Box blade work out today!

22rimfire · Apr 19, 2014

We live at the end of a gravel road that's about 400 feet long. Hasn't been worked in about 7-8 years. The five of us that share the drive are buying crushed gravel next weekend for it, and we were going to rent a dozer to scrape down below the potholes first. That was before I bought the BX. So now I have volunteered to give it a go so we can save the expense. Plus it's a great excuse for more butt time! We've had a lot of rain lately so I think the ground will be soft enough to work. I have the LP 48" BB with the scarifiers. It's still kinda early here, I guess not everyone rises at the crack of dark like I do LOL, but I'll get started soon and report back how it goes.

s219 · Apr 19, 2014

Be sure to tweak top link to get the right amount of bite or else you'll get frustrated fast. Good luck!

walker450 · Apr 19, 2014

Sounds like a fun project! The BX should handle it fine!

Shenandoah · Apr 19, 2014

Couple of thoughts...

I've done about 700' of a 3/4 mile long gravel road where we're doing the same thing. I'm doing it with a 6' rear blade that tilts and can travel side to side. I spent the first few passes with the blade sticking out about a foot past the right rear tire, and tilted down and forward about 7 to 15 degrees in each plane. (You have to follow the ground conditions.)

The purpose is to reclaim a lot of the gravel that has been cast to the side of the road and bring it back onto the road surface where it can do some good. This will reduce the purchase of new gavel considerably. Additionally, I'm sculpting the sides of the road for drainage as well as renewing the crown of the road with more passes and different angle settings of the blade. The difference in the road before/after is HUGE, and this is before any new gravel is added.

Fwiw, I can't even imagine trying to do this with a box blade as a good majority of the work will be performed 'outside' of your rear tires if you have proper drainage alongside the roadway. Now, once the gravel is reclaimed and new gravel added I can see a box blade having the ability to perform a decent job.

As far as the potholes are concerned, what you're looking to accomplish is to scarify the holes themselves to break the hard pack that allows the holes to keep coming back. Call it "pothole memory". But keep in mind you want to maintain as much of the original skin on the road that still sheds water good because if you break that surface and it doesn't get repacked properly you'll be looking at potholes down the road (no pun intended) where there were none before in a worst case scenario.

And you're smart doing this in a moist condition as your materials will be able to be worked much better.

Best of luck, should be a fun project.

22rimfire · Apr 19, 2014

Well, I spent six hours on it and unfortunately it was during a light rain which kinda made things a little muddy. I dug it out with the scarifiers, then worked it to grade, and smooth it as best I could.

Shenandoah, thank you. Good stuff there. I kinda wish I'd seen your post before starting as I dug into a lot of the hard packed stuff in between the potholed areas. Might have been better off leaving those areas, but it's done now. Most of it is up a slight incline, so we have maintained a small ditch on one side which I left alone. It kind of side slopes down to the ditch and I did my best to keep the grades that existed. As far as the BX, it did awesome. The 48" BB is a great match, and I used my RatchetRake as well back floating. It was enjoyable, even in the rain, and I will now be able to keep the road maintained after the gravel is down.

Shenandoah · Apr 19, 2014

Hi Carl,

It sounds like you had a good day in spite of the weather. Kudos.

Just for grins take a look at a before and after shot of a small portion of the road I'm playing with. What I'd like you to take away from these images is the amount of gravel that can be reclaimed from the sides of the roads. If you look at the 'before' image you can see how much gravel migrated to the shoulders over time. This left the 'tracks' a wee bare, gravel wise.

In the 'after' photo you can see I pulled a good deal of gravel back onto the road. Also notice on the right side of the picture I reclaimed a good bit of gravel that was hiding under the scrub grass along side the road. Same goes for the left side of the road. This also widened the road making it closer to it's original width.

But most importantly, keep in mind the 'after' picture is without the addition of any new gravel we will be putting down. Once the rain washes the 'now dirty' gravel it will become even more apparent how much gravel was saved. We're paying close to $13.00 a ton with a $75 delivery charge per truckload, so doing gravel recovery becomes a highly profitable exercise. Especially on a tight budget.

Also, remember you'll want to pack any disturbed part of the roadway by running over it multiple times with the heaviest vehicle you can work with. Try to get 100% of the road repacked, if that is possible. Don't leave it unpacked or Mother Nature will reclaim what she can surprisingly rapidly.

And as always, this road will be different from the road you're doing so the above is simply one example among many of what can be done.

Keep up the good work...