gravel driveway
David Kasper
mud most of the time, almost to the point of being unusable. We have
tried to find contractors for estimates, but they're all booked for
months ahead. How hard could this be? All we need is to rent a tractor
and have some gravel delivered, right? A problem is the driveway has
high spots and low spots and a large section of it is below grade and
fills up with water whenever it rains. Should this be filled in first?
With what? Dirt? Gravel? What kind of tractor do we need? Help us
escape this mud.
David Kasper
Ecnerwal
>How does one build a gravel driveway?
Drain, grade, crown, gravel.
>A problem is the driveway has high spots and low spots
>and a large section of it is below grade and
>fills up with water whenever it rains.
You have to solve the drainage, or it will not last. Without seeing the
drive, I can't say if what you neeed is fill, culverts, or ditches, but
usually some combination of all of those. If you simply fill a wet
section without getting the water to go somewhere else, the wet subbase
will keep moving over time and you'll have to keep fixing it.
Water needs somewhere to go that is not the driveway. A standard cross
section is ditches (wide/shallow hold up better than narrow/deep) on
either side below the whole roadbed, and the roadbed itself being
crowned (high in the center, lower at the sides) by several inches. This
gets water off the road. The ditches need to go somewhere, and water
won't flow uphill, so they had better slope in the correct direction.
You might need to rent a dumpy level or transit and a leveling rod along
with your tractor - or you can take the by-guess-and-by-golly method
(tis true that it would be hard for a few loads of gravel spread around
to hurt the driveway you describe); but your results will be better if
done so that water will leave. A cheap tubing level would also be fine,
though it's limited(by the length of the tubing) in the distance you can
deal with at once.
As for the high & low spots, a bulldozer will more easily move the high
spots into the low spots than a tractor will, and is better at moving
gravel around. Contrariwise, if you don't mind hard work and have the
time, picks, shovels, rakes and a pickup truck to carry small loads of
gravel will gradually put the driveway to rights. Now and in the future,
make war on puddles - they grow if not filled in, as vehicles splash the
muck out of them, and water flows back in while most of the solid muck
stays where it splashed.
Depending where you are and what's available, crushed limestone may be a
better choice of material than gravel. Not true if it needs to be hauled
from far away, of course. But "road pack" crushed limestone with the
fines in it will actually recement to some extent over time in your
driveway.
Only the capitals to send email - robots not welcome.
Kelly E Jones
Ecnerwal <Lawren...@SOuthernVERmont.NET> wrote:
>David Kasper wrote:
>
>>How does one build a gravel driveway?
>
> Drain, grade, crown, gravel.
Nowadays, I believe those who do this for a living will sometimes put
3" rock under the 3/4 gravel, and sometimes some sort of landscape
fabric under the rock. This helps keep the gravel from being pushed
down into the soil under the weight of vehicles. This will greatly
reduce maintenance, especially in soft muddy soils.
Kelly
Hillsboro, OR
SamSurveyr
>3" rock under the 3/4 gravel, and sometimes some sort of landscape
>fabric under the rock. This helps keep the gravel from being pushed
>down into the soil under the weight of vehicles. This will greatly
>reduce maintenance, especially in soft muddy soils.
Good point, Kelly........especially if you want it to last. But if you've got
the time, you can do what my dad and I did (for years)....when the ruts appear,
go on the hill and start throwing the largest sized rocks that would fit in the
ruts...do that every time a rut appears......after several years (or not) the
road will stabilize somewhat and you can start graveling, first with 2-3"stone
or maybe 3/4" if you have a good base. If you've got a talented dump truck
driver, he can throw a chock in his tailgate in the center and make 25 tons of
stone go about 1500 feet, right in the wheel ruts where you need it.
Perserverance is a must on a project like this.
Sam
Robert Reite
>
> David Kasper <proj...@mindspring.com> wrote in article
> <3713A3F2...@mindspring.com>...
> > How does one build a gravel driveway? Our driveway is dirt, actually
> > mud most of the time, almost to the point of being unusable. We have
> > tried to find contractors for estimates, but they're all booked for
> > months ahead. How hard could this be? All we need is to rent a tractor
> > high spots and low spots and a large section of it is below grade and
> > With what? Dirt? Gravel? What kind of tractor do we need? Help us
> > escape this mud.
> >
> > David Kasper
> >
> >
>
>
> Don't know where you live, but I assume it is now in the country. This
> probably never entered your mind but the people in every house for 5 square
> miles are your NEIGHBORS. They would be more than happy to advise you,
> possibly even help or loan you equipment to do the job, but you have to
> knock on their door, probably have to listen to a story or two, share a
> beer with them. Try it , they will help. Your alternative is to hire a
> contractor and you will fill those holes with money.
>
> Jack
Or if your neighbors don't have equipment, ask them for references.
That's how I found
the backhoe operator that I use. By all means put down pit run (coarse
stones) first, then
gravel on top of that. After the road is built, you can maintain it yourself
with a pickup truck and shovel. We have 10 tons of gravel on hand to
fill in the low
spots as they show up. This worked fine until the one year when we had
a REALLY bad
rain and it took out 250 ft of the road. It cost about $1200 in pit
run, gravel and backhoe time
to get it put right. Yes, while we had the backhoe we dug a ditch on
the "high" side of
the road to keep it from washing out again.
jbiagini
SWSURVIV1
>> <3713A3F2...@mindspring.com>...
>> > How does one build a gravel driveway? Our driveway is dirt, actually
>> > mud most of the time, almost to the point of being unusable. We have
>> > tried to find contractors for estimates, but they're all booked for
>> > months ahead. How hard could this be? All we need is to rent a tractor
>> > and have some gravel delivered, right? A problem is the driveway has
>> > high spots and low spots and a large section of it is below grade and
>> > fills up with water whenever it rains. Should this be filled in first?
>> > With what? Dirt? Gravel? What kind of tractor do we need? Help us
>> > escape this mud.
>> >
>> > David Kasper
Ok now its time for a heavy equiptment operator to answer your question. Having
done this full time for the last 6 years I have learned a thing or two.
1. Strip out all topsoil from the drive if there is any. Remove it and pile it
for later use.
2. Fill the drive base with 2in crushed stone w/fines. Fill until it is at the
surrounding terain level or at the level you desire.
3. compact this stone into place. This can be done with a loader, fill the
bucket with sand and drive back and forth until it is "tracked in"
4. Level this base (sub-grade).
5. Use either 21AA (expensive but worth the price) or use 22A cheaper but
better than "road gravel" or "bank run gravel"
6.spread gravel with a 3 inch crown or bank in the direction you want water to
flow to.
7. Compact this gravel in as before.
8. Finish grade.
9. dig ditches on both sides of drive, allow water to run from ditch to a
"retention area"
10. IF AVAILABLE USE CRUSHED CONCRETE OVER THE 2 INCH CRUSHED STONE. instead of
the gravel.
11. reshape the surrounding terrain for water runoff.
12. ENJOY
any more questions just ask.
Steve owner of S.W. MI. SURVIVAL SUPPLY. Sam Andy Foods dealer. Its
better to have it now and throw it away in 20 years than need it at Y2K and not
have it. PGP Public Key available on request. Only the unprepared will die
young.
Paul
of clay heavily packed, raised a few feet above the surrounding ground, and
covered with several inches of gravel.
The closer you get to that, the better.
Using all gravel will get spendy. Using just any old dirt will not be as
good. Try for a happy medium. The road bed should _always_ be higher than
surrounding ground, and if you are cut into a hillside, then make it a
little higher if you can, since water will ooze out of the hill & cause
frost boils in your road.
--->Paul
Jim Schutt
It depends on your site. If the soil turns to mud quickly after a wetting,
it will not make a suitable subgrade for your gravel. Eventually, the soil
will work up through the gravel (or ther gravel settle into the soil) and
you still have a problem. Many people use this approach; you may just have
to keep adding gravel until the road surface has stabilized.
A recommended approach is to remove the top few inches (hopefully only 3-4
inches) of the loose, mud-prone soil to get to a soil that is tighter since
it has been disturbed less. Then add a well-graded gravel such as that use
by highway departments. A well-graded gravel has aggregate of different
sizes along with a considerable percentage of fine particles to bind the
aggregate together. Do no use "septic gravel" or "pea gravel" types where
the aggregate is all the same size. The gravel should be placed in layers
of 2", crowned or sloped to drain, and then compacted. The equipment laying
the gravel is usually sufficient for driveways.
I hired a contractor with a roadgrader to install our driveway (about 600')
and it cost me $2000 including the gravel and grader time. I don't regret
it. I have a tight surface that no amount of rain or construction trucks
have been able to damage. Don't skimp. A good road is worth the money.
Good luck;
Jim
Michael Burr
>
> walking in and out of the driveway all spring, usually carrying a backpack
> full of books or groceries. The only part I don't like is seeing fresh grizzley
> bear tracks in the mud when I'm not carrying a gun...
Hmmm... trudging through grizzly territory with a backpack full of
groceries - just what do you do for excitement Jan? ;^)
--
Michael Burr - Renaissance Man Wanna-Be
97% is enough! Support Julia Butterfly - http://www.lunatree.org/
R.O.
David Kasper wrote in message <3713A3F2...@mindspring.com>...
>
Rent a 450 John Deere dozer with a 6 way tilt blade and reshape the road to
have ditches on each side and a crown in the middle. Make sure you do it in
dry weather. Dozers aren't hard to drive and you would have 8 hours to get
the feel of it. Gravel would be wasted if the road won't shed water.
RO
Raul Almquist
> mud most of the time, almost to the point of being unusable. We have
> tried to find contractors for estimates, but they're all booked for
> months ahead. How hard could this be? All we need is to rent a tractor
> and have some gravel delivered, right? A problem is the driveway has
> high spots and low spots and a large section of it is below grade and
> fills up with water whenever it rains. Should this be filled in first?
> With what? Dirt? Gravel? What kind of tractor do we need? Help us
> escape this mud.
Depends on how you set it up... my driveway is a tad long and the first
940 feet were 12 inches or so deep with the black poopy mud probably
similiar to yours.
I located several apartment complexes and notified their managements
that I would haul away their old apartment carpeting free of charge for a
period of time, quite a few took me up and in no time I had a mess of
carpeting stashed up under a carport. I used carpeting for a fabric mud
barrier, but if you don't mind the $ then go with gardening fabric or road
fabric.
In the month of auguest (when the ground was VERY dry and firm) I leased
(leased it for 80 hours of use, and only needed it 40 hours) a D5LGP (low
ground pressure) Cat dozer to clear my driveway out (trees and all),
gouged ditching on both sides and smoothed the driveway surface as best as
possible (which was the first time I ever worked a dozer in my life).
I laid that old carpeting on the driveway surface, had a local hauler
haul in class 5. I had her lay it at an average depth of 4 inches as she
drove down my drive. After which I used my bobcat to level and smooth
thing out for the next step (some people would stop at the class 5, but I
wanted it better than that for mine).
She then hauled in 1"-1.75" rock/gravel and laid it to an average depth
of 2"-3" inches on top of the class 5. I used the bobcat to smooth things
out.
Lastly she picked up a load of black dirt for another garden, and with
the dirt in the back she cruised back and forth on my driveway for more
than an hour (packing things down real nicely), and dropped the dirt where
I wanted it.
My drive has been in operation for many years now, and recently when I
had some timber harvested the timber company only had to drop a little
extra gravel across the river crossing (for their piece of mind, not that
it actually needed more) and widen out two turns for their flatbeds, but
other than those two changes for more than three weeks they had no problem
hauling load after load out of my driveway.
For many people laying some kind of fabric down and then laying class 5
would be enough for them.
What you want to do is:
00. Work on your driveway during a dry period if at all possible,
typically july to mid/late august is a pretty good bet.
01. Create drainage to drain water away instead of leaving it standing
in/on your driveway.
02. Build UP your driveway so it sits a little higher than the ground
around it, promoting better drainage.
Typically if you gouge ditches on each side of the driveay, you can aim
the gouged earth towards the center of your driveway, thus building the
actual driveway upwards while also accomplishing your ditching.
When you are satisfied with your ditching, then just level and smooth out
the now built up driveway surface.
02. Create some kind of barrier to the mud (many use fabric. Some just
keep adding class 5 or rock until things equalize, but if you use fabric
as a barrier you will not have to keep adding).
03. Lay a decent amount of class 5. Contact your county highway dept's
engineer, he/she will be able to tell you how deep class 5 should be laid
for your area.
04. (OPTIONAL) Finish with rock/gravel.
and that should do it
You can also go to your neighbors and ask for how they got their
driveways accomplished.
--
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Sojourner
>
> Don't know where you live, but I assume it is now in the country. This
> probably never entered your mind but the people in every house for 5 square
> miles are your NEIGHBORS. They would be more than happy to advise you,
> possibly even help or loan you equipment to do the job, but you have to
> knock on their door, probably have to listen to a story or two, share a
> beer with them. Try it , they will help. Your alternative is to hire a
> contractor and you will fill those holes with money.
My neighbors all have rutted, washed out, barely passable driveways.
They tell me to dump gravel every year.
This may work (eventually) to a certain extent on the hard, stony ground
that most of them seem to have, but it won't work on my pasture - which
is deep and nearly rock and gravel free.
The truck that brought the gravel up to my place (for a cement slab)
sank in my pasture up to its axles, then the tow truck that came out
after it also got stuck. Any rock dumped directly on the ground at my
place will disappear in nothing flat.
The neighbors don't seem to realize this. <VBG>
Holly ;-D
Raul Almquist
> Unless you are made of money, you'll need to compromise that somehow. You
> need to consider:
Many variables to reach "thousands & thousands of dollars", mine is more
than 2400' so of course it cost me several $K, but for that length it
usually does... but I know of people who have decent drives (shorter than
mine) who get it done for FAR less.
Larry Caldwell
writes:
> The truck that brought the gravel up to my place (for a cement slab)
> sank in my pasture up to its axles, then the tow truck that came out
> after it also got stuck. Any rock dumped directly on the ground at my
> place will disappear in nothing flat.
When you have soil that soft, start with railroad ballast and build up a
couple feet, compact with a vibrating roller, then do the 2" and smaller
stone with a crown in the center. Be sure to pay careful attention to
drainage, and install culverts and ditches anywhere there is standing
water.
-- Larry
Larry Caldwell
> Gravel would be wasted if the road won't shed water.
Yep. It's water splash that causes mud puddles. Tires splash water out
of a small mud puddle, which carries gravel and fines with the water and
makes the puddle bigger. No puddles means no puddles. Dispose of the
water first, don't just toss gravel into a bottomless hole.
-- Larry
Paul
many tax payers per square mile to pay for that expense, you have to live
with a rutty gravel driveway. It's part of the trade-off you made when you
moved out there.
Building a good solid road bed takes thousands & thousands of dollars.
Unless you are made of money, you'll need to compromise that somehow. You
need to consider:
Spring is the worst time for a driveway, and wet springs are _real_ bad. We
often have a week or 2 where we leave the car at the end of the driveway,
and walk in.
You can build up a rutty driveway over time, and add gravel to top it off
in a few years. Then like any gravel road, you'll need to grade it, & add
10% gravel to it every few years to maintain it.
It seems very odd to me to call a tow truck. Doesn't anyone have a tractor?
Never heard of a tow truck coming out to a farm? To me that's a sign of the
rural ways & neighborliness dying, and actually your message makes me
sad....
--->Paul
Sojourner <sojo...@missouri.org> wrote in article
<3719881A...@missouri.org>...
> jbiagini wrote:
> >
> > Don't know where you live, but I assume it is now in the country. This
> > probably never entered your mind but the people in every house for 5
square
> > miles are your NEIGHBORS. They would be more than happy to advise you,
> > possibly even help or loan you equipment to do the job, but you have to
> > knock on their door, probably have to listen to a story or two, share a
> > beer with them. Try it , they will help. Your alternative is to hire a
> > contractor and you will fill those holes with money.
>
> My neighbors all have rutted, washed out, barely passable driveways.
> They tell me to dump gravel every year.
>
> This may work (eventually) to a certain extent on the hard, stony ground
> that most of them seem to have, but it won't work on my pasture - which
> is deep and nearly rock and gravel free.
>
> The truck that brought the gravel up to my place (for a cement slab)
> sank in my pasture up to its axles, then the tow truck that came out
> after it also got stuck. Any rock dumped directly on the ground at my
> place will disappear in nothing flat.
>
Raul Almquist
> pucker factor getting my 800+ lb Gold Wing up and down that drive! If
> it is dry, I usually end up riding in the grass to one side of the
> drive... which is still dangerous but less tricky than dealing with
> gravel!
Ha, excellent... pucker factor indeed.
Try riding a Magna V65 in Minnesota winters with ice on the road and
snow falling thickly, you quickly learn that gravel ain't no problem <G>
Been riding for years around here all year round and up til three years
ago when a punk in his dad's NEW (under 2K miles on it) jeep grand
cherokee decided that a stop sign ment go right thru an intersection
without stopping or looking and over me and my bike... winter MN weather
wasn't enough to get me to park my bike, much less worry about gravel.
> What are my options for getting a solid surface that will be safe for
> my Wing? I'm about 400 feet from the paved road (I know, I know, not
> terribly rural :). I know I could have asphalt put in, but that is
> expensive.. What about "dump and run" or "surface treatment"? I have
> heard these two (are they the same?) options mentioned before but have
> never seen what they look like... Will they work well for a
> motorcycle?
Hmmm, if that is all you have then I would look at some class 5 to drop,
problem is that it would be a few years before the class 5 packed down
enough to be steady enough in the wet seasons.
You could try dropping smaller crushed rock (with the rock powder), that
packs fairly well for biking while also allowing decent drainage and being
fairly weather tolerent, of the choices I can think of, this is the one I
would use.
Brian Carlson
pucker factor getting my 800+ lb Gold Wing up and down that drive! If
it is dry, I usually end up riding in the grass to one side of the
drive... which is still dangerous but less tricky than dealing with
gravel!
What are my options for getting a solid surface that will be safe for
my Wing? I'm about 400 feet from the paved road (I know, I know, not
terribly rural :). I know I could have asphalt put in, but that is
expensive.. What about "dump and run" or "surface treatment"? I have
heard these two (are they the same?) options mentioned before but have
never seen what they look like... Will they work well for a
motorcycle?
Thank,
Brian
(BTW, I take delivery of my John Deere 1050 today... I feel like a
kid on Christmas Eve, I can't concentrate on my work at all... that's
why I find myself browsing misc.rural :)
On Sun, 18 Apr 1999 02:30:43 -0800, snow...@xyz.net (Jan Flora)
wrote:
>In article <37160DF7...@halcyon.com>, mb...@halcyon.com wrote:
>
>>Jan Flora wrote:
>>>
>>> walking in and out of the driveway all spring, usually carrying a backpack
>>> full of books or groceries. The only part I don't like is seeing fresh
>grizzley
>>> bear tracks in the mud when I'm not carrying a gun...
>>
>>Hmmm... trudging through grizzly territory with a backpack full of
>>groceries - just what do you do for excitement Jan? ;^)
>
>During the summer, we barbeque salmon (the whole fish, in tinfoil)
>out in the yard, which is in a grizzley travel corridor. It keeps things
>interesting ;-)
>
> Jan
bikerbabe in black leather
Brian Carlson <brc...@inmind.die.spammer.die.com> wrote:
>I have a gravel driveway on a fairly steep hill... It's a fairly high
>pucker factor getting my 800+ lb Gold Wing up and down that drive! If
>it is dry, I usually end up riding in the grass to one side of the
>drive... which is still dangerous but less tricky than dealing with
>gravel!
>
>What are my options for getting a solid surface that will be safe for
>my Wing? I'm about 400 feet from the paved road (I know, I know, not
>terribly rural :). I know I could have asphalt put in, but that is
>expensive.. What about "dump and run" or "surface treatment"? I have
>heard these two (are they the same?) options mentioned before but have
>never seen what they look like... Will they work well for a
>motorcycle?
I ride the NiteHawk down my 1000' drive which is a third gravel and
2/3ds dirt. The key with gravel and motorcycles is that it be well
compacted and large enough stone to stay compacted. When riding on
gravel roads you ride in the wheel ruts, right? That's where the
gravel is most compacted. You might see about getting a compactor to run
down your drive a few times.
--
Anmar Mirza #Chief of Tranquility#I'm a cheap date, but an expensive pet.
EMT-D TBTW10#Base, Lawrence Co. #Road rage is a nice term for "immature."
N9ISY (tech)#Somewhere out on the# Have sawmill, will travel.
EOL DoD#1147#Mirza Ranch.#http://php.indiana.edu/~amirza/home.html
Brian Carlson
usually ride on top of the crown where there is little to no gravel.
Also most gravel roads (here) aren't very steep, a level gravel road
isn't too challenging (until you have to stop quickly that is).
The problem with my drive is how steep it is... when you are powering
up the hill (gently applying power that is) the rear wheel starts
slipping on loose gravel and dislodging the compacted gravel :( The
easiest way up (when it's too wet to use the grass) is to build up a
fairly good head of steam so you don't have to apply as much throttle
to climb... that only gets you so far though.
Maybe I need to use larger stones... Or maybe I need mud grips on my
wing... I wonder of one of the aggressive Ag tires on the front of my
4wd John Deere would fit the Wing :)
Brian
On 20 Apr 1999 15:44:25 GMT, ami...@steel.ucs.indiana.edu (bikerbabe
Rick Downer
>
> Actually, on most of the state maintained gravel roads around here, I
> usually ride on top of the crown where there is little to no gravel.
> Also most gravel roads (here) aren't very steep, a level gravel road
> isn't too challenging (until you have to stop quickly that is).
>
> The problem with my drive is how steep it is... when you are powering
> up the hill (gently applying power that is) the rear wheel starts
> slipping on loose gravel and dislodging the compacted gravel :(
Have you considered paving stones? You don't need to pave a 10' wide
strip for a motorcycle.
--
Rick Downer
BCAG I/S, Renton
richard....@boeing.com
Larry Sher
building. They allow the building process to be quick, easy, less expensive,
and durable. I used Mirafi 600X. It is wonderful stuff. It costs about 8-10
cents/sq.ft., which is not only considerably less than the cost of the gravels
it replaces but much more permanent. Here is a good reference.
http://208.133.53.202/range/prodx.html
-Larry
Jim Schutt wrote:
> David;
>
> It depends on your site. If the soil turns to mud quickly after a wetting,
> it will not make a suitable subgrade for your gravel. Eventually, the soil
> will work up through the gravel (or ther gravel settle into the soil) and
> you still have a problem. Many people use this approach; you may just have
> to keep adding gravel until the road surface has stabilized.
>
> A recommended approach is to remove the top few inches (hopefully only 3-4
> inches) of the loose, mud-prone soil to get to a soil that is tighter since
> it has been disturbed less. Then add a well-graded gravel such as that use
> by highway departments. A well-graded gravel has aggregate of different
> sizes along with a considerable percentage of fine particles to bind the
> aggregate together. Do no use "septic gravel" or "pea gravel" types where
> the aggregate is all the same size. The gravel should be placed in layers
> of 2", crowned or sloped to drain, and then compacted. The equipment laying
> the gravel is usually sufficient for driveways.
>
> I hired a contractor with a roadgrader to install our driveway (about 600')
> and it cost me $2000 including the gravel and grader time. I don't regret
> it. I have a tight surface that no amount of rain or construction trucks
> have been able to damage. Don't skimp. A good road is worth the money.
>
> Good luck;
>
> Jim
>
> David Kasper wrote:
>
> > How does one build a gravel driveway? Our driveway is dirt, actually
> > mud most of the time, almost to the point of being unusable. We have
> > tried to find contractors for estimates, but they're all booked for
> > months ahead. How hard could this be? All we need is to rent a tractor
> > and have some gravel delivered, right? A problem is the driveway has
> > high spots and low spots and a large section of it is below grade and
> > fills up with water whenever it rains. Should this be filled in first?
> > With what? Dirt? Gravel? What kind of tractor do we need? Help us
> > escape this mud.
> >
> > David Kasper
mc...@telxon.com
"Paul" <I...@hate.spam> wrote:
> It seems very odd to me to call a tow truck. Doesn't anyone have a tractor?
> Never heard of a tow truck coming out to a farm? To me that's a sign of the
> rural ways & neighborliness dying, and actually your message makes me
> sad....
I had to call a tow truck once to pull the tractor out of a ditch. But the
tractor is real handy for pulling out vehicles. The police don't seem to mind
too much as it usually gets the road clear much faster than waiting for a tow
truck. However, one off-roader got his truck stuck so well it took my 4WD
tractor and two other 4WD vehicles all pulling together to get him out.
Michael Courtney
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
C. Brunner
Wing that he rides 17 miles to work once spring arrives (which it has,
here in AL). The problem is our approx. 1/3-mile gravel driveway...
I think he has less trouble where we've used "crusher-run", which has
enough fines to harden up like concrete once it gets wet a few times.
The regular, evenly sized crushed rock is awful for his bike. No
kidding, there have been times that we've mused about paving the whole
thing.
C. Brunner
(Address contains a spamblock: "NOT")
On Tue, 20 Apr 1999 14:43:00 GMT, brc...@inmind.die.spammer.die.com
(Brian Carlson) wrote:
>I have a gravel driveway on a fairly steep hill... It's a fairly high
>pucker factor getting my 800+ lb Gold Wing up and down that drive! If
>it is dry, I usually end up riding in the grass to one side of the
>drive... which is still dangerous but less tricky than dealing with
>gravel!
>What are my options for getting a solid surface that will be safe for
>my Wing?...
C. Brunner
with "seeps" where water oozes out of hillsides once the water table
is saturated. Our driveway was constructed as you describe, but there
was one problem area. At a stretch where the roadbed parallels a
hillside (on the contour), the clay bed created a sort of dam which
impeded the flow of water from a seep in the hillside. The dozer crew
realized it was a bad area (they kept sinking), so they dug it out and
packed in more clay. That just made it worse. We had to drop several
loads of rock (don't know the grade, but they were fist-sized), drive
over that for months to pack it in, then spread gravel on top. Oh,
and very important--we put in drainage pipes to carry the water under
the roadbed from the seep to the downhill side.
C. Brunner
(Address contains a spamblock: "NOT")
On 14 Apr 1999 00:18:13 -0600, "Paul" <I...@hate.spam> wrote:
>I sure hope you get better advise than this, but: A real road bed is made
>of clay heavily packed, raised a few feet above the surrounding ground, and
>covered with several inches of gravel. [snip]