#2 to dust base needed how should I do it

[stevenf]

My road is 500 or so foot long, curvy and hilly with a few wet weather springs thrown in for fun. I have two options a 12,000 lb capacity dump truck that can chain his gate and drive to give me a preliminary spread of base the length of the road or a 25,000 lb capacity belly dump that has to drive to dump his load. I hope to have some left over to stockpile for the never ending potholes and washouts. The larger load is actually about $75.00 cheaper than the dump truck but he can't leave me a pile he has to drive although he can pour it out a lot heavier in a specified area and I could just gather it back to a pile with the loader. What is ya'lls experience for a 500 foot road that has little or no base, how much base do I need for a 500 foot road a lot so don't worry about it a get the big one or? After its dumped then what I'll be using a M9000 with an extreme duty 84" box blade with a hinged back blade.

 

[Egon]

One 10 yard truck is going to be pretty skinny for 500 feet. Or am I not reading right?

Egon

 

[stevenf]

No Egon your right I guess if a 12,000 dump truck load is 10 yards. Thats exactly what I'm asking will 12,000 lbs put a road down for 500 feet, I just don't have any idea how much base it takes to put say a 3" or 4" thick road for 500 feet.

 

[DavesTractor]

Around 60 yards will get you started if you keep your road narrow.

 

[aardvark]

I calculated that:
47 yards would do 500 ft, 10 ft wide, 3 inches thick
62 yards would do 500 ft, 10 ft wide, 4 inches thick
93 yards would do 500 ft, 10 ft wide, 6 inches thick

 

[Egon]

Stephen

Crushed gravel will weigh about 3200 Pounds +/_ 500 pounds /cubic yard depending on how dense and wet it is.

A dual axle truck usually hauls from 10 to 12 yards depending on local weight restrictions, sideboards and if it is a tag axle.

Do your calculations based on yardage. One cubic yard is 3x3x3 Ft. and try to purchase based on yardage not weight.

Maybe work the road before gravel to get it as close to grade as possible. For the wet spots you may wish to check the drainage and improve it if possible. If not perhaps dig out a foot or so and use crushed gravel to fill it in. Try and grade the ditches for proper drainage and slope.

You may also think about putting down a very light lift and then adding more in later years.

Happy road building and remember my limited knowledge is 40 years behind the times.

Egon

 

[Freds]

I'm not sure what #2 to dust is..., but I just put down some gravel in my drive (crushed limestone, what the gravel co. called 411) and I have over 50 tons down. My driveway is 12' wide, comes in off the road 160', circles around the house and has about a 15 x 60 parking area at the bottom of the circle. It runs from 2-4 inches thick and did not tailgate as easily as the 2b stone I had put down 2 years ago. I could still find places for some more gravel.

 

[RobS]

Our drive is 750 feet but mostly flat. Our contractor graded off topsoil then put down large rock (fist sized). We drove on that for a while during construction of the house to work it in some. Then they put down 3-4 inches of 3/4 inch to fines. It's been OK but now (two years later) could use a top coat again.

The others are correct, do your math on the volume you'll need. Length times width times thickness all in feet then divide by 27 to get cubic yards. You'll be looking at many tri-axle dump truck loads of material /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[KennyV]

stevenf...
Get the LARGEST load(s) you can get delivered (cheapest that way), then use your tractor loader… everyone else has covered the how to build and how to measure amount… good luck, road/driveway building can be fun /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif if you have the time to do it right. KennyV.

 

[bczoom]

I've read through this thread and a couple things come to mind.

Not exactly sure the sizes of trucks you're referring to. Around here, a 12 yard truck has 2 fixed + 1 jump axle in the rear. That's to me a 25 ton (in the box) truck. 70K# total weight. I've seen the bigger belly dump but they can't get near me because they can't get bonded with the town.

Anyway, before you select a truck, a couple things to consider.

No picture or explicit detail but a big question. What's around the driveway? Based on height and weight of these trucks, will they be able to drive down the driveway?

If you go with a dump truck, chained tailgate and let it do the initial spreadding, it's going to need probably 25' or more of vertical height. Any power lines, branches or other overhead obstructions?
For curves/hills - As the driveway goes, is the driveway itself flat? (going from side-to-side). Along with this, can your driveway take the weight of almost 80,000#? (you mentioned springs). I've seen a couple trucks sink in on one side... badly. When his box was tilted for dumping, there's a lot of weight on the back axle(s). The truck could either get stuck, or worst case, tip.

With the hills and curves... can they turn around or will they have to back out? Can they back out while staying on the driveway?

If you opt for piles for other than filling pot holes, do you have a blade (flat/scraper or box) for your tractor? Your bucket will be fine for moving the pile around and filling holes but won't be very good (or at least fast) for finishing. With a FEL + box blade, you can move a 10-12 yard load in probably 1/2 hour or so with a nice finish.

 

[stevenf]

Thanks for the formula Rob that was my first problem. Now knowing how to operate my new tractor and box blade is probably going to be my next hurdle but nothing like jumping in with both feet. If learning how to box blade a road properly is anything as hard as all the threads I've read on the subject. I can see my wife now shaking her finger and saying put it back is was smoother when we were driving on dirt.

 

[bczoom]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If learning how to box blade a road properly is anything as hard as all the threads I've read on the subject. I can see my wife now shaking her finger and saying put it back is was smoother when we were driving on dirt. )</font>

stevenf,

A box blade on a stone driveway is normally pretty easy. Trying to put a finish grade on dirt with a box blade is harder.

 

[ccdck20hst]

stevenf. I just read your post asking about how much base you would need for a 500' driveway. I had 24 tons of 3/4" "processed stone" (slip I got at delivery calls it "proc stone - fine) delivered yesterday and put about, I would guess 6 tons, on my driveway to replace snowplowed off (last season) stone. This 6 tons covered (at a depth of about 2")about one quarter of my driveway and added about 8" to a 5' by 30' area that had little or no gravel on it. The other 18 tons or so I placed (with my Kioti CK20HST) for a future probable patio project that will be 38' by 16' with a base 12" to 20" or so deep. The 18 tons only covered a portion of this area. After my 80' gravel drive was put down in 1997 I decided to have stone delivered as the initial layer of stone seemed to be sinking in. I had 16 tons dropped off 3 years ago. Had a "tailgate pour" done to help me spread it. Moved some of it with a wheelbarrow - hard work! The sixteen tons was adequate to cover most of my driveway and parking area. The parking area is about 30' by 35' and is part of the 80' diveway. Covered this all with about with about 2-3". Anyway, seems to me, IMHO depending on your soil conditions in Texas, that you might need more like 100 plus tons to get in a good base. By way of example. Ideal pavers puts out a brochure. It states that for pavers for a driveway, in good soil excavate to 11", in poor soil excavate to 15" then base thickness should be 8" for good soil or 12" for poor soil. For every 100 sf of either 1 1/2" processed gravel, 3/4" crusher run, or dense graded gravel figure on 4" thick = 2 tons, 6" thick =3 tons, 8" thick = 4 tons and 12" thick = 6 tons. Part of the trick is to learn the exact name by which the material goes in your area that you want to put down. Find out how much a cubic yard of that material weighs. Several people have told me that the bottom of the base material should be larger size stone and as you build up the stone size can be or should be smaller. These standards would cause your driveway to be possibly overbuilt. Anyway these are just ideas. I have no expertise in building driveways. Good luck. Charlie

 

[drm]

Stevenf,

I am a structural engineer and have just finished a gravel driveway. I do not design driveway or road bases but have worked on enough projects to know what should be done and what you can get away with.

It sounds as though you have been driving on the dirt for some time. It it hard & compacted. Has it been driven over for several years with cars & pick-up sized vehicles? If so you can get away with a thinner base course. Say 4" - 6" vs 8" - 12" of what should be a large angular stone or slag. Do not use river rock (rounded pebbles) for a gravel drive. The maximum diameter of stone should be 1/2 of the total thickness. And you do want larger stone down first.

As for the springs, you should provide drainage under the base course. Dig a trench a lot larger than the flow (minimum 12" x 12"), fill with 4" river gravel (rounded 2" or smaller), schedule 40 PVC drainage pipe wrapped with filter cloth, 4" minimum of river gravel over pipe (12" total). Wraping just the river gravel in the trench will also work if you regularly have heavy loads over the road.

The top coat should be an angular crushed limestone 3/4" maximum with fines (sometimes the fines are called dirt). The gravel must have a good gradation (3/4", 1/2", 3/8", 1/4",... sized stones). This is a typical gradation for road project and any large gravel supplyer will give you the correct designation (called 2A in PA). It should be 3" thick minimum. Let it be driven on for a winter & spring to consolidate, cleaning up & dressing then recoat remembering if you use 3/4" and smaller any additional layer must be at least 1 1/2" thick.

As for quanity, I covered a 10 foot x 925' portion of my drive with 3+" of this gravel two months ago. It took 5 triaxle dumps 25 tons each load tail spread. The drive had a base course of 3" slag with little if any top coat. I am going to put down another triaxle to try to level some soft spots that have sunk and will recaot most of the drive if not all in the spring. I costs alot for the material to put in a good road but once done right you will have little cost beside the occational dressing and pothole filling.

Good luck and let me know how the box blade works. I am using a rear blade that is difficult when trying to level dips. I am also a tractor newbie so that does not help. Trying to talk my wife into a box blade but she is not convinced. Thinks it's an pperator problem not equipment.

 

[scout180]

Here's a quarry in WV that has a pretty good page and table of crushed stone sizes/uses. Hope it helps any readers. As I've always understood, most crushed rock is referred to by numeric designations while screened gravel (vs. pit-run) is described by alpabetic size (P gravel being smaller that U gravel, etc.).
http://www.rbsinc.com/limestone/pageone.htm

Dave in VA