I have a private gravel road (approx 1/4 mile) that services a couple houses, farm, and a business that I own. There is a lot of daily traffic due to the business. As with any other gravel or dirt road, the traffic drives in the middle, resulting in low spots on either side of the crown. My business has nothing to do with dirt work, so the only piece of equipment I happen to own is a Takeuchi TL240. I'm looking for recommendations on which attachment(s) can help me extend the time between getting professional maintenance work done (fresh stone, grading, compaction). Basically, I'm looking to move the high spots on the outer edges into the tire ruts so the water doesn't get trapped and wash it out. The driveway gets packed really hard from compaction and traffic. Will a simple dozer style blade work well for this? Can the grader attachments put enough pressure down to grade really hard packed surfaces? Any other recommendations for this type of work? Thanks for any help!
I own a Virnig Land Leveller and it works good for filling potholes, and filling ruts, but if I wanted to crown a road I would buy a RoadRunner Grader Box as it can cut one side to move to the center. Just being honest , that is what I would buy. Once set it can with multiple passes make a great road. Simon c
I would suggest just getting it paved! It's always easy to knock high spots down and get more gravel for low areas. Just your digging bucket can do that. But I would suggest renting or buying a used big 6' wide ride on vibrating roller after you have done the grading for maximum re-compaction. The kind of machine with a big roller in front, and wheels in the back.
What would 1/4 mile of base preparation and paving cost. Lots in Canada, maybe less where the member is. How much does he have to spend. Simon C
I'm definitely looking for something that can angle and tilt side to side, to make life easier. I want to be able to pull the edges back toward the center of the lanes and touch up the crown and cross slopes. Paving is not happening anytime soon, although that would certainly be great. I agree about the single drum roller for compaction. I rented one when we first put the road in. I'm not sure how economical it is to buy one vs occasionally renting one though. The Roadrunner looks like it would probably work well. The scarifier option would definitely help with the hard packed stone. Thanks for the suggestion.
I have been researching attachments to do the same job, and keep coming back to the Roadrunner-style box grader. A few different manufacturers offer them.
I would also recommend a box style blade. A regular blade or six way blade on a skidsteer with tracks or tires is almost impossible to grade evenly with.
I have a Roadrunner. Even though they seem like they should be pretty much foolproof, it takes some skill to get things moved to where you want them. Material mainly just flows through, and the more you run back and forth, the worse things get sometimes. I do agree for what the O.P. is looking to do it might be the best tool, but hopefully he will be able to figure it out.
Good to here from an actual owner of a Roadrunner. Most attachments take some time to get use to, including my Virnig Land Leveller. Just saying. Simon C
I have a DoMor SSHA 84” for the skid steer. It has the hyd angle blades in it. It does a really nice job but it won’t crown the road very good. I would love to have a tilting attachment to hook it to I would think that would really help. Also scarfire teeth on the front would help loosen up hard packed areas. But over all it does a good job
I have about a 1/4 mile, 20-foot-wide road that goes up a hill and serves 3 houses. One of the neighbors runs a construction company and has heavy trucks on the road all the time. The road started out as dirt when I moved here 6 years ago. I tried proper grading, carving channels for water, and renting compactors. The road would stay nice until the second rain, and then I would have to fix it after every rain. I then tried road base and gravel, and that was better, but heavy rains would bring heavy damage, and I was back to fixing it all the time. I finally got tired of the amount of time I was spending on it and convinced the other neighbors to go in on recycled asphalt. It took 75 super 10s to get the project done. I spread everything with my Cat 299d and the regular bucket. I then rented a smooth drum compactor and compacted it over two days. This product is so much better and lasts way longer than gravel or road base. It also is not nearly as dusty and is typically cheaper out of the 3. I paid $200 per super 10. After the project was completed, I found someone else who had it for $75 per super 10. Here are a couple of tips. Get your road graded out and compacted first. When the recycled asphalt comes in, spread it right where they drop it on the road. Ideally, it is freshly ground from a road, and it is still hot and has tar that is still sticky. I know this is better because the first half of the road I placed the fresh asphalt on a section of my property until I had the road ready. That added a bunch more work as well, and I had to rent a dump truck and load it again and then spread it when it was cold. The second section that I spread in place compacted better and turned out smoother than the first half. This stuff does way better when installed thick. I aimed for 8-12 inches thick! I went to install a drain and found that the top inch was still somewhat loose, but under that looked like paved road. It was so hard I had to get a concrete saw to slice the material. I was really impressed by this! Been in for a couple of years now, and I am really happy with it. Hope this helps you!