I'm in a rutt!

[Fug1000]

I had a shedrow barn delivered this week.

It came from PA to OH about 550 miles away.

Anyway.... it was scheduled to be delivered on Monday and when we made the date, the weather was good, ground was dry, no problem.

However the weekend right before delivery, it poured for 2 days.
I tried to contact the barn company and stop delivery on Monday morning (They don't answer the phone on Sat. or Sun.) because I just knew that heavy truck with an 8000 pound barn would make horrible rutts in the 500 feet of yard that the driver would need to cross.
Also it was possible he would get stuck as the area is up a slight incline.

So long story short..... I could not get in touch with the driver. He arrived at my house at 7PM Monday night and I had to let him deliver, after all he just drove 550 miles.

Sure enough...250 feet into the journey, he got stuck. (The barn is a big building 10x28). I had to bring out the 7800 and chain it to his tow hook and still it wasn't enough.

Fortunately the truck they use to deliver these buildings is a hydraulic lift dealy thingamajig and by raising the barn with it on his truck and shifting the weight, back and forth, over and over we were about to inch our way up the hill to the barn's final resting place.

We got about 3 feet on each try...his wheels a spinning, my bota wheels in 4WD a spinning. It was quite the sight to see us inch our way up there.
But we got it up there!

Anyway..as I feared, I now have foot deep rutts in my yard for 300 of the 500 foot distance we traveled.

How can I fix these without tearing up the yard any worse then it is now?

I was thinking maybe I should fill them in with dirt and rent a roller to press it all back down nice and flat before the dirt dried back out.

I want as little collateral damage to the turf that remains as possible.

Any suggestions?

 

[Ductape]

Thats a pretty long set of ruts....................................

You know you've been looking for that excuse to buy that new tiller.

 

[CurlyDave]

By waiting until the ground was just barely damp, but almost dry I have been able to fill in ruts by just backdragging.

All of the original dirt is still there, you don't need any more, it is just re-arranged.

Of course my ruts were only 30' long, not 300.

 

[EddieWalker]

I like the tiller idea, but was thinking about running a disk over it a few times, then pull a drag over it to smooth it out.

Box blade should work good for this too. Just let it dry up a little bit, then cut off the high spots and use them to fill in the low areas. A few passes should make it as good as new.

I usually just use my loader bucket and back drag it over a rut. It pushes the high areas back into the low spots. If I time it right, I can do it in one pass.

Good luck on the ruts and your barn. Are you building it yourself?

Eddie

 

[tatra805]

I never had real good results with dragging and filling ruts.

The compacted sides tend to make a gulley for rainwater which in turn makes the less compacted fill compact itself resulting in uneven... ruts again. In most cases that only showed after a period of time, mostly when the new seed grass is already growing nicely. That makes it then again harder to get the tiller out.

If i were you i would close my eyes and till the ruts, seed and then pack them with a roller and forget about them.

 

[radioman]

I have a simalar sitution where i made ruts over the winter season where the path I drive on is about 200 feet. There was one day last week where the soil dried up enough i was able to use the bota to smoosh the deep ruts back in place by driving over the high spots and let fill in the lows. I stayed off the low spots as i know its too soft in there. I was only able to do this for 100 feet and the last 100 feet is still wet. I am waiting for the weather to dry it up some more but then we got rain and snow. The last rainfall actually helped the area that I worked on to make it look more natural. But then there is no grass left to hold things together. Its a driving path after all but its nice to have grass growing between the tire tracks to make it easier to walk on in summer. The way I see it- If i wanted to get the grass growing again, Ill need to get the tiller out as the soil is now very severely packed from all the driving on it. Hopefully, you will take my experience with a grain of salt as driving on the high spots of ruts to smoosh it down will work, but compaction will occur.

 

[jimmyj]

Bummer. Hate to say it but I think the others are right, you will probably have to work the land somehow and reseed. It will recover quickly enough.

 

[Fug1000]

Oh well... I think you guys may be right. Looks like I got another project!

EDDIE. No I'm not building this barn. It was premade and delivered all ready built.

It's called a shedrow horse barn. Has 2 stalls and a tack room.

Similar to this.... but larger than the 1st one they show.

Shed Row Barns From PA, East Coast Delivery: VA, MD, NJ, NY and MORE!

 

[wushaw]

I have always had to add dirt to ruts or else I still have th low spots.

I would knock the tops off with a box blade and then add dirt as necessary to fill the low spots and let the grass do it's thing.