Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Gravel road maintenance

I have added some ditches on the hills since I've owned the place and it's made a difference. Although they seem to be cutting deeper and deeper every year. Might wanna look into ways of slowing the water down in them. Hard to find a happy medium because I don't want debris hanging up in them either. I try keeping them cleaned out best I can. Not extremely concerned about washout on hills because they only happen on the occasional hard hard heavy rains and can't hardly be avoided. More concerned about the potholes and washboarding that exist throughout the entire length. I just can't make up my mind for the life of me if I should keep a crown in it or not. Always second guessing myself I guess.

Crowns only work if there is somewhere for that water to go when channeled off to the sides.
Sometimes a level road is better, and sometimes an angle in only one direction is best

A 3-pt mounted blade, either a scraper or box blade, in front or behind the tractor will be very difficult to remove dips. When wheels go over a bump or into a dip, the blade goes up or down even more. Graders have the blade between the wheels because it's much easier to keep level. For a 3-pt type, you need one with skids on the sides that will slide over dips and not be affected by the tractor wheels going up and down.

This grader has worked well for us. You 'll need an ATV or small tractor to pull it. The company shows small garden tractors doing the work. They are not heavy enough. I put an 80 lb pag of cement in the weight tray. The tool works well. For a long driveway such as you have, you'll prolly need the bigger model.


http://www.drpower.com/power-equipment/power-graders/

I stand corrected. After viewing the company web page, the Road Boss comes in sizes 4 foot to 16 foot.

Check out the page,
http://www.roadboss.org/road-boss-action

and watch the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eBWwiHaLeg4

It shows the implement working on some good side hills. Mine works exactly as well as the one in the video. I used it at work a couple years ago on our company loading dock area. It is a half acre of packed road mix which sees an average of ten semi trucks a day turning around and backing over it. I used the eight foot road boss, mounted on a John Deere 3010, on the lot early in the spring, soon after the frost went out of the ground. It left the lot looking like a large motor grader had worked it.

great thread guys

learning some stuff, appreciated

Given that you are maintaining a variable grade, I would suggest a TR3. Google ABI TR3. A little pricey, but you cant beat it for your use.

+1 on the land plane, road boss, bionic blade, many names....

but it works for roads, plain and simple.

I've tried using box blade to fix roads, seems I just make it worse though.

Mine is just over a 1/3 of a mile long. Box blade it at least once a year, usually right after a decent shower. Drop a load or two of rocks on it every other year or as needed. Rinse and repeat.

Looks nice but I'm not seeing any prices on their website ... that scares me

I'm surprised no one has mentioned a length of chain length fence drug behind a tractor or ATV. I've used this method with good results. It's cheap as you can build it yourself, take a length of chain link fence (6' to 10' long) attach either a 2x6 board or a piece of steel to the leading edge with the option for adding more weight to the leading edge. Another option along the same line is if you can find one is drag a chain link gate.

I've used stuff like chain link to level land before planting grass. It works ok as long as the ground is soft. On a hard driveway, though, it just bounces over the top, not digging in at all. It'll dump a little loose dirt in washboards, but it won't knock off the tops of the bumps.

Just curious how you fellas size your implements? My tractor tires are 6ft wide from outside edge to outside edge, so I assume I might want an implement at least 7ft wide so that it is wider than my tracks. Or should I go with the biggest width that fits down my rock driveway. I'm thinking I might give one of those land leveler/road grader implements a try.

Thanks for all the info fellas!

imO, weight is more important than size. Heavier cuts better.

Agreed ... I noticed some brands are rated heavy duty and their levelers weigh almost twice as much as a competitors comparable sized model

I also use a chain harrow no comparsion verses the land plane.Night and day difference.

A 7' blade will be minimal - as the functional width shrinks when you angle the blade. I would go with an 8' blade for your tractor.
The slickest rig (3 point) I ever used had a hydraulic center link. When the blade was angled, you could basically vary the tilt with the center link.

Mark

We have one of these that has a set of rippers in front of the blades. Works great for fixing potholes and washouts. Ive even used it out in the pastures and hay meadow to fix hog rootin, though a good disc is far better in the field. As far as Im concerned this is the tool for maintaining your roads.

I have been busy working with the grand daughters and their two new colts each evening this week and so have not had time to check back at the "Fire.

The size of your tractor (weight and horsepower) will dictate the size of the tool you will be able to choose. I could probably hitch the 8 foot Road Boss to the back of my 25 HP Ford 8N, and it would pull it over hard packed earth. But the first time it dug in and loaded up with a yard of material, we would be done. And the Ford would not be able to lift it on the three point.

A heavy, high quality seven foot blade (like a Rhino) will work the snot out of a thirty horse tractor, if it can get a bite and fill with soil. An eight foot blade is appropriate for a forty five to fifty HP class tractor.