Road maintenance

random

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Should have taken pics, but was too busy...

I recently had my road graded and drainage put in. The expected result happened after the first serious rain (last week) and some of the rock dams gummed up with mud, silt, and leaves, so I got to spend the afternoon cleaning that all out. A couple of them were so filled up they had become solid dams, so I had to pull them apart & rebuild. Found enough rocks around the road to build a few more. Then a few passes with the grader attachment to smooth things out.

Just in time for tomorrow's rain!

Anyone else have long dirt roads to maintain? Mine is almost a mile, all mine to care for. Any tricks, tips, hard-learned lessons or goofs to share?
 
I don’t have any tips but I am a little jealous of a mile long drive. I live in the country but my house is still only about 80ft from a busy road.
 
Anyone else have long dirt roads to maintain? Mine is almost a mile, all mine to care for. Any tricks, tips, hard-learned lessons or goofs to share?

I have about two miles of roads to maintain here on the farm. The best tip that I can give you is to keep a gentle crown in all your roads. You want the water to runoff the shortest distance to the sides, not down the road.

Hands down, the very best implement that I use to maintain my roads is a driveway scraper (and I choose it over my motor grader). I'll make a pass one way with the scraper centered between the crown and the edge of the road (centered over one wheel rut), and then on the return trip do the same thing on the other side of the road. It works great, and is much easier to use than a box blade.


driveway scraper.jpg
 
I have about two miles of roads to maintain here on the farm. The best tip that I can give you is to keep a gentle crown in all your roads. You want the water to runoff the shortest distance to the sides, not down the road.

Hands down, the very best implement that I use to maintain my roads is a driveway scraper (and I choose it over my motor grader). I'll make a pass one way with the scraper centered between the crown and the edge of the road (centered over one wheel rut), and then on the return trip do the same thing on the other side of the road. It works great, and is much easier to use than a box blade.


View attachment 163441

This, keep a crown like scott refers to and a road grader attachment works great for maintaining them. We have a larger one for a big tractor but still same princpal and works quicker and better than motor grader unless the road is just in horrible shape.
 
I have about two miles of roads to maintain here on the farm. The best tip that I can give you is to keep a gentle crown in all your roads. You want the water to runoff the shortest distance to the sides, not down the road.

1406121215974-NRU1IVCGYQ9L36YVGPAA

This is what I have. Basically try to do the same thing, but last year all the rain showed me that I have (as I though) a serious drainage problem. It couldn't bear up to all the flow and large parts of the road got washed out. All along the path of the (unused) phone cable.

I didn't have the equipment to regrade that mess and put in drainage but another guy from the local VFD did. Seems a whole lot better now - guess I'll see how it holds up!
 
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I really want one of these. I use a manual adjust beat to hell model currently.
They bring 3k used, so it's not a cheap buy.
It let's me clean the ditches and pull the gravel back into the middle. Definitely my favorite road maintenance tool.

00O0O_cZEpm3Ki2xG_600x450.jpg
 
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I really want one of these. I use a manual adjust beat to hell model currently.
They bring 3k used, so it's not a cheap buy.

View attachment 163605


We have 10ft rhino hydraulic swing and tilt without the tail wheel if intrested might part with since we rarely use it any more. But it is heavy and takes a good size tractor to carry it.

We prefer the road grader just for road maintance as it does not tend to dig as much and better at dressing off the humps.
 
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1406121215974-NRU1IVCGYQ9L36YVGPAA

This is what I have. Basically try to do the same thing, but last year all the rain showed me that I have (as I though) a serious drainage problem. It couldn't bear up to all the flow and large parts of the road got washed out. All along the path of the (unused) phone cable.

I didn't have the equipment to regrade that mess and put in drainage but another guy from the local VFD did. Seems a whole lot better now - guess I'll see how it holds up!

That looks like it would work pretty well too.
 
We have 10ft rhino hydraulic swing and tilt without the tail wheel if intrested might part with since we rarely use it any more. But it is heavy and takes a good size tractor to carry it.

We prefer the road grader just for road maintance as it does not tend to dig as much and better at dressing off the humps.

My 40hp tractor would struggle with it.
Maybe I could sawzall off a couple feet on each end. ;)
 
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