I maintain about 800' of private lane for me and two neighbors. Last time I had gravel delivered it came in a pair of belly-dump semis, and they laid the gravel down in two very long skinny piles by cracking the belly doors part way and driving slowly away. Except for a bit of a dicey balancing act on top of the piles to shear off the top of the piles with the box blade (go very slow and watch the steering!), those long continuous piles made spreading a piece of cake, and I was done in two or three hours.
Yesterday, when 52 tons of crusher run arrived in two trucks from the same outfit, they had upgraded to brand new Peterbilt tractors (nice trucks, btw) with end gate trailers instead of belly dumps. I asked if they could crack the end gate, partially elevate the bed, and spread the gravel by driving slow like tandem axle dumpers can do. No such luck, they considered that too dangerous (rollover concerns), so instead dumped it in a seemingly endless series of piles about 30' apart the entire length of the lane. There were 20+ piles. The before photo shows a few of them. Spreading from piles like this was much more time consuming--but probably somewhat safer--than the old way. Had to put six hours on the 3032E's meter and a serious crick in my neck, but it's pretty much done except for some minor smoothing to do later after it packs down a little from rain and traffic. And as a bonus the lane has a decent crown again.
Having Top and Tilt made a world of difference in repairing the crown of this lane. This job gave the loader and box blade their first serious workouts since new, and the JD 3032E performed in stellar fashion.
