Making a logging road.. Geo material use?

[Green Acres Homestead]

Past years I have worked on sandy and gravel soils. No sinking no mud. Not the case now. It is a loam type soil and I sink evan when fairly dry. Some clay and lots of soft spots. I am falling smaller trees making a corduroy road. Using branches to travel on. I better get skid plate for my l4740. Anybody ever use geomaterial? Suppose to keep everything afloat and keep soil stable?

 

[VA MTN MAN]

geo works great but it needs 6 inches of gravel or dirt over it to keep it in place , dont know if you have that available.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

The way your doing it works and has for many years why waste time and money laying geo ? unless you plan on extreme long term heavy use ?

 

[Gordon Gould]

When I need a temporary road I just do what you are doing. If I want something more perminent I have used old RR ties which are often available free. They sell the best ones but there are plenty that are good enough for the taking away.

 

[john_bud]

^ That's a lot of RR ties! I would not have thought they give them away free.
Will have to check locally as I have some spots that could use a bit of support!

 

[john_bud]

^ That's a lot of RR ties! I would not have thought they give them away free.
Will have to check locally as I have some spots that could use a bit of support!

 

[Gordon Gould]

^ That's a lot of RR ties! I would not have thought they give them away free.
Will have to check locally as I have some spots that could use a bit of support!

There is a rail yard close to where we are that has mountains and mountains of old ties that they have replaced. The good ones they sell to dealers for landscape timbers the not so good one just pile up. It is pretty rural here. The yard forman said he wasn't really supposed to allow me to take them but on the other hand it cost him (the RR) money to get rid of them. ( Probably why they let them pile up) So if I could use them go ahead and take them. They are heavy. You need more than a p/u truck if you want more than a few. I used about 50 in this seep hole that never freezes. I put some gravel in the spaces to keep them from rolling. My neighbor has a section of road built with ties that has been there 40 years and it is still solid.

 

[DJ54]

As mentioned, what you are doing works great. One thing I might suggest doing, is on inclined grades, or on hillsides. Make the base of the road all cut. Not 1/2 cut, 1/2 fill. After many years of repairing roads that have slipped, using the 1/2 cut, 1/2 fill method, going with a solid base to start with is the way to go.

Definitely more work, but worth it...

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

If I lay wood length ways in the tracks it saves on

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

If I lay wood length ways in the tracks it saves on

Oops accidentally click button so to continue ...if I lay wood in tire tracks when I run over end of wood the other end can come up and hit the inside of tractor so I find I always have to make the final layer lay crossways on the road and stick must be 8 feet or more so or extends beyond the week tracks.

 

[Gordon Gould]

As mentioned, what you are doing works great. One thing I might suggest doing, is on inclined grades, or on hillsides. Make the base of the road all cut. Not 1/2 cut, 1/2 fill. After many years of repairing roads that have slipped, using the 1/2 cut, 1/2 fill method, going with a solid base to start with is the way to go.

Definitely more work, but worth it...

So you are saying to build a tractor road terrace on a side hill instead of cutting the high side to fill the low side you would cut deep enough so that the level cut went all the way across the terrace. Would you then spread the removed material as an even layer on top of the cut or move it else where ?

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

This forum is great. Thanks for all the advice

 

[DJ54]

Exactly... And material could either be moved out to make a nice taperd slope on the down side, or taken to fill in a lower area. It all depends on how much room you have to work with. The angle of incline on a road on a hill makes a difference too. The steeper, the more likely it will wash large ruts. Some water bars help cut cross ways at an angle to get the water off asap helps too, and not washing further down the hill. A slight bump from a water cut off, is much better than dodging/repairing washout ruts, in my opinion.

That outside edge built from the fill will get pretty mushy when it's wet, and will be that way for a while. If it happens to give way, the dirt laying on that slope, unless benched, or stair stepped, and compacted will slide, and you with it. Then there will be ruts, and fill with water, and only worsen the problem.

A road is no better than the base it is built on.