Landscape rake or rear blade for gravel driveway?

[falfrenzy]

It think this is correct. We have a beautiful half mile driveway with no ruts, either on or adjacent to the road despite the road rising nearly 200' to the house site...and its because we crowned it correctly, something I could never do as well with a box blade (at least I couldn't). The grading blade also lets me offset almost two feet, so I can pull gravel back onto the road where I want it without getting into the soft ground off the road. Water runs off to the sides of the road, and we have several turnouts to keep the water from running along the road as well...the turnouts were fairly wide, so you can't even tell they are there today unless you are looking for them. We have no speed bumps and no ditches either...everything sheet flows away from the road into the woods. It really helps to have a good base...we put 22 loads of #34 down.
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Nice pics, good setting for your evil genuis lair on top of a mountain

And from your bio, Semper Fi bro.

 

[AGTtactical]

Nice pics, good setting for your evil genuis lair on top of a mountain
And from your bio, Semper Fi bro.

Well, funny fal. I replied earlier but the post was removed because I guess its an unforgivable sin to mention the name of our CIC. Semper Fi to you too...

 

[Rebeldad1]

I have just under 1/2 mile to maintain.
I started out with a 5' box blade. 6' rear blade and a 6' rake.
Unhappy with all this I sold it all and bought a 7'' rake.
Added a adjustable set of gauge wheels and am really pleased.
I make a pass on each side with the rake tilted down on the outside and forward a hole to send extra to the center of the road.
This gives me a slight burm of gravel left on the outside which helps deflect the rain water from flowing into the roadway and a burm of gravel in the center.
Last pass is right down the middle with the blade set straight and no tilt. Leaves a nice 7" roadway with another slight burm on the outsides of the blade to again defer water runoff into the road.I do this twice a year to redress it as well to help level it out and fill in low spots.

I dont use any extra weight on the blade and set the wheels so the blade cuts about an inch into the road. The weight of the scraped rock keeps the blade solid into the ground.
My secret here is to set my tractor speed t just a crawl and works (for me ) beautifully.

And am very happy to only need one implement.
As far as loosing fines in the gravel.... by running very slowly and adding all the year's windfall of small branches and leaves it leaves a nice firm roadway.
And yes I too have a couple of really steep areas that were a challenge. My first climb into the property before I started I had to put my pickup into 4WD to make the curve. With a creative mixture of native materials its a lot easier and smoother now.

I will vote for the rake only

 

[Rebeldad1]

My vote is for the landscape rake with gauge wheels only.

I have just under 1/2 mile to maintain.
I started out with a 5' box blade. 6' rear blade and a 6' rake.
Unhappy with all this I sold it all and bought a 7'' rake.
Added a adjustable set of gauge wheels and am really pleased.
I make a pass on each side with the rake tilted down on the outside and forward a hole to send extra to the center of the road.
This gives me a slight burm of gravel left on the outside which helps deflect the rain water from flowing into the roadway and a burm of gravel in the center.
Last pass is right down the middle with the blade set straight and no tilt. Leaves a nice 7" roadway with another slight burm on the outsides of the blade to again defer water runoff into the road.I do this twice a year to redress it as well to help level it out and fill in low spots.

I dont use any extra weight on the blade and set the wheels so the blade cuts about an inch into the road. The weight of the scraped rock keeps the blade solid into the ground.
My secret here is to set my tractor speed t just a crawl and works (for me ) beautifully.

And am very happy to only need one implement.
As far as loosing fines in the gravel.... by running very slowly and adding all the year's windfall of small branches and leaves it leaves a nice firm roadway.
And yes I too have a couple of really steep areas that were a challenge. My first climb into the property before I started I had to put my pickup into 4WD to make the curve. With a creative mixture of native materials its a lot easier and smoother now.

 

[AGTtactical]

What kind of gravel? What is the model and weight of your rake?

Not sure how leaves and branches would help make a nice firm roadway. Can you explain this?

 

[oosik]

Well - I don't know about leaves and branches. After one of our good wind storms here I get a good layer of pine needles( Ponderosa pine ) on my mile long driveway. It sure cuts down on the volcanic ash dust. They get chopped up pretty quickly but its great for a while.

 

[Rebeldad1]

I started out with 1 1/4" crushed rock for the first couple years. After the roadway started to look pretty nice I switched to 5/8" crushed rock.
The rake is just a standard 3 point cat1 7' rake like you would find on Titans site.
Bought it used and have used it for several years. The tines have held up really well.

As far as leaves and any/every other kind of organic material....
It all breaks down, mixes with the gravel and turns into a dirt. Call it binder

On my really bad areas I would load the tractor bucket with dry topsoil and "fling" the dirt "a shovel full at a time" spraying it out by hand. This gave me a light covering over the gravel. after a few weeks I follow through doing the same with sand.
This all gradually blends into the gravel "binding it together" like nature would do. My really rough first hill and corner now is as sound as the rest of the road. No more needing to use 4WD It's surprising how quickly you can go thru a yard or two of material by hand. And covers a fairly large area as well.
Very rewarding when it all settles in.

 

[Lowrider2120]

Many ways to skin the cat. I put my box on the FEL with the OD plate and the rake on the 3 PT and do level and rake in one pass. Gotta go slow but it works well on dirt (soil) too. I worked over our 3,500' grass runway edges in just one pass...gotta go SLOW though.

Being able to power angle the rake helps a lot.

 

[AGTtactical]

I started out with 1 1/4" crushed rock for the first couple years. After the roadway started to look pretty nice I switched to 5/8" crushed rock.
The rake is just a standard 3 point cat1 7' rake like you would find on Titans site. Bought it used and have used it for several years. The tines have held up really well.
As far as leaves and any/every other kind of organic material....It all breaks down, mixes with the gravel and turns into a dirt. Call it binder
On my really bad areas I would load the tractor bucket with dry topsoil and "fling" the dirt "a shovel full at a time" spraying it out by hand. This gave me a light covering over the gravel. after a few weeks I follow through doing the same with sand. This all gradually blends into the gravel "binding it together" like nature would do. My really rough first hill and corner now is as sound as the rest of the road. No more needing to use 4WD It's surprising how quickly you can go thru a yard or two of material by hand. And covers a fairly large area as well. Very rewarding when it all settles in.

That all makes sense...I thought that might be what you mean, because I've had the same experience. I used #34 for my base...they are pretty big. This was done with the intent of adding crusher run after the construction trucks are finished because they will be pretty hard on the road. When I put the rock down, my dump truck operators had varying degrees of skill...I made sure they set the chains the same on each truck, but some drove slower than others, so in some places the rock is a little too thick. Not a bad thing really, as a good base will prevent wash outs. But in the areas where the rock is thick, the rock is also a little loose. So, funny, like you, I did the same thing where the rock was to deep: "On my really bad areas I would load the tractor bucket with dry topsoil and "fling" the dirt "a shovel full at a time" spraying it out by hand." Within six months, the dirt washed into the voids and disappeared from view. And each fall the leaves help too...their organic matter does act like a binder to help stabilize it so you don't spin out. I haven't compacted it yet except with a Cat 953, but that's not optimal because the tracks spread the weight so well. With time its getting better...every drive over it compacts it further. The road has held up REALLY well. We just had the storm of the century...my 80 year old farmer neighbor says its the most rain he's seen in his life. We didn't have any washout or erosion so I'm quite pleased. I wonder if a rake could handle my big #34 rock?

Here's a photo of the curved area not long after the rock was dropped. When I built the road, we cut into the bank to keep the curve wide (we actually brought logging trucks up and down this road). After the logging was done, I brought in 75 tandem loads of dirt to build the road up to the top of the bank cut to get rid of this ugly "cut" area, and to reduce the grade. I got the dirt for free, but had to pay for the trucks and loader. The road is about 12-15' wide. Its crowned everywhere except in the curves where I sheet flow water so it doesn't run down the outside edge of the curve (which would cause a ditch to form over time). No ditches anywhere...water is drained using broad gentle slopes away from the road, with 10-20' wide turnouts to get rid of accumulated water.
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[RedRocker]

check out this option.

 

[Kentex29]

If using limestone crusher runs, the fines need to settle just below the gravel to create a solid base, provided you do not already have a good base. Also, the stone should not be larger then 5/8" diameter. If you have a good base, I would agree with the driver in that you don't want to separate aggregate. I'm assuming you would use a landscape rake because the driver spread the material as he was dumping, otherwise a rake will not move much material in a single pass. Also, I have found that "back dragging" with a rear blade produces nice results without separating aggregate or moving a lot of material. I'm sure you know this, but using the FEL to back drag also works, but that's a lot of reverse passes on your long driveway.

To prevent wash boarding, push the material with a box or rear blade, then make passes with your draft set to float, if your tractor is so equipped. Use caution if doing this, it's not a dozer, so you'll have to move small amounts of material at a time.

Four years ago, I purchased a TR3 rake by ABI attachments. It's intended purpose is for riding arenas to loosen compacted soil and provide a level, groomed finish. I also use it on my gravel driveway and have found it to be the best tool in my shop for multiple tasks. This is a significant purchase, 3 or 4 times the cost of a box blade, rear blade or landscape rake, tools which I also own, but the TR3 essentially replaced all three. It has its' limitations though; it will not move as much material as a box blade and will not grade like a rear blade or land plane, but for finish work there is nothing better in my opinion. I use this attachment in my tractor services business and has paid for itself in time and labor hauling multiple attachments, hook ups and less passes over the work site saving fuel. I've used to create wildlife food plots and fine grade lawns after sowing grass seed, among other things. I've also used it to clean debris from flooded areas, pushing it into burn piles. Check out their website, it's a pretty awesome tool.

 

[Dave Gobis]

Put in 1,900' with a 2x4 base, 3/4 fill and topped with TB. Started with a bucket and a box scrapper. Went to a rake the second year and successive years for finish/maintenance. Ended up asphalt paving it after 5-6 years when I had the money. It was rock hard and no problems since. That was 10 years ago.