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.

 

[BrokenTrack]

Honestly, I am not sure either one of you are right. I think you are using the wrong implement in the first place because if the water is pooling and making potholes, then there is no crown or slope to the roadway. If someone has been using a box blade to grade the road for the last few years, it is likely that they have dragged the crown or slope out of the road and the water is just sitting there.

A person needs to re-establish that before going any further.

There are many ways to do that; from bringing in fill to establish crown/slope, to using a grader or bulldozer.

 

[gator]

Simple answer is when you do it, do it your way. When he does it he does it his way.

 

[Code54]

Yep, you have to break the bottom up, filling it in won't last. I always run the subsoiler down the middle of the pot holes, re-grade with he landscape rake and it is good for a LONG time. If you have a good base it will loosen it for a short while but it will pack back down just fine in a short while and you wont have the potholes come back. Last time I did this was last year where we had 3 smaller potholes on our road and they never came back. We have a around 800+ vehicles over the road a month and been using this system for years with very good results.

 

[RNeumann]

Simple answer is when you do it, do it your way. When he does it he does it his way.

Yep this isn’t a dirt or tractor question. It’s a neighbor question. Sounds like he will be finishing things up until the fall and then it’s your show.....unless the new neighbor has a better idea!

 

[oosik]

I get crushed basalt for driveway repair around here. For years I would just pile more basalt on the potholes - year after year. Then somebody told me to scarify the pothole area(only) first. WOW!!! What a difference - the crushed basalt stays put. Potholes develop in other areas that need fixing but once scarified, filled and compacted - they are good. I have scarifiers on both my LPGS & ROBB.

 

[GregbkH]

I maintain our gravel easement of 1/2 mile because no one else will. I only have 3 neighbors that use the easement beside myself and no one offers a dime to help pay for fuel. So I do it my way. My time, my equipment equals my way. Over the years I've learned what works for my situation.

The road (easement) was built without the use of breaker rock, just gravel spread over the surface. This results in gravel sinking into the earth. Eventually this leads to the need for more gravel.

Anyway, I have found that the best tools for my job are the landscape rake and my grading scraper. Every spring when the frost is out of the ground I start by raking the outside gravel back in toward the center. Then depending on how hard the surface is I use the grading scraper with or without the scarifiers. Then I smooth thing out with the landscape rake by turning it backward and on a slight angle and working from the outside in toward the center. This helps build a crown. Due to the nature of my gravel (too much clay in the latest topping) I have to grade in baby steps as far as depth goes. I usually do this again in the fall but it is not as bad as in the spring after winter.

It would be really nice to have a heavy roller to pack it down but that's not happening. So when I drive up and down the easement I drive a different path each time to pack it down. My neighbors give that part little thought and always drive in the same spot which will turn it into a two track.

Good luck

 

[TheMan419]

If the neighbor is moving soon there is no reason to have the argument. Wait until he is gone and fix it the way you want to fix it. If he was going to be there for years then it would be good to have the discussion or maybe even get a contractor out to "tell" you how to fix it so you guys don't argue over it.

 

[JRobyn]

I agree on waiting for the neighbor to move before you do anything different.

I am firmly in the "no scarify" camp. Our road base is river rock, mostly on top of solid rock, with a bit of soil/sand/clay/gravel to bind it, topped with a thin coat of crusher run. It is exceptionally hard. We do get a few potholes. Fewer each year. I am convinced that there are 2 reasons: 1) in spots, there is still organic matter under/in the roadbed that decays and sinks. 2) FIL just loves to wait until these get rainwater in them and then hit 'em as hard as he can in his truck, splashing out everything except for the largest rock/gravel.

If I put scarifiers down it will rip up the rounded river rocks and all their binder and I will be starting from scratch. Plus, I tried it one time and nearly ripped my 3pt and box blade to pieces when the scarifiers caught on edges in the solid rock!