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Stone Driveways
I don't know if this is a first tractor project or not. However, drives that need dressing material often need other maintenance as well. Things re-crowning, ditching and widening eroded areas of fill need to be done periodically. There may be some other projects that need doing before the stone, and they might be even more interesting. All maintenance can be done with a loader and back-blade, but I prefer a box scraper for grading. The trouble with a blade is that if you have to make a cut, most of the cut material comes off the blade ends, and you don't necessarily want it dumped to the side. End plates on a blade cures this limitation. Many blades also don't have enough weight to cut compacted material, but extra weight can be strapped on top. York rakes are good at final smoothing, but not so good if cutting is required. Spreading with a loader works best back dragging with the bucket floated. If appreciable new material is added, then compacting is a good idea, and compacting can be done with a loader. Back-drag a fairly flat bucket while holding down-pressure. When compacting, there's very little front-wheel steering, and brake steering has to be used. Spreading with the dump truck is a good idea that I'll bet saves more than 2-hours. After a time or two you'll just know how long something takes. In the meantime, think that a tandem load is 15-16 yards, and maybe 12 yards would have to be moved an appreciable distance. Figure the number of bucket loads from the bucket size, the average distance moved and the average speed--including loading and dumping. I don't know the answer, but I'll bet the distance is around 100' and the speed is 2-mph or less. I imagine the result is quite a bit longer than 2-hours.
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Stone Driveways
Alan: There is a formal system for classifying aggregates that I really don't know. However, common usage depends a bit on where you're located. Here, stone generally means a clean glaciated stone, and the size depends on usage. For example, septic stone is smaller than cobbles. Gravel is a mixture of sand and small stone (also called pit run I believe), and most larger aggregate is called crushed rock (maybe crusher run). If it’s graded, there are terms like pea gravel to describe size. Most people around here use gravel because it compacts and freezes. The excess sand washes out and leaves a fairly durable layer of small stone. Appreciable amounts of crushed rock are avoided, because it doesn't compact or freeze well, and often more of it ends up in the ditch than on the drive. Actually aggregate is very specific stuff. A curious side-note is that several mid-eastern desert countries import sand from Australia. Desert sand cannot be used to make concrete because it is too rounded.
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Pretty good road building advice, and I'd sure study the drainage and any grades required. If there are problems they have to be managed or the road will require lots of maintenance and may not always be passable. If it's in a snow area, some finishes are easier to clear than others.
I use the 3ph leveler to cut-side grades with my scraper (my leveler is crank adjustable though). I have to hold the 3ph up so only the down end of the blade cuts. It takes a few passes but eventually the entire width of the blade is on the new grade. Some back blades may have this adjustment but a 3ph leveler likely would work as well. It can be done but 3ph implements generally lack down-pressure so they don't work like a dozer even with hydraulics.
Many tillers will chew up sod. I don't have one so I use box scraper scarifiers. I first cut along the length and then go back across. The cutter usually pulls up most chunks of sod on the second pass and leaves most of the soil if the top-link is extended. The box collects the sod, and a road width likely equals about a full box. soem of the chunks are large enough to use elsewhere but I wouldn't count on too much. Laying it is sort of like solving jig-saw puzzles too.
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Side-level can be adjusted on the fly with a full tip and tilt setup. I think of the top-link part of it as nearly essential for scraper work and I have one. Occasionally I wish for the tilt portion but in practice I don't have to adjust the side level often enough to motivate me.
Of course, I mostly work crowns where I use the same side grade on both sides of a drive. One tilt works for both sides of the roadways. I'd definitely want tilt if I had to manually adjust the side level in order to do meaningful work going in each direction.
Doing wide shallow excavations and having to level a side-grade is a pain since there's little alternative except to lift the box and drive back the start. I have organized myself so I can do more finishing work on one side and then back up doing some rough 'cut the bumps down' work in reverse on the other side and using the rear cutter. They get to be real long days if there's much just driving around time or maneuvering required
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That seems like a useful idea Murf. I know holding position with the 3ph isn't all that great with at least my hitch. The box tends to take the angle of the grade it's on irrespective of the side level adjustment. If I hold the high end off the ground with the 3ph, then the box doesn't follow the ground contour into dips or when the tractor's front wheels go over a bump. I recall hearing a discussion about some model JD where lateral float of the link arms could be selected on or off. Don't know if that's real but it would be useful for cutting side grades.
There is another thing about cutting side grades that may be obvious. Tilt on the blade needed to get a desired grade is the difference between the grade the tractor is on and the desired side-grade. The tractor's angle changes when the blade starts cutting behind one rear tire. The tilt may have to be changed. Some 'toing and froing' usually is needed. The tilt ends up level when both rear tires on the new grade.
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Yep, and for those of us who can't find a bed spring, wrapping chainlink fencing around a timber doesn't do too badly I've heard.
I haven't used a drag myself and maybe this spring I'll try it. I put some work into getting the drives grades and crowns right. I just touch them up a couple times a year with a box scraper rolled all the way down so it rides on the back of its rear cutter but that's not as good as a drag.
Some major highway construction is supposed to happen here next summer. Maybe I can get them to run a roller up the drives. Good compacting of pit run on a proper base is almost everything in turning pit run into a durable surface for vehicles. I figure the construction company sort of owes me since they messed up the drive at our camp pretty good last year. Besides, their surveyors even sprayed a cedar fence post with marker paint rather than put in their own post. Suppose it would be wasted frustration trying to put that case though.
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