Gravel in the Grass

[Stmar]

Plowing snow always puts part of the gravel driveway in the grass and I have been trying to figure out the best way to recover with the tools I have. I found that if I curl my snow blade back a good ways I can pull the gravel back onto the driveway. I have also used the back blade both sharp edge and rotated to varying degrees of success.
I plan on pushing more gravel this weekend since the forecast is 6 to 12 inches of snow, our Big Horn Mountain Easter Storm.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

A neighbour has one of those 'rotary brooms' to recover his driveway from the lawn.....looks like it does a good job AND dethatches the lawn at the same time. I bet it was pricey though !!
The driveway he 'donates' to me, I use a leaf rake, usually 6-7 passes, so it takes me a week to see my lawn again....

all it'll take is time or money, or both......

 

[SkylineAcres16]

I don't know your set-up (3 pt blade, FEL blade, etc) but I have a gravel driveway as well and something that works amazing for me is use the 3pt blade backwards. It hardly moves any gravel.

 

[D2Cat]

How about a battery powered leaf blower?

 

[BigG]

This rotary broom or paddle might work to put the gravel back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXQHRaYb0Dk

 

[Biltit]

I use the paddle wheel on my stihl kombi tool. It works well, just a bit hard on the back after 1/4 mile long driveway is done.

Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk

 

[Stmar]

I don't know your set-up (3 pt blade, FEL blade, etc) but I have a gravel driveway as well and something that works amazing for me is use the 3pt blade backwards. It hardly moves any gravel.

Yep, back blade backwards is my go to. I use the front snow blade if the snow is deep. Backwards 3pt blade does pull less gravel but over the winter I can't help but get a few piles along my 1/4+ mile driveway. Problem is there are different characteristics along the drive.
Thanks for the different ideas, the leaf blower may be a decent investment but I don't have any leaves, lol, and even if I did our winds that come off the mountain blows them to the next county.

 

[powersrp]

Its has been a messed up winter, freeze, thaw, snow refreeze etc, I too had a mess to rake up, 3 loades of gravel and rocks. With out a good frozen base on driveway (600’) the snowblower just kept throwing the gravel. I kept the shoes at 3/4 “ on back blade also. Wet snow sticks to the rocks and away it goes. I may try a piece of heavy pvc next winter on the blower cutting blade, i heard that works well. Metal pipe doesnt work for me, to many rust stains. We have larger stones on our drive as we were planning on black topping it, but thats not maint free either, so i like the big stones, never a puddle, versus the gravel that packs down good, but doesnt drain.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[SidecarFlip]

First pass with last years's blades on the zero turn and blow the gravel back into the road and drive and then install the new blades. Do that every year now.

 

[pauly]

I use an Echo power head and their sweeper attachment, works great. It is a pain in the backside but it beats raking both sides of a quarter mile drive. It takes about a day to do, that includes a few breaks! Another option is a powered rotary broom attachment for the front of your tractor, a bit pricey though.

 

[Creature Meadow]

While mine I'm guessing is not nearly as bad as what many of you deal with as we don't have much snow.

But, over the year blowing leaves, little girl turning on edges of drive with 4-wheeler, mower doing same I get rocks in the grass.

The bad areas I turn my landscape rake backwards and rake them back in and for the areas not too bad I use my backpack blower and roll them back where they belong.

 

[ccoon520]

My brothers and I got together and bought my parents one of the paddle sweepers for my parents sthil trimmers. The thing works pretty slick on rocks and it works to brush snow off their walkways that the snow blower just can't get to. So it gets used fairly frequently. It was something like 200-250 bucks if I remember right.

 

[powersrp]

I will be looking into the sweeper for my stihl weed eater. I should have got one this winter, i knew i had a mess to clean up.I also should have cut the grass lots shorter, them rocks are a bitch to get out of 3” deep grass.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk