Quicktach plate-mounted "scratcher" to clean up gravel ribbon driveway

[retiree-urgency abandoned]

I've got about 300' of gravel ribbon driveway from the road to the house. It tends to get grass & weeds growing in the gravel ribbons. Due to the old trees planted along the drive and their roots, herbacide, paving and full excavation of the ribbons, installation of weed barrier and re-graveling are out of the question. I did try burning the weeds, but they came back within weeks even thicker!

To avoid tree damage, I end up scratching up the gravel by hand with a mattock, raking out grass & weeds and then spreading new gravel on top. The mattocking is getting old (and so am I), so am trying to come up with something to use the Bota to do the heavy scratching. I only want to scratch up what's there - maybe an inch or 2 - nothing deeper to spare the tree roots. What I have in mind is fabbing a variation of a FEL mounted pond scoop - I'd scratch going in reverse and with the FEL, I can float or apply some downward pressure as needed.

See attached design photo - what I was thinking about was using a piece of flat steel, cut some teeth into it - maybe bend it at the blue line 20-30 degrees - maybe add gussets on each end to strengthen at the bend & bolt it to the quicktach plate.

If there's already something like this on the market, I'd like to check it out. Don't have or need a BH. Would appreciate your input on the design, specs for quicktach plate, bolts (and how many/where), scratcher piece (what to use), etc. Red lines at top would be rods so I can see the edges of the scratcher plate. Gray piece is QT plate, orange is scratcher.

Thanks!

 

[AKguy09]

A very pretty driveway, but very difficult to maintain....Not sure what to tell you on that one

 

[GreensvilleJay]

hmm, option.... to me, something more like a 3PH mounted rear blade with the orange toothed additions would be easier to use. simply drive tractor down the center of the roadway and both 'tire tracks' get groomed.

 

[D2Cat]

Retired, since you enjoy fabricating I'll show you what I made to rake rock or dethatch grass. I used the pickup teeth from a scrapped baler. Can be square baler or round, just take the full length of teeth....4 rows. They'll be about 6' long so just make a steel bracket to hole the ends of those four bars. Make a 3 point bracket to hook to your tractor and you're done.

Set the teeth level on the surface and pull slow. The faster you go the more the rocks will flip out of your path and into the nearby grass. You'll soon have the grass and weeds loosened up, may take a bit of repeat at first, but when you get it cleaned up a couple of trips down and back will look like you dumped tons of rock. You can go forward or backward, whatever suits you.

When I do my drive and parking area my neighbors start calling or stopping by to see if I can do theirs. It really does do a nice job. Here's some pictures. It rakes out you grass well also.

 

[NCL4701]

I was thinking same as Jay. I’d rather have the scratcher on the 3 point attached to something with decent weight so I could float it and control the cut by angling the top link.

I had a similar issue with grass (not quite that well defined) on our neglected private road when I started rehabbing it. Pulled it out with a boxblade into piles and then used the bucket to scoop it up and totally remove the grass, including roots and associated dirt, to completely remove it all from the road, then replaced with a top dressing of washed 3/4” granite. I had the advantage of the wheel tracks being depressed so pulling out the slightly elevated grass/dirt was pretty easy. Not sure if you can pull that off with your situation. Have maintained the no grass status by spot spraying with glyphosate. Not enough to mess with the trees, just spot spraying as grass tries to come back. After a couple of years the spot spraying requirements have abated significantly.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

100% land plane!
It will take a little work to get it nice, but after you do it will stay that way.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

hmm, I was thinking he wants to keep the grass in the center.....

 

[retiree-urgency abandoned]

I wanted to do one ribbon at a time with the FEL, since it gives me better control and I'm not twisting my neck as much. I do like D2Cat's idea about the baler teeth - for the scratcher.

AKGuy - your observation is correct - seems to apply to about everything at this place - not too easy, not inexpensive, but worth the effort - especially if I can eliminate mattocking 600' of gravel ribbon ...

Thanks!

 

[ken erickson]

If you want to "scratch" the surface, 1 to 2 inches deep max and keep the grass in the center maybe consider a 3pt landscape rake and remove the center tines. Landscape rakes are not heavy especially with 1/3 or so of the tines removed. Most landscape rakes are set up with a single bolt retaining one tine. It would also give you the option to reinstall the tines when needed for traditional landscape rake jobs. Here in Wi I can pick up used rakes 5 to 7 foot for about $300 to $350 depending on brand etc.

As far as your idea of mounting a tool on your SSQA front loader and dragging in reverse I will share my experience. When I try and back drag using the tines on my grapple to smooth trails I find the steering really twitchy and tough to keep centered especially when encountering curves.

 

[chim]

Why not apply Roundup every now and then? I spray a ring of Roundup around most of my trees instead of fooling with mulch. None of them ever complained

 

[GrizBota]

I really like @D2Cat ’s rig. I think I have the raw material to make one of those!

As to maintaining a ribbon of grass in the middle of a gravel driveway, I aspire not to have a grass in my gravel driveway. A dozen passes with the 5’ back blade just about does it. But if I did, I’d use roundup like @chim mentioned. I’m way to old to think off digging out the gravel manually.

I think @ken erickson has the deal the OP might like best considering the tree roots.

 

[retiree-urgency abandoned]

Scratcher report - V1.0

Decided to scale back grandiose plans (since this thing will only get used every other year) and try to use what I had laying around - so here's V 1.0

When a garden rake handle wears out (or when I run over it & break it), I keep the metal head - usually paint it dayglo and hang it up for barn decor - had a couple laying around, plus a piece of 2-by and some conduit clamps and clamped it to the bucket.

Pulled the scratcher with FEL in float and it wasn't enough downward pressure to really scratch it up. Took it out of float and put a little downward pressure on it - did a nice scratch-up, but the rake head near the center got loose and tore up the grass in the middle and flattened the other rake head that was still attached - which confirms that I need to go something a little more stout for the next iteration. Interestingly, the clamps held fine - so I may stick with them for attaching to the bucket (rather than drilling any holes in the bucket for bolt-on).

This afternoon, it'll be a trip to the scrapyard to see what I can find. I will be accompanied by my wife (who's looking for some metal parts for garden decor) and our 81 year-old friend, who's an artist. I should be able to come up with some pieces to make a stouter scratcher and whatever else I find that's interesting for the next project. Goodness knows what the ladies will find.

Stay tuned for V 2.0.

 

[Vigo]

The FEL is too heavy and touchy on its own for this unless you have SSQA and build a very light dethatcher type thing directly onto the plate so that the SSQA plate is parallel to the ground during operation. That might be tenable. Any design that includes the full weight of the bucket is going to be too heavy to operate in float and too finicky to micromanage if you can't float it.


I could picture something built onto an SSQA plate that would essentially be a '2 row dethatcher' with roller wheels at the bottom that you would operate with the SSQA plate facing down, parallel to the ground, with the rollers/gauge wheels preventing the plate from getting any closer to the ground without using your tilt controls. But it sure would be easier to rip up the middle and just have gravel all the way across the width of the drive. Doesn't require inventing anything and maintenance gets much simpler.

 

[D2Cat]

Your rake teeth are mounted backwards on the bucket. Tractor needs to be going backwards the way you have them mounted. They won't curl up as easy then. Just turn you 2x around. Won't be able to see the rake teeth, but you can't see them anyways. They'll also have more support under the bucket. Going to have to be gentle with it though.

 

[jimh406]

If you want to keep the middle, build a land plane with nothing in the middle. Otherwise, the scratcher idea should work. I'd think about attaching to the bucket though.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Just spit-ballin here, but what about using a landscape rake with "certain tines" removed to give you the proper spacing you want?

Then you can put the tines back in, and you have a fully functional landscape rake.


Edit: After further review of the play, I see that Ken beat me to it. I guess great minds think alike.

Carry on.

 

[mikester]

My grapple doubles as a "scratcher" and "garden rake"

 

[Elliott in GA]

Grass Only herbicide - Agrisel GrassOut Max. It is sold many places including Tractor Supply.

Agrisel® GrassOut Max | Agrisel USA, Inc

Agrisel® GrassOut Max Post-Emergent Grass Herbicide Labeled for most landscape, home/garden, ornamental, agricultural and non-crop uses. Only kills grasses, will not effect flowers, shrubs, broadleaf crops or other broadleaf plants. Effectively kills more than 50 different grasses. ACTIVE...

www.agrisel.com

 

[woodman55]

I like the "grassout max", if you stay with the mechanical idea, I would definitely include some form of gauge wheels or skids.

I like the idea of a miniature land plane, just wide enough to cut/groom the wheel track.

Also personally I would mount it on the 3pt, that way you can see it. But I also highly recommend top and tilt hydraulics, that way you can make minute adjustments on the fly. I have them on my 6060, and will never go back to mechanical adjustments.

 

[nbryan]

Box Blade with scarifiers down to break up and level the grass mounds.