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build a roller packer

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danwhitworth
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 30 Mississippi
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2009-09-25          165933


Live on a gravel/dirt rd in south MS and need a roller -packer . Need advise for cheapest/best home-made project. Thanks. Dan



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build a roller packer

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2009-09-25          165934


Hey Dan, where 'bouts are you? I worked in S MS cleaning up Katrina for 18 mos. from Hattiesburg to Pickayune to all along the Coast and "Naw'lins". I got to know the area/land fairly well.

Can you describe the ground conditions, type of gravel, what is under it and how old the road is? You might be surprised to know that you may not need a packer. But then again...

I maintain a 2,000 ft private road here in Michigan with only a power rake once a year and a box scraper for touch-ups. I used to use my road grader, but the power rake and box scraper work much better.

Just north of "da Kiln" as they say, north of Fire Tower Road, there's a product made by a guy he calls a Road Runner. It's a 3-pt box-like scraper with three blades in it that are used to maintain private and even public roads. ....


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build a roller packer

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2009-09-26          165961


I'm no authority but am not aware of roller/packers being used on other than new asphalt. But you could buy a lawn roller (with good bearings where the handle attaches), fill with cement and hang weights on it, and pull behind. Or see if you can rent a vibrating packer from a local construction or paving firm; they come as ride-ons and walk-behinds.

....


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build a roller packer

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harvey
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 1550 Moravia, NY
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2009-09-27          165967


The CHEAPEST way is a 55gal drum mark center on each end use hole saw cut exact diameter of pipe slide long pipe thru it leave 6 or so inches on each end. Get 2 6" sleeves that ID match OD of pipe install grease zerks weld hitch on fill barrel from from one end with concrete. ....


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build a roller packer

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2009-09-27          165968


From an engineering point of view, a small (read: light) non vibrating roller is about the same as telling a child to whistle when walking in the dark to scare away the monsters. It doesn't do much good but it makes them feel better.

Unless you working the soil down more than ~2" you don't need to roll it afterwards, if you do go deeper, the roller won't pack down to the untouched soil so there will still be uneven settling.
All we do is stand the box blade up onto the rear cutting edge and drag it. This does all the packing required.

I'm a fan of the 'do smaller jobs more often' school of thought, we maintain many miles of gravel driveways and roads, each was in tough shape originally, after a few years of several groomings a year they don't deteriorate nearly as fast or get as bad. Over all it's less hours than doing it once per year. We also now rarely have to do much more than just clean up a few problem spots, usually corners and washboarding on the hills from people that don't know how to drive gravel roads.

Best of luck. ....


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