Roller / Compactor For Freshly-Dressed Gravel Road

[kubotakid USA]

I use a roller that I salvaged from a pavment rolling machine.. Its the real deal. Theres no comparison to using a truck with rubber tires compared to using a steel roller. {If your drive is flufed up}.. I was, using the dump truck with as much as 30.000 lb on a single axle F750 ford truck.
Then I assembled my pavment roller, its impressive. It works just like it was designed to . I plan to add a viberator to it so It will heal in crushed rock/lime stone better.

kubotakid USA

 

[sdkubota]

It also doesn't hurt to spray it down with some water just enough to settle out the small stuff but not have it running down the slope.

Water acts as a lubricate allowing the gravel to be packed tighter. Steel rollers are for granular material and generally don't pack anything over 12" deep. A sheepsfoot is for cohesive soil and probably effective for about 24" in depth. Heavily loaded tires with the right moisture levels will get you as good or better compaction as any roller.

 

[Aussiebushman]

Thanks Jim

Following the advice by various members here, I have been running the 4WD up and down the road several times and after the soft stuff packed down a bit, I did it all again with a trailer carrying about 1/2 ton of rocks. The road is still a bit rough in places but I hope it will be stable enough to get the new boat out - the reason for the new road in the first place, because the existing road was too winding to take 8 metres of trailer on a 6 metre vehicle.

Here is what I have spent the last 2 1/2 years doing in my "spare time" in the bush and it would be kind of cute to get it off the mountain and down to the sea. Of course, the outer hulls (amas) fold in and the mast lowers for transit

Cheers

Alan

 

[boggen]

always used a heavy 3pt hitch implement, make it a rear blade, box blade, weight box, bush hog, backhoe to other. and then loaded the FEL (front end loader) bucket with dirt / rock / sand (what ever was easy to get to on the farm) and made multi passes with tractor. overlapping front wheels a inch or so on each pass.

i would then go back and make multi passes at 45 degree angles, (lot of forward and backing up) normally results in me taking cheap route of swerving back and forth across the drive multi times.

then 1 more time up and down the drive driving straight up and down it.

wait for a rain, and take it extremely easy on the drive. not to rut it, wait for it to dry out enough so i can drive on it without rutting. to compact it a little bit more.

and repeat with next rain.

==============
out of curiosity, what would it take to build a 3pt "metal sled" and create some sort of vibrator that ran off of 540 PTO? or would there be to much chance of causing crushed rock to start chipping and breaking into smaller pieces?

 

[kubotakid USA]

Water acts as a lubricate allowing the gravel to be packed tighter. Steel rollers are for granular material and generally don't pack anything over 12" deep. A sheepsfoot is for cohesive soil and probably effective for about 24" in depth. Heavily loaded tires with the right moisture levels will get you as good or better compaction as any roller.

sdkubota,
I use a more state hiway approved pratice of building a road/drive. I dont spread more than 6" of base or 4" of top coat without compacting. And anyone thats ever used a construction roller will tell you its much smoother, and quicker than using a truck.
kubotakid

 

[OhioCowboy]

I'm in agreement with the majority of the previous posters. The smooth roller will smoth the driveway but the truck or tractor tires will compact the drive much better. When I used to build pond dams, the dozer tracks would compact the fill very little. We would spread 4-6" of fill then run the dumps and pickups back and forth around the new fill until we didn't leave tire depressions to compact it. just my 2¢

 

[kubotakid USA]

I'm in agreement with the majority of the previous posters. The smooth roller will smoth the driveway but the truck or tractor tires will compact the drive much better. When I used to build pond dams, the dozer tracks would compact the fill very little. We would spread 4-6" of fill then run the dumps and pickups back and forth around the new fill until we didn't leave tire depressions to compact it. just my 2｢

I guess Iam one of the lucky ones that have 1 of the real deal construction rollers.
If I hadent used a loaded dump truck in the past,..I wouldnt have it to compare with what I have now.:laughing: No hard feelings,.But Ill never be sorry I have the real deal,.. Now,. to replace that dump truck I once used :laughing:

kubotakid USA

 

[mjncad]

I rented a Sakai riding vibratory roller to compact my driveway. It was money well spent.

 

[YogiBear79]

I took a leaking lawn roller, filled it with concrete. Works great and I do exactly what you are asking about. I have some slopes as well. Packs great! Especially important for the motorcyles......

Mine was 2'd x 4'l. Think it ended up being 1750lbs

 

[vtsnowedin]

Lots of good stuff up thread. There are advantages to all the suggested roller types. Rubber tired loaded vehicles do a great job but you can't get the drivers to take a different path or get out near the edges. If you have traffic on the road a line of traffic cones you move back and forth will make drivers choose different paths and get better coverage. The moisture content comments are spot on. Each soil/gravel type has an "optimum "moisture content where it packs the best with the least effort. Damp but not soggy for most fills but soaking wet for clean sharp gravel. A sheepsfoot is the best for clay fills and should be used until it walks right up out of the clay and walks on its toes. A steel static (non vibrating) roller has it's uses. when it comes to a stone sticking up the ridged steel transmits the entire weight of the roller to that one stone pushing it down into the layer being compacted. Great for compacting the loose stones on the edge of the road beyond which you don't dare go with your dump truck tires. Most shop built project rollers are too wide and spread their weight over too big an area. Better to have the same weight over half the width and take two passes. you'll get a lot more done. I wouldn't build a roller that had a working weight above half the weight of the tractor pulling it for safety and control reasons. Take that weight and concentrate it on a narrower path that puts as many pounds per square inch on the ground as you can. Many construction rollers weight ten tons or more but a small ,one ton, roller if it has the right roll width and roll diameter can put the same pressure per square foot as the big boy. It just takes more passes to get the same coverage.