What implements for improving overgrown woods road?

[mainenate]

I need some advice for improving a 3/4 mile logging road into our property. The ground is sand with a bit of clay (not a rock in sight), and there's a road that's been bulldozed, and had some gravel laid in long ago, but just enough gravel to be passable for logging trucks when it's dry or frozen. At the moment, I want to shape the road and restore drainage in a couple spots, so that it doesn't deteriorate and so that it's more passable when a little wet. (Eventually we'll need to build up the road bet a bit with more gravel so that it's a year-round road.)

Currently it has grass growing up throughout, but no saplings (yet). I suspect that if I used a box blade or a rear blade, the vegetation wouldn't break up enough, and I'd just be scraping off the top layer, without redistributing it. So I think it may need broken up a bit. Do you think the rippers on a box blade would do the trick? maybe going over it a few times would get it broken up enough?

My other thought is that a root rake/grapple could help break up the vegetation, and then a rear blade or box blade could work. I've never used a grapple, is this a reasonable job for that tool? What design of grapple would you look for if that was one of your jobs?

The other big job for this winter is to clear some logging slash from a few acres, so a grapple makes sense for that as well. Just wondering if it could help with the road, and if so, what sort of shape and tines would work best for these jobs.

Thanks for the help,
Nate

 

[deereman75]

If you aren't needing to get it done right now, I'd wait until spring and spray it with roundup once everything starts growing. Respray over summer as needed to keep everything off. By then you'll be able to regrade as if it's bare ground rather than fighting big lumps of sod.

Other option is running over it with a disc harrow until there aren't any traces of the vegetation left. However my experience with that is with heavy disc harrows (18-24" discs) behind large 4wd tractors, so the size and weight of disc you'd have the means to use may not prove very effective.

 

[Thomas]

Ripper should do the trick may want to consider heavy set of harrows also.

 

[deezler]

Box blade rippers would easily tear up the whole surface (how strong/heavy a tractor do you have? your bio says "none"). You can usually hang them down at least 4 or 5 inches below the box blade edge.

You won't want to shove a grapple through packed road bed for multiple passes over a 3/4 mile long road, I can assure you of that - too abusive and slow. Tractors are better at pulling rippers, not pushing them with a delicate front loader.

How tall/thick is the grass? You probably want to mow it and rake or blow it off the road before essentially tilling it into the road bed (organic material just turns roads into mud).

My take: Get the grass off as best you can. Rip it all to heck with a box blade and redistribute material as needed. Then get a rear grader blade to shape the roadway into a proper crown.

Sandy soil without rocks, in Maine? Thats crazy.

 

[mainenate]

I have a Kubota L3240. Good point about the FEL. Box blade sounds like a better idea for ripping it up. (I do want a grapple though!)

Yeah, deezler, the soil is strange. This adjoins a river, and I think all of the land is old river sediment. I'm glad not to have large rocks (which are the norm up here), but I wish there were a bit more gravel around. It would be useful for building up the roadbed.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I re-opened all of my 30 year old logging roads on 14 acres with.... a BX25! I used the loader to gather material from the sides of the bulldozed roads for filling in the water ruts that were up to 2 feet deep, I used a 60" (cheap) Titan box blade with oil jack weights strapped to it to break up, smooth over and create a new flatter surface... And I spent weeks of weekends doing it in sections at a time. And I have tons of shale, clay and small to medium rocks as well as tree roots that the box blade rippers would hook and about toss me from the tractor. You'll do this much faster and easier than I did. I don't know how much I did, but I would guess a mile and a half to 2 miles? The biggest thing was I could use the sides to steal material since when they cut in, they cut down and left a bank on both sides. Anywhere there wasn't a tree blocking me, I stole dirt and relocated it.

I also cut mild angled trenches to re-direct water and prevent a stream going down the roads, this kept breaking off the flow and pushing it into the woods on the low side of the roads. I have had to fix those up now and again, I use the front bucket to form them and the loaded rears on my now larger B2650 to pack anything I do.

Another thing I did was dug a trench and dropped in 4" corrugated to bury at any place that a natural "V" in the landscape brought rain water together and dumped across the roads. I now carry a spade shovel in the back of my Mule and every few weeks I clean out the high sides of the pipes (constant dirt, silt, leaves block it) so that the erosion in these areas is minimal to none.

I have a couple actual rain run off creeks that were way to much flow, so I did 16" corrugated pipe in a ditch and buried that to allow the more extreme water pass through there.

Overall it worked out well. I do have to keep up on it, but now you could drive a typical soccer-mom SUV down there and drive back out.

 

[jaxs]

I agree with some of what has been said above. Spicifly removing as much vegitation as possible before it become's mixed into roadbed and taking as much time as you can to complete the project. I disagree with ripping and discing "UNLESS"knowledgable local landowners advise doing it. Instead of plowing soil then reshaping,I advise leaving soil compacted,bring additional soil from other locations on property,spread it in layers,roll to compact,water/rain then repeat until road is built up and crowned. Make sure you know how rainwater will run to avoid erosion. Managing storm water is often 90% of success. Use fel to move and distribute soil and avoid temptation to use it as a dozer,you will only tear it up. Box blade is the tool for most work. Think twice before removing chaff left from logging,it might be preventing erosion in some areas.

 

[jeff9366]

Consider a Brush Plow:

Jones Machine Shop

Buckeye Tractor Online Catalog Page 16-02 Rippers-Bed Lifters

Brush Plow should condition your road while removing all washboard.

 

[hslogger]

" Eventually we'll need to build up the road bet a bit with more gravel so that it's a year-round road."

If your long term goal is to have it this way, You need a real good solid base. The best base is large diameter crushed rock. Three inch open, or four inch open. Then you lay down your smaller diameter rock to cap it. There is a big difference between a professional year round road and a "do-fer". Being that you have some crushed rock already down, three or four inch MINUS might do well for you. Ya don't want round river rock. Nope.

Depending on local conditions year round, culverts, slight center crown, curve outsloping or insloping are things to be considered.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

Here's a ripping boxblade unlike any other. It features patent pending 100% AR450 Hardox steel, easy adjust ripper shanks.

Wicked, they say!

Travis

To see what a rake style grapple can do for clearing vegetation, this is a great video of our 240 pound Wicked 55 in action on a customer's tractor..
Travis