Need help with which implement

[Stomper]

I live on an small acreage in town limits of 1.5 acres. I don't have a long driveway but I do have a fair bit of the area covered in crushed rock for the driveway and parking that does require a fair bit of maneuvering to maintain it. There are some areas that are fairly tight and close to buildings but I have no problems driving my Kubota L2501 around them. All the area close to buildings is graded away for run off and I have a small ditch that crosses the main part of the driveway to direct snow melt and rain water to the dry creek bed at the front of the property which takes it to the culverts. I have an OCD issue (lol) with wanting my driveway and other areas covered with driveway rock to look good and weed free. I do use round up for weed control but that takes to much time to get results. I am hoping that resurfacing on a regular basis would be more productive means of weed control. The driveway, gets packed solid from all the driving and I want it to have that freshly resurfaced look. What ever I use will need to be fairly compact so I can get into the areas around my buildings. I have scoured the internet on what would be the best implement to use to dig up and resurface the area when ever it needs it but there are lots of different opinions. The area is established with proper grade already and doesn't need changing or moving material from one place to another, it just needs to resurfaced every once in awhile. I have seen box blades, rear blades and land planes used for this, but I don't have much experience with any of them. I have recently come across a video if a small homemade pull type box scraper with rippers and hydraulic gauge wheels that looks like it works quite well but I think it would be a bit of a pain to maneuver close to the buildings. I would like to hear some real world experiences on which implement would be my best bet for the area that i have.

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

Land plane hands down. #endofthread.

 

[jimh406]

A Grader/Scraper also known as land plane is by far the easiest tool to use. You can use multiple tools, but the double blades and compartments of the land plane is drive and go for super easy spreading/resurfacing.

 

[Jhilde]

You might also want to look into a landscape rake. I have been really impressed with how well it works in gravel.

 

[D2Cat]

Stomper, if you weren't so far away I build one for you! I've made three of them and they work perfect for what you describe.

Any hay baler has pick up teeth. Usually 4 rows and 6' width. I make a frame to mount the 4 rows of teeth on and put a 3 pt bracket on the front to attach to the tractor. When adjusted so all the teeth are on the ground, they are staggered and going slow bring up the packed in gravel. A few trips over the area and it looks like you've hauled in several tons of new rock.

The last picture shows dethatching a yard. Does an excellent job, but after the first year there isn't much to bring up!

Find an old baler and a welder and get busy.

 

[Dieseldonato]

I'm gonna suggest a paver..... best cure to stone drive ocd.

 

[Stomper]

Stomper, if you weren't so far away I build one for you! I've made three of them and they work perfect for what you describe.

Any hay baler has pick up teeth. Usually 4 rows and 6' width. I make a frame to mount the 4 rows of teeth on and put a 3 pt bracket on the front to attach to the tractor. When adjusted so all the teeth are on the ground, they are staggered and going slow bring up the packed in gravel. A few trips over the area and it looks like you've hauled in several tons of new rock.

The last picture shows dethatching a yard. Does an excellent job, but after the first year there isn't much to bring up!

Find an old baler and a welder and get busy.

Well I've got half of the stuff already ........ I have a welder, just need the bailer lol
That looks like an interesting contraption and probably all I would need for the area that i have to do. It doesn't look like it would mess with the grade either. Do you have some better pictures of how the teeth are mounted.

 

[D2Cat]

Stomper, whether you come up with a square baler or a round baler it doesn't matter, both have a pick up reel. The teeth are already mounted on the angle iron that goes across the width of the baler.

My first project was made with a baler that had round tubing to mount the teeth and the teeth fit the round end of the spring over the round tube. Nice idea when new but when a tooth needs replaced all the teeth had to be removed on that tube to get to the broken tooth. I quit using that type of attachment and I think it was an older style that the mfg finally improved. That was 30 year or more ago!

Later versions of the pick up reels had regular angle iron and the teeth set up in the angle and attached with a curved washer, lock washer and bolt/nut.

So look at any pick up reel, remove the ends of the angle, build your frame and attach the reel ends there. Spaced the rows 10-12" apart. I replaced all the teeth on the one I use the most about 3 years ago. Seems like there were about 40 teeth and total cost was $100 or so.

Tool will not change the grade except for what rock it stirred up (which is minimal), but give the appearance of hauling in tons or gravel. My neighbor saw what I was doing to my drive way and came over to watch. He was in the thought process of ordering a load of washed 3/4" rock to top his drive. I went over and did his when I was finished. Took about 20 minutes.

I'll try for a close up picture to show details.

 

[Matt Ellerbee]

I sorta change my answer. @D2Cat spring rake thing looks pretty slick to fluff up the gravel.

 

[jimh406]

Fluffing is fine, but the grader scraper also moves material from the edge to the center. It also has the ability to remove potholes if it has scarifiers.

I'm probably atypical in the amount of driveway/local community road I cover. It's about 3/4 mile one way. 1/2 of the mile requires a minimum of 4 passes and the rest(my driveway requires two passes).

If you simply want to fluff, a tine harrow will do that as well. A landscape rake if pivoted can move material from the edge to the center.

 

[Dieseldonato]

If you have a company around that will do it for you, having Portland cement spread over right before grading/packing makes a stone drive last a lot longer as well. We did it quite a bit on no/low maintenance roads, really saves on the maintenance aspect for years. Don't have to go back every year and add stone or regrade and repack.

 

[Tim Horton]

Stomper.. In our part of norther BC, I use a combination of my old 9/10 wore out 6' back blade turned backwards, and on occasion a little help from a 5' Princes Auto box blade to work on our driveway..

I've got about 200 meters to work on.. It is a bit crooked and rough, but between these 2 attachments it stays nice enough...

Being on the cheap side, I plan to add skid shoes to the box blade for more of a land plane type implement..

I also have a 3pt snow blower I'm going to guess very similar to yours.. It works well with the gravel well packed before snow season.. That and even a thin frozen crust work well..