to fill holes and also seems to allow just enough through for a nice finish. I may see about getting another. I think, the key is to get one with gauge wheels.

I was at a tractor pull a few years ago, and they were pulling a type of groomer that I have never seen before. I wish I had taken a picture, for they did not appear difficult to make. Some combination of straight and angled blades.

At the moment, I have a box blade that belongs to a friend. In the fall, I tried to grade the driveway, after receiving fresh gravel. Aside from my JD 6200 bending the lifting arms of the blade outward, I wasn't impressed with the results. When larger stones were ripped out of the ground, it would make a mess.

In general, I found that no matter what I used, or tried, it often looked good from the drivers seat, only to see the myriad of flaws later when walking the driveway.