Gravel options for driveway

[TD Tractor]

Thanks to you all for some great advice and suggestions! This past Monday we got another 1 inch of rain and the driveway looked worse. I took all the information you had provided and had decided on more #57 blue stone or a grading scraper. The grading scraper was a little cheaper than the gravel so I bought one at my Kubota dealer on Monday. Yesterday we had no rain and some sunshine so I got the driveway graded and there was a whole lot of gravel underneath! It took me a couple of three runs up and down the road to get it looking really good. I dressed it up with a landscape rake. Wife's happy, and the check book is happy.
Thanks again!

 

[Lil Foot]

Wow, that looks great! Post a pic of that scraper or a link to it, if you would.

 

[bearskinner]

Looks good, just like cleaning up and resurfacing a well worn piece of wood. Once you clean up the surface, you find a treasure underneath. A little touch up with the land plane a couple times a year, now you will always have a nice road. There's a big load of pride that now goes with it too.

 

[D2Cat]

TD, the best thing, and the least expensive thing you can do for your lane, is to make sure to keep a crown on it. This will keep from having tire "ruts" and water setting in them, causing the problem to multiply. It also keeps the gravel from working to the outside and of no use.

 

[MattN03]

Yea, what grader did you end up buying? Driveway looks nice again!

 

[TD Tractor]

I bought a Woods GSS60 from my Kubota Dealer. I could have gotten one painted orange but would have had to wait 3 weeks. All my other implements are all different colors so I opted for the one in stock.

 

[OldeEnglish]

Looks great, the chickens seem to approve as well.

 

[RCW]

Does look great!

Looking at your "after" picture, you will be able to repeat that process many times before you will need new stone again.

That scraper will pay for itself many times over, easily....

Job well done.

I got ~10 years out of my stone driveway, and it really needed a re-do with new stone this past spring. $700 total invested - $400 for 20 ton of stone, and had bought the used box blade for $300 couple years ago. Couldn't have done it without the box blade, and it easily bought me a couple extra years. You will find the same value with your scraper.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

Wife's happy, and the check book is happy.
Thanks again!

Wife's happy always makes life easier. I blew snow the first winter and she called my tractor a toy. I graded the driveway the first time in the spring of 2014 and ever since she has called it the tractor. Now I am free to buy other tractor tools as needed.

 

[eipo]

Looks great. I had to rebuild my 600' drive and hauled in 200 tons of crushed asphalt. Best thing I could have done next to actually putting hot mix down. My drive bled off for about a month because I was putting it over saturated processed gravel. But in the end, and perseverance in running a plate compactor when I could, its now just as hard as if I had it paved professionally.

http://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23873&page=2

 

[skeets]

they say spraying it with diesel and then compacting it works really good and is a lot faster too,, just what I heard about highway millings

 

[eipo]

I've heard that too. I didn't want to deal with the run off.

I don't think I'd be able to rip it up with either the box blade or land plane rippers. It's just like seasoned asphalt. Hard as a rock.


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[Creature Meadow]

Hooked up my scraper yesterday and made a couple of rounds to get it adjusted.

Going forward will leave top link with it that way no adjustment time, hook up and start dragging driveway.

Take some before and after pics tonight so you can see just what this implement is capable of.

 

[Grumpyjoe]

I have a 900 foot drive built by a rancher over 40 years ago. He set it with washout mud and light gravel. I have been running a box blade over it to get it a bit smoother. We added 6 semis of dirty base#2 and again this year more dirty base and clean top gravel. By the house it is good but down the drive we still have large exposed rocks.

As we continue to work it with the road we add more dirty base and drive over it packing between rains. It is a lot slower but in the end the fresh gravel will help with dust, bushes will too. I wanted to get a land grader for the better finish but going slow with the box blade is also working well.

I would be afraid of the ground asphalt bonding here as my tractor is too small to break it up later to smooth out again. Oil is allowed just expensive. The road in front was just oiled and graveled just like Cool Hand Luke.

 

[skeets]

Y'all had a chain gang out there slingin sand?

 

[sdk1968]

here in my area ... we usually do the 57's as a base & then a couple years later you top it with crusher run...

water hits all that rick dust & it gets groudn down in the 57's.. makes a real good base. specially if your gonna come back later & black top it.

& yes, if its "allowed" in your area.. all your used motor oil is great for keeping the dust down & killing & anything from growing in it.

 

[Grumpyjoe]

Not exacttly, it was a truck with a work crew brooming it but they were convicts. Sprayed oil then spreader with sand and crews brushing it afterwards. All I could think about was who will eat all the hard boiled eggs?

 

[skeets]

LMAO,,,, Now thats funny,, to the kids in here I guess ya had to see the movie