Is it worth the argument?

[GrumpyJoe]

My neighbor and I have been doing some road maintenance this week and got into a discussion about weither or not I should use the scarfires on my boxblade and clean up the potholes. He said no just fill them in. But they keep coming back every 2-3 weeks. He doesn't like scarfires because he said once you have a good base you shouldn't tear it up. Makes the ground too soft. Now I'm not dropping these things 6 inches. Just an inch or two. The road is pretty hard right now and we mostly just bring in the gravel from the outside back into the center. The road is about 3/4 mile long. He has lived here longer and has done most of the maintenance. I don't want to step on his toes and get into a pissin contest over this. He is moving this summer sometime so I will probably wait till he is gone. What do you think?

 

[mike69440]

I end up adding material most of the time

Neighbor has a point, but depends if you have excess material and want to regrade.

Now is a bad time to scrape.

 

[Egon]

Your Neighbour is wrong! Drop them scarifiers as deep as they will go.

 

[4get gto]

Your Neighbour is wrong! Drop them scarifiers as deep as they will go.

Yea he's moving anyway. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

I've been of the same school of thought when I had a box blade with scarifiers.... that is, do I really want to tear up the base? I don't.

If you have lots of material that keeps getting pushed to the sides, you might want to ask yourself why that material isn't locking down in place, and what is it about that particular material that allows it to be pushed to the side by the traffic?

A couple of examples I have had in my life are my father's driveway. When he first built it, he used gravel. Gravel is round. It doesn't lock in place and is easily pushed around by tires. Then he tried crushed limestone in some places. That locked in place a lot better, but still would get pushed around a bit, causing holes or ruts, and a high center between the tire tracks. Better than gravel, but still not the best.

Then he tried slag from the steel mills. Wow! It's like lava rock. Tons of little holes and sharp edges. It locks in place very well and does not move much at all.

So, I'd guess you should look at various types of crushed rocks, with lots of jagged edges, with some materials that will lock it in place. Stone dust, like granulated limestone used on baseball diamonds, I think would work good as filler between crushed rock.

Anyhow, figure out why the current road material is moving in the first place. It shouldn't move. And avoid disturbing a packed roadbed unless total road rejuvenation is in order.

 

[flingwing1969]

Short answer - No. It isn't worth it. Wait until you are the old guy and then handle the road as you like. BTW, unless you have a ROBB with real deep rippers, you sill be doing well to scarify and make the surface even texture to the depth of your potholes then go back and blade it even - brings up the gravel as well and leaves the true base untouched.

Says a guy who, for 20 years maintained a mile of mountainside road with cliffs on one side and a canyon on the other that climbed 1000' in that mile of switchbacks with a B21, a bucket, a BH, a rear blade, and a ROBB.

 

[Sparkynutz]

Did you try filling the potholes, wet then use a compactor on them? Over fill and compact the crap out of them. Worth a shot and not really that much work.

 

[/pine]

Usually pot holes form where there's a puddle...traffic through the water washes away the fines that help bind the gravel... if you eliminate water from accumulating in low spots it should stop the pot holing...

I can only relate what occurs here on our road that is river rock/glacial till base with crushed granite topping in most places...and in my experience even eliminating puddles the only way I have found to prevent pot holes from coming back is to use the scarifiers and stir up the surroundings to just below the depth of the hole then refill the hole with some additional material so the fill is slightly higher than the surrounding grade...

 

[Gary Fowler]

You wont ever fix a pothole without ripping it up and then filling with a compactable material like the crushed limestone or slag. Filling the hole with loose gravel will just pop back out with the first tire that goes thru it and continue getting worse with each repair until you rip it down to the bottom and fill with compacted material.

 

[fried1765]

Wait until he is gone!
Then use your scarifiers to loosen up the top few inches.
Do it when the driveway is moist, but not soaking wet.
Put a meaningful crown on your driveway using that loose material, and a rear blade.
Pack by repeated driving over it.
The crown will cause the water to drain, eliminating puddles. Puddles are the reason you are currently getting potholes.
The more crown the better.
A box blade is NOT the proper implement for creating, and maintaining, a driveway crown.