Which Driveway Implement

Nokesville · Mar 14, 2003

I am having a home built on 12 acres of relatively flat pasture land. The driveway will be gravel and is approximately 1,000ft in length (12 wide). At the present time, I am lseriously considering the purchase of a NH TC30. What is the best implement to use when grading and adding new stone to a driveway? I had planned to purchase a rear blade for this type of work, but after reading several posts it appears as though a box scrapper may be the implement of choice.

As always, thanks for the input.

Anonymous Poster · Mar 14, 2003

I maintain my 500' drive with a box blade. I have used a rear blade before, but have to say the box blade works much better.

WVBill · Mar 14, 2003

If you are talking about maintaining the driveway after it has been installed, here's what I've had success with.

When it comes time to "top dress" my driveway because it has gotten a few ruts/potholes I go over it several times with my box blade with the rippers down, set just deep enough to reach the bottom of the potholes/ruts. This is like sanding between coats of paint. If I skip this step and just put more gravel on top, the potholes will return very quickly.

I make multiple passes with the box blade rippers.

In many cases, (if traffic or snow plowing hasn't pushed too much gravel off to the sides) I could stop at this point. Most of the time, though, I switch out my box blade for my landscape rake and run up and down the sides of the driveway with the rake angled to pull the escaping gravel back toward the middle of the road.

Now here's another potential stopping point 'cause the driveway will be looking pertty good now.

But, chances are that wear and tear have made many of the fines disappear (those clouds of dust in the summertime, I guess). Without fines, the gravel will not pack into a hard surface so I usually have more gravel delivered.

When I have the gravel delivered I just tell the driver I want it 2" deep along the length of the drive and he spreads it with the truch. (This guy is good!)

At this point it would be ideal to have a heavy roller compact the new gravel, but I don't have one so I let the compaction happen by the traffic.

In answer to your question: Boxblade and Landscape Rake, roller if you have one.

chrisjbell · Mar 14, 2003

Box blade, for sure. I have a bunch of gravel drives that I maintain with a straight blade, which works OK but I've also tried a borrowed box and it works much better.

normde2001 · Mar 14, 2003

I don't know if you have "chert" in Va., but in N. Ga. a lot of people use it for driveways. The county used to use it for their unpaved rural roads; I think they're all paved now. The stuff packs like concrete, lasts for years with little or no maintenance as long as it is crowned for water runoff. I Just inherited property and am using the stuff for all driveway repairs. It stays on top of the ground and doesn't sink in like gravel, is cheap, plentiful, and works well with the scoop and boxblade.

Anonymous Poster · Mar 15, 2003

I use a 6ft Leinbach York Rake and it puts a nice finish on my gravel driveway. I would recommend that rather than a blade.

Thanks,
Dave

kch · Mar 15, 2003

Has anyone tried a pulverizer on a gravel drive, if so how well do they work?

Soundguy · Mar 17, 2003

If you are talking about some kind of vibratory roller.. it will only compact the soil underneath the gravel.. The gravel itself will not appreciably compact.. only consolidate.

Soundguy