Spreading gravel.

billboe · Mar 18, 2002

any ideas on making the surface harder

Normally if you want a good packed surface, you need to get some fine stuff with the rock. If it is just rock, it will tend to squish around perhaps indefinitely (depending upon what is underneath)...

You may be able to add some fines and work it in so that it packs better... I'm sure you'll get some more educated answers from the experts! Good luck!

MarkV · Mar 19, 2002

Eric,
Gravel is a very regional thing and ever area seems to have its own way. Down here in the south we would top your stone with crusher run. It’s a crushed stone with a lot of stone dust mixed in. The fine stone and dust locks things together making for a much harder surface as it packs in.

MarkV

cowboydoc · Mar 19, 2002

You can also get lime screenings delivered from a quarry. They will work in between the gravel and make a very hard and compact surface. I do this in my cattle lots. After awhile it's just like concrete and makes it very easy to get the loader in there and clean out the lots.

RoyJackson · Mar 19, 2002

Gravel is a very regional thing and ever area seems to have its own way. Down here in the south we would top your stone with crusher run. It’s a crushed stone with a lot of stone dust mixed in. The fine stone and dust locks things together making for a much harder surface as it packs in.

MarkV

Mark, do you ever roll the crusher run to compact it? My father used to maintain a private unpaved road in Tidewater VA. He used crusher run, but had to do fairly frequent repairs...it would rut from traffic. He never rolled it (to my knowledge).

The reason I'm asking is I'm thinking about putting a road outback of my property.

JJT · Mar 19, 2002

Around here we don't use #2 for driveways. 6" of #3 or cobbles or bank run for the base and another 2 - 4" of #1 or crusher run, lots of fines and stone dust. It packs like concrete. I'll top dress my 800' drive every 3 - 4 years with 30 tons, using the box scraper and rake. Twice a year I'll run the rake over it to fill any depressions, nothing serious and we have trucks in/out on a regular basis.

I can see how #2 would require 4 wheel drive. We also have a steep section on the drive but have never had a traction problem.

After raking I'll pack the drive by running the tractor up and down a few times, and varying my tracks with the cars for the first week.

MarkV · Mar 20, 2002

Roy,
I haven’t rolled crusher run but do know that the road builders (big paved roads) will put a heavy layer (8”+) and roll it before paving around here. If you were building a brand new road I would put something heavier down first to work in as a base. With our red clay we put #4 down on fresh grade and pack it with vehicle traffic. It would then be topped with crusher run or some prefer 57 if the road is not a steep grade.

MarkV

PaulT · Mar 20, 2002

some prefer 57 if the road is not a steep grade.

What is 57?

PaulT · Mar 20, 2002

JJT,

I am in need of top dressing and recrowning on an 800' drive also. I need to get the tire ruts up and also build up a crown. I raked it two weeks ago, and the tire depressions came right back. I figure I need to add more material to fill these in and also build up a crown that is 3" higher than the edges of the 12' wide drive. If I re-rake it so its all flat, then tailgate spread the crusher run, then crown with an angled rake, it should be pretty good.

You said

I'll top dress my 800' drive every 3 - 4 years with 30 tons

My question for you is "Is 30 tons enough to really do it/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif? I included my calculations below and came up with 70 tons for about $720. This is twice as much as you use. Can you comment on my thoughts, please. (I'll ask others to please comment, too, since I know how much prodding you all need to throw in your .02 /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif)

I figure the tire depressions are 2 inches too low, and 2 feet wide each (there are 2 of them), so that would be 2/12 * 2*2*800 /27 = 20 cu yds /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif. To add the 3" crown I figured it needs to be 5 feet wide (2.5 feet on each side), at an average height of 2", which would be 2/12*5*800/27 = 25 cu yds, so I would need a total of 45 cu yards. I'll round up to 50 cu yds just in case. On another thread, someone posted conversion factors from tons to cu yds as the following:

Dry gravel 2,835 lbs/cu yd 1.42 tons/cu yd
loose/dry gravel 2,565 1.28
wet gravel 3,375 1.69

Using this table, if I need 50 cu yds, I need about 70 tons. The last time I had #2 delivered, it was about $7.30/ton plus $3/ton dewlivery, total $10.30/ton. THis works out to about $720. Since the big tri-axle dumps carry 22 tons of dry gravel, I will need 3.5 loads. I want to use crusher run now that the driveway is much more stable (120 tons of rip rap or cobble, followed by 120 tons of #2 about 3 years ago). Is crusher run more or less than #2?

shade2u2 · Mar 20, 2002

57 is (or was) a stone size. Someone who knows could certainly share with us a table of the specifics... These stone sizes are regional & confusing.
Around here, I think that the quarries are going toward identifying them as #2 (I think tennis ball to baseball size), #3 (I think golfball to racketball size), #4 (smaller than golfball), #34 (mix of #3's & #4's), #57 may not be used around here any more other the veteran contractors still using the term. My understanding of gravel size may not be very accurate, but please correct or elaborate upon at will...
/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif/w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

WVBill · Mar 20, 2002

I had a similar situation with the gravel road in my development. It is well packed crusher run on top of a good base. It had developed potholes and washboard after a couple of years. First time we just spread new crusher run on top and leveled it up filling in the potholes and washboard. They came right back. Last year, before spreading the new crusher run, I ran the scarifiers from my box blade all over the road set to go about 2 - 3" deep (as deep as the deepest pothole) then we spread the new gravel. The road is still smooth.

Bottom line is that I don't think ruts, potholes, etc can be "filled in" with gravel. The old gravel needs to be scratched up to provide a "bonding" layer for the new or it will just slide off the road (even out of potholes).