Spreading Stones Technique

[Robert_in_NY]

Dump the stone while driving. It is actually quite easy and you will get some spots thicker then others but it is easier to back drag a small hump then it is to back drag an bucket load. Also will allow you to see how much extra stone you might have once you get the ground covered. Then you could put the extra in the low spots and back drag to level the rest off. Later and have fun.

 

[gerard]

Another thought unless you really want the loader time is to have the driver dump in the ring with the gate chained shut. He drives forward as he dumps and gives you pretty even coverage. Have him drive the fenceline lengthwise, then you pull it back from there to the depth you want. When the next truck comes you just move him to the line you ended at. They don't mind dumping/driving as long as the area is level and it saves you a ton of time.

 

[MikePA]

I told my wife about this technique Friday night. Her response was, "They'll do that?". /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I said, "Yes, they have to raise their bed, lower their bed and drive away and they don't care if this is a 3 step process or a one step process."

The only issue is whether they can get into our ring. I'll have to check this out.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Tim, as a new owner, thanks for the excellent posting on your technique for using your FEL. As I have found out, its use is not as simple as people believe and it requires practice. Your kind of posting makes these forums worth reading.

 

[Fireman_dcb]

Mike,

I just spent 2 days leveling and spreading 8 - triaxle dump, figuring about 20,000 lbs of sand gravel in each load - about 80 tons of sand gravel for my wife's ring. We wnnt 5" deep in about a 125' by 90' area.

IMHO - You WILL need to either rent/ borrow or buy a back blade or box blade. Unless you want to spend a lot more time then necessary getting it smoothed out.

If using a back blade (make sure you use one that has adjustable feet) set the feet to their maximum depth so that when you go over the small rises/ piles of stone you don't dig down into the existing materials to far.

Make a passes from side to side then follow up with passes from top to bottom.

While it took me a while, the ring did come out nice and level and the gravel was pretty uniform in depth. Made my wife happy which equates to me being very happy!

Good luck, Doug

 

[MikePA]

Doug, thanks for the tip. I ordered a set of skid shoes ($155) for my Woods RB60. They should be in by the end of the week. About the same time the next load of 22 tons of footing arrive! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif My wife was told that weeds will not grow up through this stuff and we wont need to use the drag harrow as much. Of course, of the two quarries in the area, only one handles it, at $14/ton plus delivery. The first 22 tons we bought from a friend (the person my wife takes riding lessons from) who had ordered too much. When I kind of balked at buying another 22 tons, my wife said, "That's because you aren't out there spraying weed killer all summer." Now, whether this 'No Weeds" claim is true remains to be seen, but I wasn't going to argue! /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[MikePA]

I thought I'd close this thread out since I've completed this project. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Even got a, "The ring looks nice, did you use a rake?" compliment from the site supervisor, aka, wife. (No, I did not use a rake. The only time I got off the tractor was if I saw a stone or clump of something that needed removed.) We ended up ordering the second delivery of 22 tons and a third of 9 tons in order to completely cover the ring surface. Since the cost per ton included the delivery charge, getting 2 deliveries didn't cost any more than one delivery.

So, for the past 2 Saturdays, I've been spreading stone. I did find out that the stone is called 'Washed Limestone Sand' in our area. Only one of the two local stone suppliers handles it and only at one of their quarries. When my wife called about it, they asked what she was going to use it for. When she replied horse riding ring, they said, "OK, just wanted to be sure."

The 22 ton load had to be delivered in a triaxle dump truck, for the 9 tons, a single axle dump truck was used. In each case, the trucks could get into our ring and they dumped the stone while moving, so they saved me having to relocate it with the FEL, although both drivers left a pile of stone where they emptied the bed. I used the rear blade to spread out the pile, but the rear blade, even with the skid shoes I bought, didn't work well for distributing the stone. With the skid shoes fully extended, they were not far enough beneath the lower edge of the blade to leave an inch of stone behind. Perhaps I didn't have the blade at the right angle?

While the dump truck driver laid a nice path of new stone, it was too thick. Fortunately, they both laid their path across the short side of the ring. I used the FEL for distributing this path. I tilted the bucket so the front edge was slightly lower than the back edge. Then lowered the FEL until I thought the edge was about an inch above the original ring surface and begin back dragging. I kept an eye on the edge of the bucket to be sure I was still dragging the new stone. When there was no more stone to be distributed, I drove back to the starting point, moving a tractor width over. I repeated this across the entire ring width. Once I had all the stone distributed, I used the same procedure except I put the bucket in float. I went back and forth until there were no more ridges left by the bucket.

The feedback from those who have ridden on the ring when it was half covered was the new stone was much softer than the underlying surface we covered over. So, the 'customer' is happy. Next spring and summer we'll see if the claim that weeds don't grow as well in this stone are true. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[Bird]

One of my brothers went to Ellensburg, WA, this summer to help his son getting into a new house. He rented a Kubota with tiller, FEL, etc. to prepare and seed the lawn, install a sprinkler system, build a fence, and all that fun stuff. Then when he was ready to put in a crushed rock driveway, he expected to go rent the tractor again with a box blade to spread it, but said the guy delivering the rock, backed to the starting point, opened the tail gate partway, and raised the bed as he drove forward, and after several loads, my brother said that dump truck driver left a finished driveway better than my brother could have done himself with a tractor and blade. He said that driver obviously was experienced at that kind of job. He said ten minutes with a hand rake and the job was done.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

That was "sorta" my experience recently when I had stone delivered to recondition our driveway. Unfortunately, due to overheard obstructions...like the service cable to our house, the driver couldn't do as good a job as I know he could laying down the stone with an unfettered run. I used essentially the same method as Mike did in the corral to spread and even out the driveway--the back of the FEL with the tractor moving backwards. (I don't own a back blade or box blade)

But your point is good...those drivers really do know how to lay down the stone evenly if conditions will allow them to do their magic!

 

[gerard]

Mike, Should have mentioned I had the same problem with my shoes when I got them. Even at full height they only kept the blade a 1/4 inch above the ground level - no good. Called the dealer who called woods who told him how to correct. Cut about an inch off the top of the tube that the shoe slides in. Use this as a spacer but put it on the bottom of the shoe and you lower the shoe the same distance you cut the tube. By extending the top link and "rocking" the blade back further on the shoes you also increase the gap. As far as the weed things goes - good luck. I haven't found anything weeds can't grow in. The best solution is to use the ring a lot. Those hooves do a good job tearing things up.

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>Cut about an inch off the top of the tube that the shoe slides in. Use this as a spacer but put it on the bottom of the shoe and you lower the shoe the same distance you cut the tube. </font color=blue>
gerard, thanks for the tip. I will try that next time. The 1/4 inch makes sense now. When I was trying to figure out how to do this and thought I had gotten the blade adjusted as far as it would go I remember thinking it looked like a good setting for plowing snow, but not spreading a 1 inch layer of stone.

<font color=blue>As far as the weed things goes - good luck. I haven't found anything weeds can't grow in.</font color=blue> My wife loves to garden and I couldn't understand why she'd believe this claim for this stone. I was going to say something, or worse yet, laugh at a claim that weeds wont grow in it. But I've learned something in 26 years of marriage. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

<font color=blue>The best solution is to use the ring a lot. Those hooves do a good job tearing things up. </font color=blue>
I thnk this is why my wifes riding instructor says weeds won't grow in this stone. First, her rings get more use than ours. Second, this stone doesn't pack as quickly or as hard, so weed seeds don't have as much time to gain a foothold before a hoof comes along and rips it out.

 

[gerard]

Our ring is only 2 inches of sand on top of packed dirt. Not ideal but it's what was in our budget at the time. Weeds have no problem finding the dirt and taking root. Someone else mentioned the sand being 5 inches deep which I always thought is too deep for horse footing. Easy for them to pull a tendon or some such thing. Tell your wife to train her horses to step right on the weeds and then she accomplishes something else while riding!! BYTW - What style does she ride? english, hunter jumper, western etc My wife does dressage now but her main experience was hunter/jumper and warmbloods.

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>your wife to train her horses to step right on the weeds and then she accomplishes something else while riding!! </font color=blue>
Hmm, I think I'll let you tell my wife that. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

<font color=blue>What style does she ride? </font color=blue>
English.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to aquire a 3pt rake to occasionally "condition" the ring and annoy any weeds that the hooves happened to miss...<G>

 

[gerard]

Problem with a rake is it takes too much sand with it and still barely up roots some of the weeds. I've had the most luck with a chain harrow that's mildy aggressive. If you go over things enough times it trashes them pretty well but they still grow back. To get the roots up you have to go too deep and then your disturb the base and dig up rocks. Guess what the last thing you want in a sand horse arena is?? Catch 22.............

 

[Anonymous Poster]

What about turning the rake around backwards for grooming this flat space? (Just curious...no experience here!)

 

[MikePA]

We use a drag harrow to loosen up the surface. One of the supposed advantages of the washed limestone sand is that it doesn't need dragged (drugged? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif) as much since it doesn't compact as easily. We'll see.

 

[gerard]

For grooming that would work fine but still not as well as a chain link fence which is what I use just for smoothing things. The rake backwards still wouldn't do anything about the weeds cause it would just ride over them without uprooting them. I also have guage wheels so I can set the rake high and use that for smoothing but that means the tines stay high which keeps them from dragging too much sand and then again, the weeds just laugh /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MossRoad]

I think we use pretty much the same stuff on our T-Ball diamond. Ours was called granulated limestone. It packs down hard if you don't use it. I imagine that horses would keep it pretty fluffy. The weeds will grow in it if left undisturbed. Ours is about 6 inches thick. When we start to notice weeds we drag it with a chain link fence(can't afford a chain harrow yet) and this tops the weeds at ground level but doesn't kill the roots. Have to do it about every two weeks or so. Or you can spray the weeds and that will kill the roots. Did you post a picture of the finished ring?