gravel lane

Davin · Mar 11, 2013

I have a 400 foot lane that I maintain with my 1086. I live in Southwest Iowa and have Loess soil. This soil swallows gravel and will eat 3inch rock in short time. Have any of you used Geotex or similar barrier to keep the gravel on top of the soil? My wife will not let me pave the lane because "we live in the country and will keep it that way". I might have to drive my tractor to Omaha to get to work because of the mud. Your help is appreciated.
Davin

Allan in NE · Mar 11, 2013

Stop with the gravel and she'll change 'er mind. :>)

Allan

Davin · Mar 11, 2013

You do not know my wife. She is stubborn and rarely leaves the place. I am tired of tracking mud into my mancave garage where I hang out on the weekends. Any ideas how to motivate a stubborn wife?

evilboweivel · Mar 11, 2013

geotex will keep the stone on top

RayP(MI) · Mar 11, 2013

Don't go there!

Anonymous-0 · Mar 11, 2013

Crushed asphalt works great. The hot summer sun will make it set right up for an excellent base, then you can put gravel over it. Most cities will give it to you if you will haul it.

Don-Wi · Mar 11, 2013

That's a shame she's so set against it because nobody ever said you can't have asphalt in the country...

One major benefit comes in the winter, when that nice black driveway warms up and melts all the ice and snow.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Formerly PaMike · Mar 11, 2013

I use geotextile too. Works great. Its not cheap though....

Anonymous-0 · Mar 11, 2013

Theres all ways to motivate them, But any I ever tryed just ------ em off

JDB · Mar 11, 2013

I will second the asphalt grindings. Cement grindings would work well too. Portland cement powder moxie into soil will firm it up after it gets wet

tomturkey · Mar 11, 2013

Geotextile fabric would work outstanding. But as said b4 it it expensive. Asphalt millings, also called recycled asphalt, packs in well and also sheds water. This is a bad time in Iowa, the top 4-5 inches of soil, gravel roads and drives are saturated. TThings will stabilize a a few weeks when the frost goes out. Good luck with the wifey. Wait for an opportunity that even she can't pass up. gobble

GordoSD · Mar 11, 2013

What do you mean "maintain with 1086"
Do you push snow off with bucket> do you box blade?
I have the same situation here in SE SD maybe 200 miles from you. I found the best maintenance was the least maintenance. I use a 4 inch wide 1/2 inch thick rubber strip on a atv plow. Just a light "squegee" spring and fall , and set at 30 deress and 1 inch off the drive for moving snow. Move ZERO gravel.
I have one large dump truck every other year spread on about 1/2 of it.

showcrop · Mar 11, 2013

I'll second that the Geotextile works well for that. I drive by an access road for a wood to energy plant that was put in through a swamp. I saw them putting the fabric down. The road has held up as well as if it were on ledge. It will save you a lot of money.

Royse · Mar 11, 2013

I had crushed asphalt put in mine. Roto-mill its called around here.
Had "course ground" brought first, big pieces, up to 6 inches around.
Put that down, pressed it in, then had them bring fine ground to put on top.
Works excellent, but you can still plow some of it off into the yard with the
snow if you're plowing when the ground's not froze hard.

GordoSD · Mar 11, 2013

What do you mean "maintain with 1086"
Do you push snow off with bucket> do you box blade?
I have the same situation here in SE SD maybe 200 miles from you. I found the best maintenance was the least maintenance. I use a 4 inch wide 1/2 inch thick rubber strip on a atv plow. Just a light "squegee" spring and fall , and set at 30 deress and 1 inch off the drive for moving snow. Move ZERO gravel.
I have one large dump truck every other year spread on about 1/2 of it.

S2710 · Mar 11, 2013

If you can get just the side walls out of old tires and lay them down and put gravel over the top seem to work great.One tire recycler had a machine to do that and he sold a lot of them to farmers for holding down bunker silo plastic.

Bob

tjdub · Mar 11, 2013

If you have a quarry nearby putting down a base of rip-rap size rock (12" diameter) and putting the crushed rock on top will keep the road bed from sinking. Poor man's way (my way) of doing it is filling the tractor ruts from when the frost goes out with the biggest field rocks that will fit and then filling in the gaps with gravel. Eventually the gravel stops sinking in (even in the bottomless swamp I live in).

I'm not a big fan of recycled asphalt. I had my driveway layered with it about 10 years ago and it doesn't seem any better than the gravel. It gets "muddy" this time of year even worse than the gravel does. It also seems to wash out easier than gravel during a big storm.

tomtirediron · Mar 11, 2013

If you have room get a dozer in and build some ditches and sepparation into the road to so surface aggragate doesn't stay saturated. Get in after building during dry weather and cap the top with a good 4" gravel base. Ideally look at placing some type 5 geotextile fabric under the gravel. Our bid prices here are usually about 2.00/yard installed for the fabic. 16"x400=6400/9x2.00=1500.00 I know sounds expensive but a bituminous driveway is expensive and will fail miserably and prematurely if placed on a poor grade.

Straw Boss · Mar 11, 2013

Leave your vehicles at the gate and walk in. Just be sure to tromp the mud through the house and into the kitchen before you take your boots off. I should have been a marriage counselor.

Animal · Mar 11, 2013

Track that mud in the house...

ben there · Mar 11, 2013

Blade your gravel to one side and put about a foot of sticky red clay down.Work it in real good,then blade your gravel back on top.
As far as wives go,still have all my toys and she's gone.At my age,i don't miss the headaches one bit.

Dick L · Mar 12, 2013

Tile might help. I ran a drain tile down my drive to keep the soil dry about 24 inches down. Hard to make mud out of dry dirt. A crown lets the heavy rain run off.

jwuertz · Mar 12, 2013

maybe If possible, use a lighter weight tractor to blade the snow when it is needed

Anonymous-0 · Mar 12, 2013

I put road fabric down ontop of bare ground and then covered with gravel and rolled it. I use it to put my agbags on. The bags, tractors and wagons, bagger and me on it constantly with a skidloader moving feed dosent hurt it a bit. It only gets firmer with time.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 12, 2013

I doubt asphalt will hold up if he doesn't have a firm base under it. I'd say a base of big rocks covered with oversize then good gravel. Isn't that how the Romans built the roads in England that still exist?

randallinMo · Mar 12, 2013

Straw Boss, you would have to work "cheap".

Hay hay hay · Mar 12, 2013

Built lots of gravel roads in the last 10 years on these farms. I put geo cloth under 90% of it. Where I did not, the gravel has turned to mud. Geo cloth was about a $1 a foot. Gravel is very expensive when it disappears. It is great stuff, also good for gateways into fields and around automatic waterers. A roll, 12.5ft wide and 350 ft long is $370 at the local farm store. Everyone uses it in the area.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 12, 2013

Twenty years ago I went the gravel route and after many loads finally spread a whole bunch of crushed asphalt/concrete that was left over after a big road wideing project. Pretty good lane now. Couple years ago a friend next door went with Geotex and gravel on ground less stable than mine and his lane still looks as good or better. Therefore I certainly would recommend putting fabric down first.

Wile E · Mar 12, 2013

You need to buy the 1 x 3 limestone rock. Then maybe mix in a few bags of quikrete to harden it up. I had the topsoil removed before the fill sand and limestone rock was brought in.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 13, 2013

I put road fabric down ontop of bare ground and then covered with gravel and rolled it. I use it to put my agbags on. The bags, tractors and wagons, bagger and me on it constantly with a skidloader moving feed dosent hurt it a bit. It only gets firmer with time.

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