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Best way to Maintain Gravel Drive

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Pacman2
Join Date: Jun 2020
Posts: 7 trexlertown pa
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2020-06-06          199331

Hi New here so not sure if right place to post.

I have a long well worn gravel drive that is deeply rutted where the tires go.

It has a base of crushed shale, then some 3/4 stone, stone dust and some 3/8 gravel. Not much is loose anymore.

Has some potholes etc. recently bought property that came with an older Kubota B series tractor with a loader but no other attachments.

So wondering what the best thing is to do here in terms of attachments and what grades of stone to buy.

Thanks for any help.

Paul


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Best way to Maintain Gravel Drive

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bosco2
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 22
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2020-06-10          199347

Do you have a Box scraper, that is the best tool to use if you have one. You cna adjust the scarifers to various depths to rough up the surfaace and then fully set them up high to smooth.

If you need to add material quarry process, stone dust and 3/4 stone should work well to fill the ruts if the box blade is not enough.

....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2020-06-10          199348

If the goal is to just make it better, the down'n'dirty method is to order in a truck load of fairly fine stuff and just fill in the ruts. The existing material will be pretty well packed and digging into it will just unpack it.


I would recommend something usually called "crusher run" and is sized based on the largest particles. For this kind of work you want "5/8ths minus" which basically means the material will be stones no bigger than 5/8" and mixed with smaller stuff all the way down to course sand.

The other advantage is you can do it with the equipment you already have. Once you have it patched and packed in well you can pick up a rear blade to groom it a little nicer if you wish, but you can do a pretty fair job of it with just back-dragging with the bucket itself.


Best of luck. ....

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chashm
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 77 United States
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2020-06-11          199349

Lastly, rent a small roller for a day to pack it down. Otherwise you'll get ruts right back where you drive every day. ....

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DennisCTB
Join Date: Nov 1998
Posts: 2707 NorthWest NJ
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2020-06-11          199350

Ditto to all the great points.

Compaction is a critical ingredient and can be deceptive.

A rail to trail bike path I cycle on was resurfaced 4 years ago with dust and gravel mix. They used a vibratory roller on it in most sections. But one section was getting beat up by horse traffic but not the other sections, I even thought the material was different but it was the compaction.

After 4 years rain and settling it has finally compacted so no more horse hoof damage and it is smooth. So thorough compaction is critical, unless you are willing to wait for mother nature ....

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Nottoold
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 26
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2020-08-03          199554

Success really depends on the slope and drainage. Fine dust is great when no erosion is an issue.

Bad drainage and paving is a better friend, though it can be pricey. ....

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yocsr1
Join Date: Dec 2013
Posts: 182 Terre Haute, Indiana
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2020-10-24          199764

I'm with Bosco. I maintain a couple of drives one is 1/3 of a mile and the other is a 1/4 mile long. The box blade will cut up and fill any of the ruts. If it gets packed to tight just put the teeth in and cut it up and take teeth back out and smooth it out. A hydraulic toplink makes things a lot easier. I can keep both roads as smooth as a baby's hind end. ....

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