Packing/sealing a gravel road after 'resurfacing' / land plane

[pacosperson]

I have about 1/2 mile gravel road which takes a beating. I'm going to redo it with fabric and gravel, but I want to figure out a way to pack it as smoothly as possible, after I'm through with a land plane. A lot of the road is on a north facing hill, and it tends to wash out, even though I plan on raising and crowning it, I'd like to pack it in, as when I leave it loose, it is gone in 2-3 weeks.

Typically, I get my F350 out and drive up and down the driveway as many times as it takes to track in everything, but it always drives me crazy, as it seems like there should be a better alternative. I'm not going to buy a vibratory packer, although that would be what I'd actually like. I've looked at skid steer vibratory packers, but they are ridiculously expensive $15-20K. I've looked at tractor tow pneumatic 'Wobbly type - trailers' which would work VERY well... but new, they are same price and used... they are all in Canada, that I find, and by the time they are shipped to me, they are once again pushing the $$$ up to $12-15K and are 'well worn' by the looks of them.

Matt, from YT channel 'Diesel Creek' had a couple old Vibratory units, ran off a diesel motor but towed by a tractor or something. That would work... but I haven't been unable to find ANY at ANY price... so I know I'm looking in the wrong spot. I don't want a project. I want a packed road.

Thoughts? I'd like to get away from driving up and down my driveway if I can.

The clue is “tends to wash out”. If your driving surface washes out just about anything you do will be futile. Although crowning will help, the wash outs will continue until you start running that water under your driving surface. Every municipal road you have ever driven on has pipes diverting water under it. I was involved with a similar problem many years in a community with gravel roads. A civil engineer we hired brought it down to one sentence; “Stop using your roads and drainage ditches”. My hilly (steep) property had a 220 yard driveway that would wash out. Every year I had a tri-axle dump ¾” washed stone for me to spread. I got sick of that. I cut a ‘ditch’ (I’m sure there is a better word than ditch) on the uphill side and installed some 14” pipes running under my driveway. Nearly all the cost was my labor. I never had another washout. The US Forestry Service has an outstanding 94 page booklet, available on line, on how to create a road. They have processes and standards for everything from very high public usage (like in national Parks) to almost never used (like in ‘fire trails’ to get firefighters deep into forests) The document is called Guidelines for Road Maintenance Levels.

It is well worth your time and is a good way to spend a cold, rainy winter night.

 

[aircommuter]

I am a retired General Engineering contractor. I started by doing small private jobs and reading civil engineering books. Yes long before internet. When I started trying to recommend how to do a proper job I was too expensive. I started doing jobs that were required to be designed by a civil engineer so I was bidding on equal ground with others. So what I am going to give you is the proper way and you can and likely will say I am not going to do that much work or that will cost too much. That’s fine and you can lower your expectations for the finished product accordingly. I always say I have no quarrels with those who sell for less as they know what their product is worth.
First with no offense I am going to skip the part about the fabric because you don’t mention why or what type or what you expect it to do and likely don’t know but heard about it.
The first thing is how you must think about a road. It is a structure, you and others apply moving point loads to this structure repeatedly. Starting with the sub-grade or dirt as it likely is. That is the start or foundation of your structure. It should ripped and moisturized a minimum of 8” then with a pad foot compactor it should be thoroughly re-compacted then followed by a smooth drum to finish the fluff left by the pad foot. The surface should have a 4% crown with drainage ditches as needed alongside.the for the base-rock top. Some call road base. But as others have said it is a mixture rock sizes including fines. Sometimes referred to as class 2 or class 4 which has more fines. To have a good job the sub-grade should be damp prior to applying the base-rock so it doesn’t take moisture from the base-rock. Water is a must for compaction as it is the lubrication of the particles. Water should be used as needed throughout the process. As you spread material it is always losing water. Water also prevents segregation. The base-rock should be compacted is lifts of 3-4”. Yes a smooth drum vibratory for smaller machines or a large static machine with enough weight. The final thicknes should be 6”. I know$$. Sorry about that. But if you do this you won’t need the roller so often. You could also rubber tire roll it with about 4000# in the truck bed. The land plane isn’t the tool for the job. Either a loader scraper with a box like a Gannon 6 way or a motor-grader. Just depends on how long you want to spend on it or what is available. You want to end up withe same 4% crown you put in the sub-grade. Paved roads are typically 2% but the rock surface is better at 4% given the surface tension of water. If water sits holes will form.
If you are convinced you need fabric let me know why and what kind and we can go from there.

 

[dkmc]

I can't seem to find it right now, but there is a Facebook group called "Homemade Attachments" (or something to that effect) and one of the recent posts was a guy who made a vibratory compactor attachment out of three small plate compactors that are fairly inexpensive compared to these large machines. He pulled the three small plate compactors behind his tractor and it seemed to do a fairly good job of compacting. If I find the post, I'll try to steal a pic and post it here.

View attachment 2125723

The plate compactor's work OK, I've got an older one that I use on my projects. They move at their own pace, which is maybe 1 MPH. I'd think if you pulled one along behind anything, it wouldn't be in contact with the ground long enough to do much of anything. They're relatively light and depend on dwell time in a given area to do much compaction. I even hold mine back to let it dwell longer than it would if it traveled along as designed.

 

[bfarr]

If you are using straight gravel, it will never stay packed and have to be repacked over and over again. What we use around here is a mix called road base gravel. It’s a mix of different sized gravel and crusher fines. The different sizes plus the fines lock the material together. I installed this on my road 6 years ago. It was packed initially and has stayed packed together pretty well. It’s almost like concrete. A few times a year I surface grade the road to pull some of the loose gravel from the ditch and shoulders back onto the road, but for the most part the road stays packed. Uniform sized gravel without fines will never stay packed and hard.

Exactly what is needed. Here in Pa it’s called Driving Surface Aggregate (DSA). Moister content needs to be fairly high. When crowned and properly compacted it will last a few years before needing maintenance.

 

[ljgordon]

I have about 1/2 mile gravel road which takes a beating. I'm going to redo it with fabric and gravel, but I want to figure out a way to pack it as smoothly as possible, after I'm through with a land plane. A lot of the road is on a north facing hill, and it tends to wash out, even though I plan on raising and crowning it, I'd like to pack it in, as when I leave it loose, it is gone in 2-3 weeks.

Typically, I get my F350 out and drive up and down the driveway as many times as it takes to track in everything, but it always drives me crazy, as it seems like there should be a better alternative. I'm not going to buy a vibratory packer, although that would be what I'd actually like. I've looked at skid steer vibratory packers, but they are ridiculously expensive $15-20K. I've looked at tractor tow pneumatic 'Wobbly type - trailers' which would work VERY well... but new, they are same price and used... they are all in Canada, that I find, and by the time they are shipped to me, they are once again pushing the $$$ up to $12-15K and are 'well worn' by the looks of them.

Matt, from YT channel 'Diesel Creek' had a couple old Vibratory units, ran off a diesel motor but towed by a tractor or something. That would work... but I haven't been unable to find ANY at ANY price... so I know I'm looking in the wrong spot. I don't want a project. I want a packed road.

Thoughts? I'd like to get away from driving up and down my driveway if I can.

Have you considered "dense grade" at least that is what it is called in south cetral Kentucky. It is gravel mixed with a lot of stone dust. After it is leveled, etc. and it gets wet, it hardens. After I started using it, I stropped having gullys cut across my driveway when we had "gully washer" rains. My D/W is also about 500 feet long.

 

[aircommuter]

The plate compactor's work OK, I've got an older one that I use on my projects. They move at their own pace, which is maybe 1 MPH. I'd think if you pulled one along behind anything, it wouldn't be in contact with the ground long enough to do much of anything. They're relatively light and depend on dwell time in a given area to do much compaction. I even hold mine back to let it dwell longer than it would if it traveled along as designed.

Plate compactors are for small areas, thin lifts and asphalt in small areas where a roller won’t fit or may leave marks due to its size and the contours of the area to be compacted.

 

[Jwmankin]

I have 1/4 mile driveway and I wish I used fabric! Anyways I forget the number of the size of gravel I used but it was described as golf ball to baseball size gravel, the largest size the quarry suggested that wouldn’t pop a car tire. It holds in place really well.

 

[Jwmankin]

I have 1/4 mile driveway and I wish I used fabric! Anyways I forget the number of the size of gravel I used but it was described as golf ball to baseball size gravel, the largest size the quarry suggested that wouldn’t pop a car tire. It holds in place really well.

It contains the shale also.

 

[dkmc]

Plate compactors are for small areas, thin lifts and asphalt in small areas where a roller won’t fit or may leave marks due to its size and the contours of the area to be compacted.

I've never told my compactor that, and wouldn't dare as I don't want to chance it working less effectively after it realizes it's not suited to the job at hand

 

[Tomtint]

22HP Gas Engine Electric Start 670cc Side Shaft 1-1/8" (Includes Muffler)

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carrollstream.com

That looks similar to what I have, The air cleaner is a bit different on the one you posted.