How To Fill Tractor Ruts?

Engine66 · Oct 31, 2007

I have several thousand feet of ruts caused by traveling up, down, and around my property with my tractor. The ruts are approx. 18" wide give or take a few inches in spots and up to a foot deep in areas. Some of the areas are on inclines and some are flat. The wet season in spring is the worst and it just plain sucks to drive through them. I'd like to fill them with crushed stone that will allow drainage on the inclines during snow melt/rains and be tight enough to hold when I drive on them. A local quary has a mix of mostly 4" crushed stone with occasional smaller stones down to 1.5" or I can do all 1.5 inches. Will filling the ruts with crushed stone of this size allow drainage and hold up without pushing out the sides? Any ideas on how to do this efficiently? I thought maybe I could build an A-frame to divert the stone when I dump by cutting a sheet of plywood in half and framing it together. That would allow me to work in 8' increments. I would prefer not to dump and angle blade the stones in the ruts...this would cause some problems I want to avoid. Any ideas/advice? Thanks.

sandman2234 · Oct 31, 2007

Soil makeup around the country tends to give different answers to this question. I for one would never add any type of rock to my soil, as it wouldn't stay in one place when driven over, and would wreck havoc on the lawnmower. I would consider an increase it tire flotation or what ever it would take to stop the ruts before they begin.
David from jax

EddieWalker · Oct 31, 2007

I think you are taking the wrong approach to your problem. Rock will add something to your ruts, but I don't see how they will stop the problem unless you put down a rediculous amount of rock.

You must address what is causing the ruts first. It's always water, so the question is why do you have water on your trails, and how can you get it away from them.

More dirt and drainage ditches will fix any road. If after you get rid of the water and you have a good crown on your roads, you might consider spending the money for rock to turn the road into an all weather road. On my place, the areas that I have crowned and dug ditches, I can drive on the dirt in the rain and only leave very minor ruts. They disapear after it stops rainging and I drive over them a few times.

Good luck,
Eddie

Engine66 · Oct 31, 2007

Unfortunately, a winding trail with peaks and valleys that is subject to heavy precipitation at times and snowfall during winter, it is impossible to leave ruts unless I suspend all tractor operations during wet times. Even my Polaris Ranger and Sears GT5000 mower leaves ruts...even my feet leaves indentations in the soft earth. Part of life where my property is in Vermont. I was hoping that filling these ruts with a heavy crushed stones would allow drainage and privide a stable footing for the tractor to drive upon. Anyone from the northeast feeling my pain? LOL

EddieWalker · Nov 1, 2007

I think the rocks will actually hold the water in that area, creating more moisture. Of course, if you put down enough rock, yes it will work.

You might also consider what loggers do, and place layers of branches down to create a bed that will support your vehicles. It wont' stop the the water issue, but it will allow you to cross those areas that you are having trouble with rutting. The branches will spread out the load and give you traction.

I don't know how long the branches will last, but my land was logged in the mid 90's by the previous owner, and I'm still digging up branches that were used for this in perfect condition. Ten years in the ground and there is no sign of rot is pretty impressive.

Eddie

sandman2234 · Nov 1, 2007

I guess every part of the country is different, but we have had two neighbors put organic materials in their driveways here, and one still hasn't gotten the mess fixed. Here, the limbs decay, and ends up being a non-stable type of muck that never gets stable enough to drive over. Every time it rains, they have to park on the street and walk 200 feet to their house. During the dry times, it will sustain a vehicle, but not nearly as well as where the limbs and stuff was put. Maybe Eddie is using petified forest material in his road beds?
David from jax

kylebosch808 · Nov 1, 2007

i know what your saying about ruts with tractors and the mud, the question is how offten do you actualy travel these trails? the trails i drive on some of them do leave fair sized ruts with the tractor, but when the ground drys up i usualy take a small farm disk down the trails that usualy fills the ruts right up might have to go over it 2 times for them to fill up so you dont notice them and then take a heavy packer and pack it down every year. If you really want to get into spending money then put in some drainage tile in the low areas running down hill that will also help.

kmdigital · Nov 1, 2007

Take the easy way, use a box blade and fill them back in and level them out when the dirt is nice and dry. This keeps them from getting deeper and deeper and making it a pain when it's dry, and you sure don't really want gravel everywhere, except if it is an actual driveway. Also, driving in the same spots when its dryer will help pack the ground and be less likely to leave as bad of a ruts when you do have to drive in these areas when it's wet. Ruts only hold the water, soften the ground, and makes the ruts even worse when you drive through them full of water. Bad idea.

Engine66 · Nov 2, 2007

Thanks for the advice. I spoke with a few people who have the same problem and type of landscape. My property is basically ledgestone covered by soil. Some spots the ledge is exposed, some spots the soil is a foot deep, some spots the soil is very deep. That keeps the moisture from going into the earth...it hits the ledge and just saturates the soil, making it soft and mushy.

Many of the ruts cannot get any deeper because I have hit ledge...using a boxblade, grader blade, etc. is problematic as there are rocks, boulders, etc. that make blades impracticle...and filling the ruts with more soil will just create the same problem again. So I was told that filling the ruts with crushed stone (sized 1 - 2") will keep tires off the soft soil. I'm going to give it a try in a test area and post some pics. Thanks.

Deerlope · Nov 2, 2007

I have the same problem in the spring going in and out of my sugar bush gathering maple sap. All I do is let the ground thaw out and dry just a little. Then I disc harrow it and the grass starts to grow sucking up moisture as it does.