New driveway

[dougrout]

We spent some time on the road through the woods today. We've decided in the short term to widen the route and to use chips from the brush to even out the path. We'll leave the stumps and roots for now, but I can see the need for a tractor backhoe in the future. There is a pond in the field north of the path through the woods that I'd like to enlarge so we could use the earth from that project to add to the path.

I'll try to add a couple of pictures I took today.

 

[AGGIE00]

Hire out a dozer for a day. I know it's hard to spend the money when you have a tractor that could accomplish the job over a long time and many headaches, but at the end of the day you will be glad you did. I have a 80hp tractor with fel, boxblade, and 3cy scraper and still find the need to rent a dozer sometimes. A skidsteer is no way to blade a road, a boxblade will not cut a ditch, and a backhoe will only remedy your stump issue as far as the road goes. The one item I would buy for your road is a land plane to maintain it after a dozer constructs it.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I have some good roads and also a lot of poorer roads like yours that I use for skid roads. From my experience I have found that if I just work with the existing organic soil and make a smooth road it will not stay smooth. I will always get rutting and soft spots and mud holes. But if the stumps and rocks are gone it is easy to resmooth it just by draging something on it. If I leave the stumps in and cut them at ground level they will eventually yet janked out but it takes a while. But it is hard to smooth the road with them there. I also will fill holes and low spots with sawdust and debris from firewood landings but it is not a perminent smoothing fix. It is just more organic material that with time rots down and turns to mud because it is in a hollow that holds water.

I guess what I am trying to say is that what you are doing to smooth your road is fine. I can understand, especially when face with 3/4 mile. But just be aware that you will probabaly have to do it again next year or next time it rains hard. It will help if every time you use the road you drag something wide down it.

If you want a perminent good road follow the good advise that was given in the earlier posts.

 

[adjusterr]

Save yourself a lot of grief and time, hire a local excavator to put your initial road in, it will probably be complete in a few hours with no wear and tear on your tractor. In Western Maryland we cover the road with blue shale as a base then use dirty crusher run gravel as a finish. Last year I stumbled across two items that have made my tractor work a lot easier. The Bro-Tek Thumb bolts on the boom of your hoe and works in combination with the bucket to pick up rocks, stumps, trees etc. The other item is a "Ratchet-Rake". It is sold by Tractor Supply and fastens on the cutting edge of your bucket and is great for leveling and maintaining roadways, also great for brush and small tree/bush removal. To see these items, just Google the names and check out the videos. Both items are inexpensive and work perfectly.

 

[dougrout]

Some great ideas lately. My "road" is really only intended to be a three season trail for tractor (and ATV when I get one), so it doesn't need to be super smooth (site isn't smooth yet even after adding wood chips).

If I want the driveway to be gravelled and more like a real road then I'll take the advice of so many of you and get someone in with a dozer to do a proper job.

A related issue - there is a pond at the north end of the trail as it exits the woods. I would like to enlarge the pond, and thought of using the earth to build up the road. Could I use a box blade to clear off the sod and drag up earth from the edge if the pond? I have never used a box blade before but it sounds as though it might be a useful implement to use for my driveway too (a real gravel driveway from the road to my house). If a box blade would be useful what brand would you recommend and how big should I go for my JD 3320?

 

[jbos333]

Hi dougrout,

My new driveway was a little less than 500' long, but I am glad I hired out the dozer work at least. I realize you have lots more to deal with. I got a couple of bids to do a complete, turnkey job including tree removal. Those were $6000 give or take.

I wound up plotting out the route, cutting the trees myself, leaving about 1-2 ft of stump for the dozer guy. Got the dozer work done for $475.00, installed fabric, got about 300 tons of bank run gravel delivered, spread it with my cut back blade, I think I have about $3000 into it. Turned out nice.

 

[dougrout]

Hi dougrout,

My new driveway was a little less than 500' long, but I am glad I hired out the dozer work at least. I realize you have lots more to deal with. I got a couple of bids to do a complete, turnkey job including tree removal. Those were $6000 give or take.

I wound up plotting out the route, cutting the trees myself, leaving about 1-2 ft of stump for the dozer guy. Got the dozer work done for $475.00, installed fabric, got about 300 tons of bank run gravel delivered, spread it with my cut back blade, I think I have about $3000 into it. Turned out nice.

Good information - the dozer seems reasonable. What was the fabric for?

 

[jbos333]

Fabric- Geotextile fabric- keeps driveway material from "sinking" especially if you have soft spots. Saves you from getting potholes later on and having to add more material. Some people have used discarded carpet to do the same, I don't know how well it works, though. Comes in a 12.5' wide roll, cost was around 1.00 per linear foot.

 

[jbos333]

Some pics..... #1 and 2 just after dozer work, #3 you can see fabric in the background, #4 drainage for a low spot.

 

[dougrout]

Some pics..... #1 and 2 just after dozer work, #3 you can see fabric in the background, #4 drainage for a low spot.

Nice looking driveway - thanks for posting the pics