As long as we are talking driveways?

[BryanM]

I am putting a 160ft driveway in and need some advice. Ill start with some infoabout the land. The land was an farm field that has been chopped and disc'd up. Okay For my questions 1) If you where putting in a drive way what would you start with equipment wise? 2) Does teeth on a bucket help that much? 3) would a box blade work if you scarped away the first few inches of disced up soil?


This is what I did I rented a bobcat scraped away first few inches and piled it up. This bobcat does not have any teeth on the bucket so when I tried to start digging well, it was very hard to dig to desired depth which is 9-12 inches. I did take a few layers off but took all day and I am still not done. So I thought maybe if I rented a tractor and a box blade that might dig down for me then come back along with a fel and clean it up. Has anyone ever tried this? I need some advice so please chime in with any ideas. Thanks Bryan

 

[Jaybr]

I'd rent a dozer for the job, around here there not much more than bobcat rental and would work much quicker than either the bobcat or tractor with boxblade.

 

[jbrumberg]

BryanM:

Welcome to TBN ! I think you answered your own question as to the need for a toothbar on a FEL for this application. You will also need a box blade. You may also need heavy equipment . My primary driveway is approximately the length of yours and in the end I needed some heavy equipment to remove ~150 yards of NE clay and rocks due to my serious problem with drainage and some really, really big rocks that needed an excavator and a large TLB working in tandem to move. (Needless to say I needed to pay for the services a heavy equipment contractor in the end , but I got the job done correctly with me doing the easier stuff.). I do not know your drainage situation, but you might have to move a lot of dirt. Then you might need to add geotextile fabric if drainage is a problem, then "ballast material, and then finish it off with a "crusher run" type finish material. My project ended up really well from the standpoint of drainage during NE's mud season. Now I have to do the finish work . Jay

 

[VistanTN]

From 22 years as a Marine Corps combat engineer -- and lots of miles of "field expedient" road.

Hire a dozer. 160' will take 4 passes at most. If you can be a little flexible on when, a site grading guy can probably work it to/from a half day remnant of another job. The rest of the work (base, surfacing, finish grading) can be done with a skid-steer and a box blade as long as you have a suitable device for good compaction (I use our HPX gator with a load in the bed -- making slow passes and overlapping wheel tracks).

Key to a good loose surface road:
a) Get the water off -- good surface properly compacted and decent crown (or super-elevation on side-slope curves).
b) What gets in, get out -- good course base material that will drain off into ditches
c) Get the water away -- plan your ditches, and if necessary culverts, to move the water (at a reasonably slow speed so it doesn't erode) off to appropriate leech areas or the ditches on the road/highway.
d) Keep the speed down -- spinning tires, lots of lateral g's (speed on curves or a skid steer), and sudden stops break up the compaction.

Our drive has handled a potfull of 25T dumps and concrete trucks for the new shop and barn with no deterioration (except where they got off the road, but that's another story).