New driveway

[dougrout]

I have been following the forum postings here but haven't seen anything about establishing a new driveway. I have about 3/4 of a mile to get from my house to the woodlot at the north end of my property. The trail to get there is very rough. Part of the trail is along the side of plowed fields and is very bumpy, while the rest is through a woods where I cut a trail two years ago. The wooded portion is the roughest with roots, rocks and stumps restricting my speed on the tractor to under 2 mph.

Does anyone have any suggestions on ways to improve the roadway. I would like to be able to travel comfortably at 4 mph or more throughout. I would be willing to purchase some equipment (land leveller, box blade, landscape rake, backhoe, etc.) if that would be helpful. I do have a rear blade and can remove some smaller rocks using a steel bar and the FEL on my John Deere 3320.

Doug

 

[MtnViewRanch]

My choice would be your rear blade and a (LPGB) land plane grader blade.

You may need to use your loader at times also. Good luck and let us know what and how you make out.

 

[teg]

You can fill these areas vs. digging out roots/rocks... Do you have an area to dig dirt from? Hillside? Pond area? another option is buy fill dirt... and raise the area so that you can make it flat. You have to have material to work with... Digging a ditch along the road and bring the material to the road surface to be smoothed out and packed down...

 

[dougrout]

You can fill these areas vs. digging out roots/rocks... Do you have an area to dig dirt from? Hillside? Pond area? another option is buy fill dirt... and raise the area so that you can make it flat. You have to have material to work with... Digging a ditch along the road and bring the material to the road surface to be smoothed out and packed down...

That's an interesting idea - would you use a backhoe to dig the ditch?

 

[teg]

I used the FEL some, on the flat areas, and used a Rear blade that had could be offset to one side and tilted. Roots and rocks are not fun to deal with when building roads...

 

[stravis]

If it's soft, I'd haul in some gravel or crushed construction debris (concrete, block and brick). You could do so with just your rear blade and it will compact with use. Maintain for a while with your blade and within a couple of months, it will keep itself smooth. Order an extra load or two of rock to fix any areas that remain soft.

 

[brewdog]

Sounds like you need a dozer for a day to clear, shape and smooth the road. If it's as bad as you make it out to be, you will destroy your tractor trying to fix the road.

 

[billybobjimmyjoejack]

I have a backhoe on my tractor and would suggest you get one for yours. You would be able to remove any stumps, roots and larger rocks from your driveway that are obstructing your clear path and with a wider bucket you could dig a ditch along side for extra material for fill on the driveway.
Adding a thumb to the backhoe would help tremendously with these tasks and you could use it later in your woodlot.
Once you remove all of the obstructions and add any soil from ditching you would want to smooth the whole length of the driveway. For this task you
would want to use one of the grader/scrapers mentioned earlier, you would have a nicely graded drive and you would use the grader/scraper in the future for any maintenance.
If you decide to bring in some type of a base rock it should be larger stones or chunks of concrete or what ever is available in your area. Drive on the base rock for at least one winter, the theory is the larger rocks or stones will push down into the mud and lock into place to stabilize the roadbed. Top dress with smaller material later once the road has settled and stabilized. If the driveway needs to be smoothed up some in the future you would use the grader/scraper.

 

[dougrout]

Some great ideas - keep them coming!

I think a backhoe would be a great addition to my tractor. Does anyone have experience with a backhoe on a John Deere 3320? I'm wondering if the tractor is up to the task of removing stumps? I could also use a grapple for loading logs onto my sawmill but many of the logs are too heavy for the 3320. How to break it to my wife that we need a second piece of machinery? SWMBO will not be impressed!

I also like the idea of adding fill especially on the part of the roadway that goes through the woods.

Thanks for all the ideas.

 

[jenkinsph]

Lots of variables and some good suggestions so far, probably will need to handle this in different ways along the length of the road. As mentioned you can use a rear blade to make a ditch or swale on either side of the road and pull these spoils up on the roadway to further elevate it. To get the road to dry out after rains it needs a slight crown and the ditches need to be channeled away from the road. If the water drains across the road you may need some culverts at the lower ends of the ditches. How you accomplish this depends on your terrain.

You can use the spoils from the ditch or ditches to reduce the amount of material you have to buy but a good all weather road will need base course and gravel that is packed smoothed and groomed.


How big are the stumps in the roadway and can you go around the largest ones? If you dig out the stumps take into consideration that you need to repack the holes tight. Large stumps are best handled with large equipment as it can take alot of time usig a small backhoe. A small backhoe can be a very handy thing to have and I do find I use mine often.

 

[EagleTDL]

Interesting that you post this... I'm in the process of designing an addition to my current gravel drive. Current plan is to tie into existing driveway and make the "new part" circle around the front of the house and out to the road via an existing culverted turn-in.

So, my thoughts are as follows, and are based on the info I've read here about clearing land, driveway maintenance, etc:

1) Using a box blade to dig the existing grass/weeds out of the proposed driveway. Objective is to get the grass out, with maybe removing 2-3" of soil that I can use at other places in the acreage we own.

2) Use a land leveler to smooth out the rough work done by the box blade. I really don't want it to take out any more material, but just smooth out the humps and fill the low spots. I think that piece of equipment will work perfectly for that. It won't "carry" any material, which is what I'm looking for at that point.

3) Since the "new part" of the drive will only be used occasionally, I planned on topping with #57 gravel, couple three inches thick. Back-drag it with the bucket in float to start with and then go back with the land leveler to smooth the gravel out.

At least that's the plan as of today... Will probably last as long as the first pass with the box and then I'll have to adjust accordingly! I've never used either implement before, so I'm sure there will be a learning curve as to how to make the most of each. Gonna start this towards the end of the month, so I'll keep everyone in the loop as to how it goes!

Eagle

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you have stumps, roots, rocks, etc in your roadway, the best thing would be to get a dozer in with a 6 way blade to uproot all the stumps and roots. If not, then as they rot, they will leave sink holes in your road that you will be forever filling. The dozer can then cut ditches on the sides for drainage and add that dirt to the roadway, walk it in and level it. You could then add gravel if you want and smooth with your tractor FEL and back blade of your choice. A dozer could do the road pretty easily in a day and have all the tractor destruction work done. It could take months for you to dig out all the stumps and roots with a small backhoe not to mention making the ditches. Most dozers in D6 size go for about $85 per hour in my area. I would get some estimates from dozer operators in your area and then decide if I wanted to outlay money for backhoe and spend hours and hours on the tractor or just get it done quickly.
I guess it all depends on how much time and energy you are willing to put into the project. You could certainly spend $4k or more on a backhoe if you have future use for it in your logging operation, although a FEL with grapple would likely lift the logs just as well

 

[Deere Dude]

I agree. A dozer would be the way to go especially that long of a drive and what you have for rocks and stumps. I have a 3720 and a heavy duty box-blade I was leveling some top soil dirt I hauled in from somewhere and didn't cut down a few small 4-5" stumps far enough. As I was dragging the BB around the lawn I hooked one of those in the center of the BB and bent the center back about 2". I wasn't but going 2-3 mph when I hit it, but I was pulling a heck of a load in 4WD. Then I had to dig down and cut the stumps off before I started again.
A big job like yours would take forever with your tractor even with a back-hoe, in my opinion. It would cost a quite bit to fix things that break to.

Cats can do a great job fairly quick and it they break, you aren't paying for it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Without seeing what you are deeling with, or what you have to work with, it's real hard to say for sure what is the most cost effective method to fix your trail. I like adding dirt and building up a crown to a trail, but that is very time consuming and you need quite a bit of dirt to get anything done.

I found that dragging my disk through a rough area a few times worked great at smoothing it out. Do it enough for the ground to get dug up and then just drive over it some more. I also have a heavy drag that I pull behind my tractor that does a great job of smoothing out the dirt. Disk and drag is one of my favorite ways to make a trail smoother.

I have a full sized backhoe and a 170hp dozer. I still like the disk and drag metthod the best.

Eddie

 

[dougrout]

I appreciate all these suggestions. I think that where the road passes through the open fields I'll take Eddie's suggestion and use discs and a harrow. The soil is quite sandy and well drained so I just need to smooth it out. Maybe a grader or a York rake for the final smoothing?

The stretch through the woods is more problematical. It sounds as though any backhoe small enough to fit my tractor (JD 3320) would not be up to the task of removing the number of stumps in the woods (20 to 30 though none larger than 6"). I do have some earth I could use when I improve a pond in one of the fields so I'll
try bringing buckets of earth in the FEL which SWMBO rakes it out. We'll see how long my patience (and her back) lasts.

 

[Dr_Zinj]

I'd go with bringing in fill and building the trailbed up a couple inches from the existing grade. That makes it easier to level, as well as taking care of draining the roadbed.

Stumps, big roots, and big rocks can be murder on a box blade. Take a ripper or backhoe those out before doing anything else.

Speaking of which, I need to dig out a boulder out of my driveway this weekend. Need to remember to take pics.

 

[Rustyiron]

You might think about finding a local excavator, buy him lunch and offer to pay for his time and tell him that you will be trying this on your own. Every region has a little different "spec" necessary for good long term results. I'v built lots of driveways and roads but would not begin to advise you other than the driveway 2 comandments of a crown and drainage (ditches). He'll be able to advise you on good local resourses, or be able to do some trucking for you, chances are you will need something. He might also advise you (if you need it) on routing the road as well, identifying where you might elininate or need culverts and in general, prolly save you a few bucks and grief in the long run. Good luck, sounds like your itching to go shopping!

 

[Glen Watkins]

20 or 30 stumps no bigger than 6" would be dug out with what you have if it was me!

Sorry after rereading it looks like you dont have a backhoe. Even better rent a mini excavator for a day or two!

 

[Chilly807]

In my experience, the dozer or an excavator with a skilled operator will both do a better job and be cheaper in the long run. Stumps, big rocks, and root clumps need to come out, period.

Then you either doze off the topsoil that's there and fill with base rock (4" stuff) and top dress with 2 inch mixed stone to have a 4 season road to use, or you smooth out the holes and add some stone to the soft spots to have a road that's usable for 6-8 months a year.

Small tractors like we have aren't meant for that kind of work, neither are mini-excavators. Both will do it, but it takes forever, and beats the living **** out of the machine.

Having said that, you may as well get the hoe for the tractor anyway... you'll need it to touch up ditches around the property, bail out small ponds, add a ditch here and there, dig holes for the missus... that's what the small ones are meant to do.

Sean

 

[jenkinsph]

Having use of a large vibratory roller would be a real help too, if you can pack down the successive layers of dirt, base course and clean gravel it will save you alot of materials and give you a much better road right off the bat.

Most excavating contractors can provide this service while building your road or you cna rent one for the day or two you would need it.