Need advice on gravel driveway repair

[Shawn T. W]

I agree, a land plane pays for itself by not needing to keep buying gravel!

My driveway

https://rumble.com/v6utmg1-land-plane-in-action.html

 

[Blue2Orange]

Just added another 80 tons (bit short of 80 cubic yards) of what we call 3/4" blue rock gravel. ~2 inch depth x 10ft wide coverage over ~800 linear feet. Unlike the mix of #1 & #2 gravel the previous layer of blue rock does not develop gullies after heavy rainfall requiring maintenance after every heavy rainfall on my relatively steeply pitched driveways. Average grade is ~6%. Bit too much of a crown left on the driveway after the previous (2018) application of blue rock. No need for a significant crown with blue rock.

New to box blade operation. Thanks to the people here for hints and advice. What worked for me was tilting the box upwards so the the rear push blade became a dragging reverse blade while driving forwards. Still required fine 3pt ride height adjustments to deal with the transitions and high/low points. First few runs just down the middle cutting the crown and reattributing the gravel to the sides. Image is the mid section of the between couple ~90 degree curves of the driveway after our last monsoon rainfall. The new norm. Drought or monsoon. No need to fire up Kubota.

 

[Blue2Orange]

Forgot to mention. After using the FEL and Vassar dirt bucket to haul gravel to low areas and ease the transition between steep and flat I still needed to load up the bucket when using the box blade. With it tilted upwards you don't move a lot of gravel from the pile to where you need it.

 

[ferguson]

Not good pictures homemade landplane works great

 

[wsurff]

Lots of good advice above.
I have used both a box blade as well as a land plane for maintenance on my roughly thousand foot gravel driveway. For maintenance purposes, the landplane is definitely the better tool. Before I purchased that, I did use my box blade, which can definitely do the job. One point you might consider is getting or fabricating a hydraulic toplink if that’s a possibility for you. I guarantee you this makes for a faster learning curve and would save you a bunch of time doing the job given frequent fine adjustment that was required when I was using the box blade. The landplane that I utilized now requires very little in the way of adjustment on the fly, once you have it set.
When I was using my box blade on the initial runs down my gravel drive I did put the scarifiers down, but only about an inch or so which does help loosen the very top layer of small size gravel on my initial runs. Thereafter, after several runs to loosen the very top layer, I would move them out of the way and not utilize them for my final runs.

 

[Blue2Orange]

LandPride GS1548 is on the wish list. Was considering the GS0560 or 48, but the scraper blades height is not adjustable and look to be set relatively low. Wondering if the blades on the 0548 would float enough on a harder gravel surface so they don't dig in too deep. The blue rock gravel packs down harder than normal gravel. Almost like an asphalt surface that drains. Hard to see tire marks from my full size pickup. Land plane just needed for smoothing and dealing with my sometimes ops moments snowplowing.

 

[Blue2Orange]

Couple days ago. Driving down and then back up after a hard rainfall the tire impressions are visible. With the #2 grade gravel of the past the driveway would have had washouts and deep tire ruts.

 

[skeets]

If I may add something, check under the stone first, reason being, they may spread geo cloth before dropping stone. And it they did dont use the rippers,,, dont ask! Just blade it out with the rippers pulled up. Hooking the geo cloth will get,,,,, interesting. Main thing is to have fun

 

[Blue2Orange]

My old local trucking/gravel company shut down a few years ago. This time I went direct with the rock quarry company. They only have two 20yd dump trucks and are located 45miles away. The driver knowing I just need a ~2" "top coating" started at the top and was able to stretch the loads relatively evenly along the driveway. He also started one of the loads right above what was a severe transition from slightly up to steep. That fill in the transition ended up using 4-5 tons. Good driver makes life easy. Box grader worked nice distributing the hump of gravel into a more even transition. A few runs up and down knocked the crown down. Then it was just bucket loads of blue rock and grading with the box blade to deal with a few low spots.

No weed barrier fabric on the driveway. One reason why I lust for a land plane. When the few weeds that end up on the driveway annoy me the land plane might rip them off. Add the benefit of quicker and easier maintenance grading v. box blade.

 

[biketopia]

No weed barrier fabric on the driveway. One reason why I lust for a land plane. When the few weeds that end up on the driveway annoy me the land plane might rip them off. Add the benefit of quicker and easier maintenance grading v. box blade.

I run mine down the driveway to take care of the weeds on a regular bassis.

 

[trikepilot]

If you don't already have one... this job will send you screaming to acquire a hydraulic rear 3pt toplink. Adjusting on the fly now has me spoiled on my 0.6mi gravel driveway repair jobs

 

[Squirrely Baker]

Update: I think I can claim success. Im not sure how it will hold up but its a huge improvement. We’ll see how it does after a few rain storms (whenever they come) and some traffic.

Didnt use the rippers as I wanted to leave as many of the larger stones where they were, and so far im glad i did. Its not perfect, but the ruts are gone and I believe the water will go where I want it to. A few soft spots that I'll keep my eye on.

Biggest challenges, aside from no experience, were the larger river rocks it was pulling up & bouncing over, and my little 2620 not having the power to pull through the tougher spots with a full scoop. And I might have taken out a gate post with a wild bucket swing, but other than that…i think i got through this ok.

Pics again dont tell the tale but it drives fairly smooth, all things considered.

Thank you all for the advice! And if you have any tips on replacing a broken gate post...

 

[Russell King]

On that gate post you will need to pull out the concrete and probably the post next to it. That will leave a huge hole and the hole needs to be a few feet deep (4-5) if you want to have a gate on it.

I would use a 6 inch steel post if I was replacing it, but you can use a wooden post if you prefer.

If you can’t get the post out then you can dig a hole next to the concrete and then pull the post over into the new hole then pull it out of the hole.

Good luck

 

[Squirrely Baker]

On that gate post you will need to pull out the concrete and probably the post next to it. That will leave a huge hole and the hole needs to be a few feet deep (4-5) if you want to have a gate on it.

I would use a 6 inch steel post if I was replacing it, but you can use a wooden post if you prefer.

If you can’t get the post out then you can dig a hole next to the concrete and then pull the post over into the new hole then pull it out of the hole.

Good luck

Thanks

 

[Russell King]

Thanks

Looking at your pictures again, you might be able to do something without replacing that post.

1) Stand your broken post back up and then bolt it to the post behind it that doesn’t look like it is leaning at all. I would probably use all thread, washers and nuts so you can adjust it to be vertical.

2) Cut the broken post off and use the post beside it?