gravel road

Ken/Wa

Member
I have a half mile of gravel road to keep up. About 600 feet has flooded over in the winter
because of the beaver. I have a box blade on the 8n, and it works great when the road is
level, but makes a roller coaster road where the big pot holes were. I have seen land
levelers on the internet, but not sure they would work. Seems like what ever I use
should be at least 15 to 20 feet long. We had one on the farm when I was a kid that was
10 by 25 feet for the fields. I am not sure a 6 foot land leveler would handle the peaks and
valleys. I have a tractor with a front end loader also, but I still can"t level it right.
Some guy on CL has railroad irons connected with chains, but I think it would just
follow the contour. Any advice on the land leveler or any other ideas?
 
You need a regular back blade. Box blades are worthless to me. I have all of these big tractors but I still use an 8N for drive maintenance. I turn the blade just as sharp as I can and shorten the top link so it will really dig in. I run the edges of the lane making a foot deep furrow on either side and bring that to the crown. That will really help to level things. Then I turn the blade backwards and slightly angled and run in third gear to run the crown back down to a reasonable amount. It will to a rain to lock it all in, but you have to pull the edges in to keep it active.
 
I have a back blade, but it is as wide as the n" s tires. I can break the road up with the box blade, but do not think I could did a foot deep trench on my hard drive. We have had a grader in before to do that, but harder and harder to get one to do small job.
 
It sounds like the drive is bad enough that you need a road grader (with an operator who knows what he is doing) to get it back into shape. After it is fixed right, you should be able to maintain it with the tractor and back blade.

A set of "training wheels" several feet behind the blade would help keep the waves from forming again. There used to be blades made with them as an option. Google "back blade gauge wheels."
 
My driveway is a full mile long and this is what I use to grade it. No back blade etc is going to cut it you need something with a mid mount type balde
a194743.jpg
 
Before I got the grader I have pictured above I use a I-Beam and a chain drag set up that worked pretty good. I-Beam I have is big and heavy and top side had cement on it for extra weight
 
Now that is the rig. I know a long enough float will work, but do not want to build one. I am not sure if something this short would take out my humps.
land plane
 
this might something to start with.
it takes the std 6 ft blade, box blade or rock rake:

you add a trailing wheel or leveling wheel to the back of the machine. Depending on how far back you mount the trailing wheel will give you a smoother finish.

could be done for not so much money and a little time.

this is the only picture I found, but there are others,
this unit has all the hydraulics, but you do not need that.

concept might be worth a try.

Ferguson made a rear grader blade back in the 50's that had such a removable trailing leveling wheel for landscape work.

if I find a picture of the simple Ferguson rear blade with trailing wheel attachment I will post for you.
a194748.jpg
 
When new road gravel is laid out on a road, it is either spread with and end dump or V bottom trailer, and has lots of humps and dips. The grader has a front dozer blade that is dropped to the middle depth of the new gravel and pushed at that depth the entire mile. Then the grader is turned around and one tire is run down the now smooth center and the other along the outside while the blade is tilted slightly toward the center the entire mile and then turn around and do the other side the exact same way. Sometimes one pass over the very center with a straight blade is needed. If you could get enough of a windrow down the center, and turn your back blade around so you are pushing it, you might be able to do something similar.

Ross
 
use a subsoiler or similar to bust it up first.
Small tractors and rakes/blades/etc are really only good for leveling loose material.

I'm working on a clay trail (almost as hard as gravel!)
that will also be a water 'raceway', so it needs to be flat with downhill grade.
Subsoiler, or even my disk first to bust up high spots/dips.
Then blade, then landscape rake.
Then maintain it with my old drag.
8' wide, old horse-drawn railroad spike style, with another 8' of chainlink fence attached to the back.
 
(quoted from post at 14:37:49 06/28/15) I have a half mile of gravel road to keep up. About 600 feet has flooded over in the winter
because of the beaver. I have a box blade on the 8n, and it works great when the road is
level, but makes a roller coaster road where the big pot holes were. I have seen land
levelers on the internet, but not sure they would work. Seems like what ever I use
should be at least 15 to 20 feet long. We had one on the farm when I was a kid that was
10 by 25 feet for the fields. I am not sure a 6 foot land leveler would handle the peaks and
valleys. I have a tractor with a front end loader also, but I still can"t level it right.



Some guy on CL has railroad irons connected with chains, but I think it would just
follow the contour. Any advice on the land leveler or any other ideas?

As others have said, you just need gauge wheels to take the hills out. They convert your blade to a mid blade grader like Old's road patrol AC. In order to make your grading job last for more than a couple of rain events you need to "cut" to the bottoms of the pot holes. You could do this with a separate "scarifier" set up. A friend has a York rake with gauge wheels and a drop down scarifier. It puts everything into one package. Unfortunately his is on the small side. For longevity be sure to put plenty of "crown" into your road so that the water runs off quickly.
 
Most back blades can be turned 180 degrees so you are NOT diffing in with it! turn the blade so the C is facing away from you.Some blades dont allow this but most do. Then you are dragging it andnot digging in and having to raise it up.A friend had that problem for years till my old boss told him about it. Works great like that for pushing snow or leveing drives :D
 
get a 6 or 7' angle blade. rip it with the box and drag some dirt to low spots then blade it with angle blade. run over it to pack it.
 
Ken,
I knew if I kept looking I would find a picture of an old Ferguson rear blade with the attached trail wheel or leveling wheel.

note to file: this blade was made in the early 50's, so it is well used and beat up, but you can tell how it was made.

when new, you just removed a bolt out of the frame and you could pull out the rear trail leveling wheel frame. as the main frame was a tube, the trail wheel frame just slipped into the main frame and the bolt kept it in place.

you get the picture of how it worked.

In it's day, it was a cats meow,
had scarper blades, you could move or extent the blade to the left or right and had end caps to keep gravel, dirt from rolling out the end of the blade, at least one is still on the end of the blade.

If you found one of these with all attachments, in good condition, you would be golden.
a194798.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 17:37:16 06/29/15) Ken,
I knew if I kept looking I would find a picture of an old Ferguson rear blade with the attached trail wheel or leveling wheel.

note to file: this blade was made in the early 50's, so it is well used and beat up, but you can tell how it was made.

when new, you just removed a bolt out of the frame and you could pull out the rear trail leveling wheel frame. as the main frame was a tube, the trail wheel frame just slipped into the main frame and the bolt kept it in place.

you get the picture of how it worked.

In it's day, it was a cats meow,
had scarper blades, you could move or extent the blade to the left or right and had end caps to keep gravel, dirt from rolling out the end of the blade, at least one is still on the end of the blade.

If you found one of these with all attachments, in good condition, you would be golden.
a194798.jpg

That is the same idea as my friend's York rake with scarifier and gauge wheels. This is the sort of thing you need Ken.
 
One thing I have learned maintaining my drive is to crown the road surface if you can. I have a fairly steep grade with quite a bit of drainage hitting it, and the steep grade is heavily crowned so the water can never stay on the road surface. Best thing to remember is to never allow the water to get on, or stay on the road surface if possible. If water is allowed to stand, you will have pot holes - period. If water is allowed to run in the road, it will wash, and cause erosion of the surface. I see many roads (counties are the worst) blading the road flat or level, and allowing water to stand, and after the first rain, pot holes appear, and if they do blade out the holes, they simply level it again, and same issue again and again. I know it is tough, especially if the road is lower than the surrounding area, but try to build it up if you can, and slope it.
 
Yea, I put a crown on it, but we get 120 inches of rain on the coast, so it is hard to keep water off the road. It is an old rail road grade, and not mine. Since they are not logging up the road, they do not care. The biggest problem is the beaver. We are working on that. I just let it get away from me this winter. I can even put a crown with the box blade, but need to get of the high spots and low spots. If I made a 20 foot float, I know I could get rid of the problem.
 
I would like to find something like that, but seems like the tail wheel or the tractor wheel would just go down into the dip. I do not just have a normal pot hole. I had big deep and wide pot holes. I had the road good enough to drive the Prius, but needs to be leveled out. Really needs a grader, but hard to get one to come out.
 
(quoted from post at 23:12:41 06/29/15) I would like to find something like that, but seems like the tail wheel or the tractor wheel would just go down into the dip. I do not just have a normal pot hole. I had big deep and wide pot holes. I had the road good enough to drive the Prius, but needs to be leveled out. Really needs a grader, but hard to get one to come out.

Ken, I know now what you are referring to by deep and wide pot holes. I wouldn't call them potholes myself. You see them where ATV traffic drives at high speed on a dirt road. You are correct that you need either a road grader or a blade with gauge wheels twenty feet behind it. You also need to do some serious cutting which will take some weight and a good cutting edge.
 
Ken, you never know till you ask,

Bet the county road department has a grader

might ask them, if they are working in your area, they might drive up/down your road
And give it a touch up,

Most construction companies probably do not have an old grader out back.

Funny there is one setting out back on the farm next to me,

they are around, might buy one for a song.
 
I used to have problems with a certain kid driving his four wheeler down the side of the
road and messing up the drainage, but he grew up and is in jail now. The beaver took
over.
 
I never have seen a county grader, but they must have one. The cheapest one I have seen on cl is $10,000. I could have a float built for a lot less.
 
(quoted from post at 06:44:34 06/30/15) I never have seen a county grader, but they must have one. The cheapest one I have seen on cl is $10,000. I could have a float built for a lot less.

I have kind of wanted a grader myself for some time, but a friend who is an excavation contractor and town road agent told me that an older cheaper one would be a money pit.
 
(quoted from post at 15:04:21 06/30/15) Yea, I put a crown on it, but we get 120 inches of rain on the coast, so it is hard to keep water off the road. It is an old rail road grade, and not mine. Since they are not logging up the road, they do not care. The biggest problem is the beaver. We are working on that. I just let it get away from me this winter. I can even put a crown with the box blade, but need to get of the high spots and low spots. If I made a 20 foot float, I know I could get rid of the problem.
Tell the logging company that owns the road that your lawyer will call if they do not maintain the road.

Sounds like you need to have several truck loads of rock hauled in and dumped in the wash out. Beaver tail eats good!
 
Just do it right. Hire a grader to come do it being run by a guy with grey hair. In the long run it will be better, cheaper and easier to maintain after that.
 

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