3 pt rollers - do they work?

[RSR]

I have 3/4- crushed stone on my driveway and the private road I'm on. Whenever bringing in gravel, or regrading the existing, if I can pack it down well, it locks together and gives a nice flat smooth surface.

To get there, though, it requires repeatedly driving a car back and forth, back and forth, ad nauseum.

So my question is, how do 3 pt rollers work for packing down gravel roads? The heaviest one I can find is a 6 foot wide one that is about 1,400 lbs. Comparing the weight, and area of contact with the road, the amount of pressure (Force/Area) it can generate doesn't seem like much of an improvement, if any, over the pressure from car tires driving back and forth. The only unknown is the rigid drum should create a bit more of a point (or line) of contact in comparison to a car tires, and therefore may generate significantly more pressure depending on the area of the contact patch with the gravel.

Does anyone have any practical experience using one of these?

 

[oosik]

No experience - practical or otherwise. Go to Google, upper right corner. Enter earth roller, compactor, home-made rollers/compactor. About a year ago there was an excellent thread about home-made rollers. One in particular caught my attention - welded frame, concrete weights for weight, standard auto tires were what it rolled on. Looked like it could be made to accommodate almost any weight.

Unfortunately - I'm in the same boat as you. Back/forth with my tractor.

 

[4570Man]

Anything that doesn’t vibrate would take enormous weight to do the job. Keep using vehicles or the tractor to roll it with the wheels.

 

[LouNY]

I have thought about getting an axle out of a trailer (tractor trailer type) narrowing it and adding a third wheel to each side then adding a mafia block for weight.
Tire will do a better job of compacting then a steel drum as the gravel will get pushed sideways as well as down.
This would be for drawbar pulling, a 3 point would not work well if any turns where involved.

or this;
PT13 & PT15 Pull-Type Pneumatic Tire Rollers From: WRT Equipment | For Construction Pros

or even nicer; a bit hard to justify the cost,
New Rubber tire road roller/ 26 tons pneumatic roller/road roller RP26 with certificate of Road Roller - guangzhoudaikun

 

[metalbender]

Rent a small roller, prob has vibrate feature. One pass equals twenty with the car.

 

[4570Man]

I bought a little roller for packing dirt. It does a good job but it’s slow.

 

[Peter 315]

You can rent a 1.5 ton roller with vibe for under 200.00 for the day.....

 

[i7win7]

Hoelscher Commercial Products - RB Scraper
When roller is empty, use it on the lawn in early spring. Also shears off mole hills.

 

[RSR]

I'm guessing by the lack of responses of those going this route for compacting a gravel road, it's not a very useful approach.

It looks like the answer is "just keep driving over it with a car".

It's not important enough to bother with the hassle and cost of renting, and as interesting as a dedicated wagon roller is, I really don't have the skills or time or space to fab something up like that and store it.

 

[LouNY]

It is the most practical some times.
Besides which you didn't mention if your driveway was flat or steep,
I have seen several of the smaller rollers slid off the roads when they have been preping them for paving.