Any Gravel Spreading Tips?

[LarryBud]

We have no rain for 6 weeks. Last Friday, I took the afternoon off and had 3 truckloads of AB3 gravel ordered to my place for a new driveway / parking space. I knew rain was a chance but we'd been missed many times in the dry spell.

Long story but while they were enroute, the sky opened up and it poured. The trucks dropped their loads during a driving rain in piles on the would be drive because the ground was too soft to get them back to were it really wanted them.

I now have ~60 ton of AB3 in three piles. I have a L3130 with a FEL with teeth and a Land Pride Blade. After a week of rain ( 7"+ ) I'm going to get after it once it dries enough for me not to tear up everything. Hopefully this weekend.

I know it's not rocket science and I'm thinking dig, dump and back drag but I'm open for any suggestions as this is a first for me. I'm a rookie operator so easy is good.

Thanks,

 

[imnukensc]

I've seen a better video than this, but can't find it. Don't dump, shake it out.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

get a bucket load, drive just a bit further than you think a bucket's worth will cover,now backup and dump evenly. repeat ,going further and further down the driveway. Everytime you drive on the freshly dumped gravel, you pack it down. When go to the end,drive a bit to the right, when reversing, drive a bit to the left. After 1/2 an hour of this you'll get real good and 'muscle memory' will take over.....

 

[mikester]

My recommendation would have been to dump and spread with the truck, finish and compact with a dozer.

Sounds like you will be doing a lot of scoop and dump otherwise. Start close and you compact while you dump and spread.

 

[Creature Meadow]

I think Greensvillejay covered it but I'll add put a ballast other that the blade on the back if you have something heavier.

Just as stated fill bucket, I lift my bucket so just above the hood height so I can see in pouring out as I back up. Repeat...……

After it is spread thinly I then drive over it to pack it down. Wait a week or so if you can so that it packs well then repeat. Piling it too deep will cause it to push to the sides as it cannot pack down good. My neighbor was impatient and piled his probably 6 inches deep at one time it would not pack down and when you walked through it that was even tough. He finally gave in removed half of it and as days went by it would become more packed and he would add to it.

Good luck, want take long to get hang of it. You can back drag where uneven using the float on position on your loader or turn your blade backwards. I like using the float feature, does not dig in as bad.

Jay

 

[D2Cat]

I would start off working on the side of a pile of gravel and get a scoop and go forward to the lane you want it on. Back up empty to get another load. Dump the load just past the pile, and work you way to the far end. "Rattle" your joystick to allow the material to sprinkle out.

 

[TheOldHokie]

We have no rain for 6 weeks. Last Friday, I took the afternoon off and had 3 truckloads of AB3 gravel ordered to my place for a new driveway / parking space. I knew rain was a chance but we'd been missed many times in the dry spell.

Long story but while they were enroute, the sky opened up and it poured. The trucks dropped their loads during a driving rain in piles on the would be drive because the ground was too soft to get them back to were it really wanted them.

I now have ~60 ton of AB3 in three piles. I have a L3130 with a FEL with teeth and a Land Pride Blade. After a week of rain ( 7"+ ) I'm going to get after it once it dries enough for me not to tear up everything. Hopefully this weekend.

I know it's not rocket science and I'm thinking dig, dump and back drag but I'm open for any suggestions as this is a first for me. I'm a rookie operator so easy is good.

Thanks,

Dont over think it. With that equipment three tandem loads can be bucketed in not much more than an hour. Load, transport to furthest point and roughly spread as you approach the dump point. Back drag with bucket to spread, level, and smooth. Repeat working back towards the pile until done. I have moved many loads of loose material that way. If the tooth bar comes off I would ditch it for this job.

Dan

 

[LarryBud]

My recommendation would have been to dump and spread with the truck, finish and compact with a dozer.

Sounds like you will be doing a lot of scoop and dump otherwise. Start close and you compact while you dump and spread.

Truck spreading was plan A. I'm moving to Plan B now.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll give a go and post pictures once it's done.

 

[Nicfin36]

When I had a truck of slag dumped last year, the driver pretty much dumped one large pile and did not walk it down the drive. My tactic was to bulldoze through it, and once I had accomplished that, I was able to spread it all over instead of using the bucket to move it to various locations. I found that much easier than trying to scoop and move. I had a land planer/leveler instead of a blade though.

 

[jimh406]

Definitely do it thin layers at a time. Otherwise, you have have humps that are hard to get rid of.

 

[BigG]

I guess I look at this a different way. I would scoop a bucket and start at the pile and dump as I was backing up. That way there is no guessing how much it will cover. Also as you go forward you pack in what you just dumped. Also there is no need to keep turning the tractor around. Then box blade or land plane it smooth.

 

[Tire Biter]

Too bad they couldn’t spread it with the trucks. Down here, the gravel guys are proud artists at laying down a nice even ribbon of rock, just as smooth and well packed as it could get. Laying down rock any other way is just never is as good.
when I have to, I load the bucket and travel backwards with a good steady speed and and even tipping motion of the bucket till it’s empty. Where it’s not even, a properly set yard box smooths it out the rest of the way, but you can use your blade for that. I’d turn it backwards and pull the top link in. you‘ll get a lot of practice and get the hang of it.

 

[ctfjr]

While those three loads may look daunting you have the tools to tackle it. As long as the piles aren't blocking the road you can work at you own pace.
When I have 20t dropped at a time it ends up right on the driveway and I have to get at it right away. With 'casual' working at it it's certainly less than a days work to get it close. I follow up with the box blade or back blade to trim it out in the following days. I am in the 'no hurry' mode.
Once that 1st load is done I order the second. Two loads is all I need for trimming it up.

 

[D2Cat]

Too bad they couldn’t spread it with the trucks. Down here, the gravel guys are proud artists at laying down a nice even ribbon of rock, just as smooth and well packed as it could get. Laying down rock any other way is just never is as good.
when I have to, I load the bucket and travel backwards with a good steady speed and and even tipping motion of the bucket till it’s empty. Where it’s not even, a properly set yard box smooths it out the rest of the way, but you can use your blade for that. I’d turn it backwards and pull the top link in. you‘ll get a lot of practice and get the hang of it.

Gravel guys are proud artist here also, but when you get a deluge of heavy rain as the delivery is being made the artistic skills are null and void. We've had about 8-10" of rain in about 6 days, just depends on where you have your rain gauge!

 

[GeoHorn]

I ordered gravel about 25 years ago and the young man who arrived asked me how deep and how far did I want it…. He adjusted the chains on the tailgate to restrict it from opening too-far and drove forward as he raised the dump-bed….leaving a nice, even, 4-inch layer of gravel all along until the bed emptied.
Next week…the young man’s Father showed up with another load…and when I asked him to “spread it along” the road….he responded that He didn’t know how to do that…. he could either dump it ON the road or ON the side of the road and I could figure out how to spread it. (I don’t think the man was lazy…. I just think the kid could still learn tricks and the old man was past that.)

 

[NHSleddog]

To the OP, spread it nice and even and make sure it is really smooth - lol. jk

One tip I will add to the various others is when you are doing the final blade or rake always keep a bucket full of your topcoat that you can sprinkle out in front of you as you do the final grade. You will inevitably run into low spots or pot holes that continued to pack in that could use an additional sprinkle as you finish. This method also works great for down and dirty pothole repair.

Every job is different for me so sometimes I will travel to the end of the lane and then dump backwards, turn around and repeat (like the job below), sometimes I will spread directly from the pile backwards and then smooth from there, sometimes I will go forward past the pile and dump as I go. So I really can't say "do it like this" without seeing the road and loads. My default answer would be whatever is quickest and most efficient based on what you have.

I did this grading job recently on a 3/4 mile private road that had 60yd (66 ton) of processed gravel to be spread in the bad areas. The truck driver would not broadcast spread the load so I had to bucket each load up to 500' away from each of the piles in both directions.

This was box, rake and roll. Box everything first, then spread the material, then rake and roll.

 

[LarryBud]

Well, here's what I have to show for my efforts.

The soil around the building is pretty soft so I elected to use geotextile fabric. My lesson with it was was that it's fine if you're going to drive / dump / spread on it. I had trouble with it moving around underneath me as I worked the piles.... there, it was a hassle.

The entire project was done with my bucket and either back dragging or setting the angle and pushing the gravel around.

I have a blade for the 3 point but I could not figure out how to use it. It would be either too high and not moving material or when I mas moving some gravel and the tractor went over a bump I'd be digging way too deep. There must be a trick I don't know about.

 

[ctfjr]

I think you did just fine LarryBud I don't think I would have been as successful with just the front bucket.

 

[DDCD]

Looks good. It takes many hours to master a box blade. Even then I still get mad at it.

I like the fabric. I prefer geogrid myself. Fabric will keep it from pumping (soil) up into the road.