Front Blade Skid Shoes

[Muzzy]

The rear scraper will do it. I Use one all the time.

[ACecil]

Thanks guys!

[ACecil]

Originally Posted by Muzzy

The rear scraper will do it. I Use one all the time.

Muzzy, will the rear blade try to dig in the ground like the front blade? I need for it to do a better job of filling in low spots, ruts, etc. Thanks!

[sawdustdad]

Here's how you maintain a gravel road:

1. Using your blade, pivoted either right or left, but otherwise level, run up and down the center of your lane to scrape the gravel to either side, being sure to scrape to the bottom of any washboarding or potholes. Usually, in the center you don't have these issues, so most often, it's just to level any humps in the center of the roadbed. Then,

2. Using rear or front blade, pitched to dig deeper at the shoulder, and pivoted to push gravel to the center of the road, run up one side and then down the other side of the road, starting from the extreme edges, working to the center. Your objective here is two fold, to start to create a crown in the road surface by making the shoulders lower than the center by pushing stone to the center of the road, so water runs off sideways rather than lengthwise, reducing rutting, and secondly, to scrape the roadbed to the bottom of any potholes (ideally, but sometimes not so easy to get that deep). The reason for doing this is because if you just put loose gravel in an existing pothole, without compacting it, the first time you drive over it, it compacts and becomes a pothole again. And once a hole starts, every time you drive over it, it gets worse. Best to just eliminate them by scraping the surface to the bottom of any holes or washboarding.

3. Now you've got a big row of gravel down the middle of the road. And it all looks like pretty bad. Don't despair! Time to groom. turn your rear blade around or going backwards using the front blade, start in the middle of the road and spread the gravel to both sides. Will take multiple passes and may require you to put some weight on the blade. (Weight helps with the scraping steps 1 and 2 as well). Work from the center to the shoulders gradually as you go up and down the road. Eventually you will have a crowned, pothole-less, loose gravel drive that will compact as you drive on it.

4. Dirt. It gets all mixed up with the gravel. That's good and bad. Its' good because it compacts and takes up space between the stone. It's bad because if makes a muddy mess. But you must follow the routine, even if it scrapes up muddy gravel to the center of the road. Once you spread it (helps if it's not too wet), the mud will wash out of the top surface of gravel with the first hard rain, leaving nice clean gravel on the surface. If you share the road (I do with 8 other families) they will complain about the mud. Deal with it.They'll soon see the product of your labors after it rains a couple times.

5. Gravel. If you have a solid roadbed, you should only be spreading what we call here "Crusher Run" or, in the colloquial "Crush'n Run" or "Crush and Run." It's all the same--3/4 inch stones and smaller with a good bit of stone dust mixed in--basically everything that comes out of the stone crusher under 3/4 inch. This packs very well and makes the best road surface. If you have soft ground or a new drive, then you need larger stone first, spread and compressed into the soil, followed by the crusher run stone. If it's really soft, you may have to go as large as railroad ballast--like 3 inch stone. But that's an unusual situation unless then didn't remove the topsoil when the drive was first put in. (meaning you should first remove the topsoil down to subsoil, then come back with stone up to the necessary grade in building a driveway).

6. Timing--the best time to work the drive is after it's rained substantially. This keeps the dust down and makes the surface softer and allows cutting the surface.

Trivia: Here in the Mid Atlantic, grey granite is what we use mostly for gravel roads. Mined in quarries nearby. The three quarries in the pic below are about 8 miles from my house, in "Rockville" Virginia. This answers the age old question of how Rockville got its name I guess.

[ACecil]

Originally Posted by sawdustdad

Here's how you maintain a gravel road:

1. Using your blade, pivoted either right or left, but otherwise level, run up and down the center of your lane to scrape the gravel to either side, being sure to scrape to the bottom of any washboarding or potholes. Usually, in the center you don't have these issues, so most often, it's just to level any humps in the center of the roadbed. Then,

2. Using rear or front blade, pitched to dig deeper at the shoulder, and pivoted to push gravel to the center of the road, run up one side and then down the other side of the road, starting from the extreme edges, working to the center. Your objective here is two fold, to start to create a crown in the road surface by making the shoulders lower than the center by pushing stone to the center of the road, so water runs off sideways rather than lengthwise, reducing rutting, and secondly, to scrape the roadbed to the bottom of any potholes (ideally, but sometimes not so easy to get that deep). The reason for doing this is because if you just put loose gravel in an existing pothole, without compacting it, the first time you drive over it, it compacts and becomes a pothole again. And once a hole starts, every time you drive over it, it gets worse. Best to just eliminate them by scraping the surface to the bottom of any holes or washboarding.

3. Now you've got a big row of gravel down the middle of the road. And it all looks like pretty bad. Don't despair! Time to groom. turn your rear blade around or going backwards using the front blade, start in the middle of the road and spread the gravel to both sides. Will take multiple passes and may require you to put some weight on the blade. (Weight helps with the scraping steps 1 and 2 as well). Work from the center to the shoulders gradually as you go up and down the road. Eventually you will have a crowned, pothole-less, loose gravel drive that will compact as you drive on it.

4. Dirt. It gets all mixed up with the gravel. That's good and bad. Its' good because it compacts and takes up space between the stone. It's bad because if makes a muddy mess. But you must follow the routine, even if it scrapes up muddy gravel to the center of the road. Once you spread it (helps if it's not too wet), the mud will wash out of the top surface of gravel with the first hard rain, leaving nice clean gravel on the surface. If you share the road (I do with 8 other families) they will complain about the mud. Deal with it.They'll soon see the product of your labors after it rains a couple times.

5. Gravel. If you have a solid roadbed, you should only be spreading what we call here "Crusher Run" or, in the colloquial "Crush'n Run" or "Crush and Run." It's all the same--3/4 inch stones and smaller with a good bit of stone dust mixed in--basically everything that comes out of the stone crusher under 3/4 inch. This packs very well and makes the best road surface. If you have soft ground or a new drive, then you need larger stone first, spread and compressed into the soil, followed by the crusher run stone. If it's really soft, you may have to go as large as railroad ballast--like 3 inch stone. But that's an unusual situation unless then didn't remove the topsoil when the drive was first put in. (meaning you should first remove the topsoil down to subsoil, then come back with stone up to the necessary grade in building a driveway).

6. Timing--the best time to work the drive is after it's rained substantially. This keeps the dust down and makes the surface softer and allows cutting the surface.

Trivia: Here in the Mid Atlantic, grey granite is what we use mostly for gravel roads. Mined in quarries nearby. The three quarries in the pic below are about 8 miles from my house, in "Rockville" Virginia. This answers the age old question of how Rockville got its name I guess.

Thanks for the blade lesson, I appreciate it!

[Muzzy]

Allen, as long as you don't have alot of down pressure on the blade you'll be fine. I often run my rear blade in float if I'm knocking off high spots and filling in lows. My blade is light so it does well at leveling in float. It will dig good too if down pressure is applied. I've had much better success with a rear blade and/or a york rake for gradeing. I only use my front blade for snow.

[CADplans]

Hmmmmmm, more float/down pressure discussion!!

Allen will soon be the OCC blading Guru!!

[ACecil]

Thanks Muzzy! I hope to try my rear blade out real soon!

[ACecil]

Originally Posted by CADplans

Hmmmmmm, more float/down pressure discussion!!

Allen will soon be the OCC blading Guru!!

I sure hope so, CAD.