I'm working with clay that is the consistency of modeling clay. It ruts bad when trying to pack it with the skid steer. I'm wondering if there's any tricks to make it easier to work with or if trying to pack it with the track loader might work better?
Think you will have to incorporate some sand into the clay. The clay needs material to bond with, as the natural of the clay is moist and pliable so you will have to dry it out! Just my $0.02 worth of advice!
You're trying to pack it. To pack it properly, it has to be between "too dry" and "too wet". Too dry conditions just throw up a dust cloud and no packing occurs. Too wet conditions and you just squish the soil around and no packing occurs. Right now, I need to pack soil that is virtually dust, so I have to wait for some rain to firm it up. My guess is that you're going to have to let the soil dry up some before you can effectively pack it.
If "pumpy", where when you drive over it, the clay pushes down and rises up above grade next to it, then the only way to solve is to excavate down to dry clay removing all the wet clay. Sometimes you can feel this just standing on wet clay as you shift your weight from one leg to the other. Pile the wet clay and cover with a tarp until late Spring when it should become super hard! As soon as you excavate don't let the dry clay get wet. Lay some permeable cloth, then larger angular rocks, or old asphalt, bricks, pavers, or concrete at least 6-12" thick. Then top with your favorite gravel such as 1 1/4 minus and lightly compact.
You’re wasting your time trying to compact it. For one thing it’ll never dry out and will heave if you ride a bike over it. You’ve either got to dry it before you lay it, mix it with dry material, or bin it and find some better material. I hope you’ve got better weather than here, or the first two options are out. this applies to the blue clay where I am in the UK. Your red clay may dry out more easily but our stuff, if you use it wet it’ll be wet ten years later.
I remember a guy saying that working wet material back and forth with a cat can help dry it up to make a road. I thought there might be some tricks to make it more manageable. I have some material that's not as wet that is helping a little bit. The skid steer tires are pretty narrow too which doesn't help. Maybe the track loader would work better?? If I can't get it packed I'll just try to get it smooth so water runs off.
Spread it in a thin layer, backdrag the track shovel teeth through it to rough it up and increase surface area so it dries quicker. Rinse and repeat.
I took some of the clay that had been piled up earlier and it was only a little too wet. I at least got it reasonably smooth so hopefully any rain will run off. I think if I had a compactor that was wider would have helped. Hopefully the weather will be decent enough it dries some. Then I might bring the track loader over to try and pack it better. The drier material worked not to bad to fix a jump face on an older fully packed surface. I didn't need it to be very thick. Below is a pic. of the new jump I'm building with the drier material added to the softer material. I found the wind helps to dry it too. The jump is about 5' high and 40-45' long. Not sure yet if I'm going leave it as just a table top or make it a step up where you jump over a higher back side. Riders that don't clear it can land on top of the 2nd level. I want to keep the track pretty safe so don't have double jumps. It takes a lot more material to fill in the middle though.
You can't pack dust, and you can't pack mud. Dust is easier to fix, just add water. Mud you must have mother nature's cooperation. If the weather forecast is favorable, dig it out and leave it spread out in clumps. The more surface area the faster it will dry. If the weather moves against you the faster it will get even wetter.
It's a fine line between too wet and too dry. Moist and crumbly is what you want. I can add some drier material and it will help to pack everything together. I wish I could get a few sunny warms days but I might have to wait till spring. I'm not sure if it might pack a little if the top gets slightly frozen. I'm thinking the track loader with the hoe on the back is worth a try if it gets a little stiffer from freezing.
This won't work. Compaction works by removing the air between particles. A soil that is frozen may look like it is compacting, but once it thaws and the water evaporates, a multitude of tiny air pockets is what remains, thus your soil will still be spongy.
I think I'll try to find or dig some drier material to put on top and compact that before it gets too cold. I can build it a little higher and pack it again in the spring. The skid steer tires are just too narrow. The new material I used today was just slightly too wet. It worked in thin lifts to fix one jump face. I need something pretty dry and I think I can pack it in pretty good before it freezes. Too bad I didn't have a dozer or CTL with wider tracks. That would pack it sufficiently for the winter.
Yes! Get a few dump truck loads of non-cohesive soil. But you need to remove the wet clay down to dry clay or that wet clay will pump up through the new dry stuff.
If its not something critical that needs good compaction like a road or a building pad, I smooth it off and then let it be. Eventually it will get firm, at least with the clay we have around here, but it may take weeks or months (dry summer weather.) Unless you bring in better material you're really at the mercy of the weather no matter what you do. If you want to try to speed the process roughing up the soil with a disc, sheepsfoot roller or even your bucket teeth will speed the drying time if you have sunny/windy weather. Just make sure you get it slicked off again before more rain/snow or you'll be right back where you started. Any 'compacting' you are doing now with it so wet is just making the situation worse.
I'm hoping to put about a foot of dry material on top and level that off. The jump face is the most critical but most rain/water should run off and it gets all the sun. The top is spongy and ruts but not enough that the skid steer bottoms out. I've had worse material where the skid steer gets high centered and I had to push myself out with the bucket. This stuff I can at least drive on without getting stuck. I think it is packing some so hopefully adding some dry material on top will let me level it off and at least pack the top surface. The sides are open so thinking it that will help it dry in warmer weather.
I wish I had a sheepsfoot or at least something wide to drive on it. Maybe the track loader would work?? I think it could pack enough with something wider. I could try rototilling it if I get a decent enough sunny day to help it dry.
Do add the one foot of dry (non-clay) material using an excavator with wide bucket. With every bucket of new fill you add, grade it using the bucket and use the bucket to very lightly compact smooth to a finish appearance. Keep the machine off the new material. If you drive over it with the track loader (which I don't recommend), you're going to push it all down and out. If you use a roller, don't vibrate.
This ^^. Can't tell you how many 1,000's of hours we have racked up "conditioning" wet soils in order to achieve satisfactory nuke tests. You can use a dozer, track loader, excavator or even a skid. If it's a stockpile that's two wet we'll dig through and make windrows with an excavator, let it dry out and as Ih said "rinse and repeat". Winter's coming so we'll have to get back in practice...
I'll see if I scrape up some dry clay with the grader. I only need about a dump truck full.