joshuabardwell
Elite Member
I asked about the length because the shorter it is, the more potentially cost-effective to throw gravel at it or something like that. Gravel is estimated at about $1.50 per square foot installed (per the Internet--local prices will vary). 1/4 mile by 12' wide is 15,840 square feet, so that's $23,760 to get gravel put in.
From the photos, it looks like the drive is plain dirt--no gravel. I have one dirt drive on my property that I keep graded and conditioned with a box blade, but it doesn't see much traffic--just my tractor up and down to the hill on the back of my property. Even with that much traffic, its condition degrades very quickly due to tire tracks and washouts, especially if I drive on it when it's wet. An exacerbating factor is that, when I grade it with the box blade, it sort of "fluffs up" the top layer of soil, and then it is easier for tires to make ruts or rain to make gullies. If I had a large roller, I might be able to compact it, but for the length of road I've got, it's not worth it.
I don't have a ton of experience with dirt drives, but it seems to me that if you are going to use that as your primary drive, you are eventually going to want to put in more of a permanent surface, like gravel or even concrete or asphalt (if you have the money). I see gullies in the photo, and with time, they are only going to get worse. With a tractor and the right implement(s), maintenance of a gravel drive is relatively easy. For your length of drive, a land plane would probably be a good choice, but you could definitely get by with a grader blade, a box blade, or maybe even a landscape rake. Everybody has different preferences and different tools get the job done different ways. You put a few hundred dollars of extra gravel down every few years just to replace what gets thrown off, and dress out the gullies a few times a year when you see them start to form.
Someone on a thread on TBN recently wrote about putting lime down on the ground and disking it into the dirt, then rolling the dirt. Repeat until the dirt was hard-packed and waterproof. I'm not familiar with that approach, but it does sound like one way to have a pure-dirt drive that resists rutting and washout.
From the photos, it looks like the drive is plain dirt--no gravel. I have one dirt drive on my property that I keep graded and conditioned with a box blade, but it doesn't see much traffic--just my tractor up and down to the hill on the back of my property. Even with that much traffic, its condition degrades very quickly due to tire tracks and washouts, especially if I drive on it when it's wet. An exacerbating factor is that, when I grade it with the box blade, it sort of "fluffs up" the top layer of soil, and then it is easier for tires to make ruts or rain to make gullies. If I had a large roller, I might be able to compact it, but for the length of road I've got, it's not worth it.
I don't have a ton of experience with dirt drives, but it seems to me that if you are going to use that as your primary drive, you are eventually going to want to put in more of a permanent surface, like gravel or even concrete or asphalt (if you have the money). I see gullies in the photo, and with time, they are only going to get worse. With a tractor and the right implement(s), maintenance of a gravel drive is relatively easy. For your length of drive, a land plane would probably be a good choice, but you could definitely get by with a grader blade, a box blade, or maybe even a landscape rake. Everybody has different preferences and different tools get the job done different ways. You put a few hundred dollars of extra gravel down every few years just to replace what gets thrown off, and dress out the gullies a few times a year when you see them start to form.
Someone on a thread on TBN recently wrote about putting lime down on the ground and disking it into the dirt, then rolling the dirt. Repeat until the dirt was hard-packed and waterproof. I'm not familiar with that approach, but it does sound like one way to have a pure-dirt drive that resists rutting and washout.