dirt driveway

jack707 · Jul 9, 2014

I don't know if this is the right place to post this so here it goes.

I have a driveway that about 1/4 mile long and 10' wide and I do not think it was done right when they put it in so I going to ask you guys what is the right way to avoid pot holes there is about 14 of them there all along the drive. Because its 1/4 mile long I'm thinking about 2 to 3 grand to fix it the right way I talked to someone who does this stuff and all he has is a skid steer to do the job I think I need a grader and a steam rolled to pack the gravel down tight and a few truck loads of crushed gravel what do all you say?.

roadhunter · Jul 9, 2014

I'd spread some asphalt millings on it and pack them with your truck or tractor. Works great. Around here the millings sell for about $10 a ton plus delivery.

Coyote machine · Jul 9, 2014

Depends on the grade and pitch and compaction, and water runoff. And trucks, small pickups etc. can cause potholes as the lighter rear ends hop, skip, jump over the drive's surface. I don't think you'll be able to eliminate potholes no matter how you approach it, unless you pave it. Regular maintenance is part of dirt road ownership, usually dragging it with a box blade behind a tractor.

oosik · Jul 9, 2014

My gravel driveway developed pot holes in two spots. I use a roll over box blade to move quantities of gravel/dirt and a grading scraper to level/smooth. My driveway is one mile long.

hawkeye08 · Jul 9, 2014

We had continuous potholes in the 3/4 mile long county gravel road that comes by the house. It would be good for a few weeks after being graded, but the holes would come back... A couple of years ago, we got a new county crew that maintained our road. I was talking to the foreman and they explained that potholes are caused by two issues, one being the road is not properly crowned with ditches so water runs off instead of making puddles. The second issue is the grading job being done too fast and leaving uneven spots that cause the vehicles to bump a bit. After they rebuilt the road with a crown and ditches, they only grade it once or twice a year and we don't get potholes. Of course the wrong materials and other things can cause problems also, but they sure fixed our road up nice.

boggen · Jul 10, 2014

hawkeye08 said:
We had continuous potholes in the 3/4 mile long county gravel road that comes by the house. It would be good for a few weeks after being graded, but the holes would come back... A couple of years ago, we got a new county crew that maintained our road. I was talking to the foreman and they explained that potholes are caused by two issues, one being the road is not properly crowned with ditches so water runs off instead of making puddles. The second issue is the grading job being done too fast and leaving uneven spots that cause the vehicles to bump a bit. After they rebuilt the road with a crown and ditches, they only grade it once or twice a year and we don't get potholes. Of course the wrong materials and other things can cause problems also, but they sure fixed our road up nice.

ditto!

getting that water to run off the drive way, and away from the drive way, is the big magical key to most problems on driveways, that and SLOWING down.

your suspension on vehicles can act like hammers going down a road. as one tire hits a bump, the other tires have to take the weight, and then as that tire that hit the bump comes back down it hammers the ground. due to the suspension in cars and trucks, you may never feel anything. with tractors with no suspension, you feel nearly every bump. more so the faster you go. there is no need to slam the gas peddle into the floor as soon as you hit your road / driveway, take it easy on the gas peddle.

when a driveway is wet and soggy, is when a lot of damage can be done to the roadway / driveway.