What is the best way to narrow my 700' gravel drive?

[Woodstock Walt]

I've had quite a bit of success using an 8' landscape (York) rake to do exactly what you're describing. No gauge wheels. I adjust both the angle and pitch of the rake to pull material back into the road and just slowly drag the shoulder. The rake typically gathers the finer material while leaving the larger rocks on the shoulder. Adjust your depth accordingly, you don't want to pull up any topsoil. Do this until the material is pulled in to the width you want the road to be. Usually two or three passes adjusting the pitch each time to round the shoulder and pull material back into the center of the road.

The idea is to build up row of material in the center of the road. Then make a couple passes down the road with the angle straight and the pitch just slightly towards the center of the road. This should theoretically leave you with a nice crowned road.

I drag mine with the 3 pt. hitch and manually get off and adjust the rake each pass (I'm gathering parts to install hydraulic top and side links to simplify this step in the future).

A forward facing rake on a skid steer with hydraulic pitch adjustment at the least seems like it would be a great tool to do what you want.

 

[NC1]

Do you have enough room on each side to get the skid pointed at the driveway and use a smooth bucket?

ed

For most of it I do.

 

[NC1]

You say it's 2' wider on each side than you'd like it to be. Can you take 4' off of one side VS 2' off of both sides? You'd eliminate 700' of torn up sides by doing that.

Do you want tapered edges or a sharp drop off?
Do you have room to drive parallel to the drive the entire length?
Or are you going to try and back-drag the rock back into the main path while working on the drive path?

Either way, I'd strike a line where you want the edges to be when you're done.

With rock drives, I find grass will eventually fill in the edges without annual chemical weed control. So if you make it exactly the width you want, you'll loose some to weeds in a decade even with weed control. Roots, dirt, mown grass clippings, etc. will rot down and blow into that edge rock.

I wish I could take it all off one side but unfortunately it needs to come off each side.
Light taper to shallow ditches.
I do have room to drive parallel to the drive for 2/3rds of the drive.
I like the line idea, I had planned on doing something to keep it crisp.

We put the lawn in this fall and grass is already growing well in the last foot on each side.

 

[NC1]

a) Wider drives are nice, are you sure you want to narrow it that much? b) most drives around here use a DG called 'Red HOA' which is actually a light purple color...After about 2 years of rain/snow/traffic, it gets almost as hard as concrete, really nice product. Maybe get some dumped right over your gravel as a top finish surface?

That might be the best option. I was hoping to recover some of the gravel from each side but if its more effort than its worth, I may just put the new stuff in the middle. I don't need the yard back for anything, just don't want my gravel bill to be through the roof.

 

[CADplans]

As much as I can, I try to keep my driveway pitched to one side or the other,,
the direction depends on the spot,, I have 1500 feet of driveway, it varies direction.

Having the driveway sloped to one side shortens the path that water will take to get off the driveway.
The less time on the road, the less damage the water can cause.

Getting the driveway wet, then freezing will cause the worst damage of anything.

So, for the above reason, I agree with taking all of the excess material from one side,
and, then sloping the driveway with that material.

When I redid the culverts under my driveway (they were never big enough),,
I put railroad ballast on those spots, before new gravel.

Those spots became solid,,, instantly, all four of them.
Each crossing got about 4 tons of railroad ballast.

 

[dirttoys]

For most of it I do.

Cool, there is good advice here about doing less is sometimes more.

But, if you want to do it, come at it from off drive to on drive (90 degree), get as little dirt as you can, dump in the middle, then blade/back drag into the shape you want.

All the toys I have, and separating material (rock from dirt) is hard.

If you have good drainage, I would side with the do nothing group. But, playing with equipment is why we bought it

Best,

ed

 

[jk96]

Leave the drive as is and continue to roundup if needed a few times of year to keep the grass and weeds out. When you re-gravel dump in the center where you want to drive. Over time some of that will get pushed to the extra width on the sides that you don't currently want. An angled landscape rake will make it easy to recover that gravel for reuse. Much more so than if you narrow the drive.

 

[jyoutz]

That might be the best option. I was hoping to recover some of the gravel from each side but if its more effort than its worth, I may just put the new stuff in the middle. I don't need the yard back for anything, just don't want my gravel bill to be through the roof.

That sounds like the best solution.

 

[Tony H]

The drive is a year and a half old and is a little rough, it was supposed to be 6" deep but at this point is only 2-4" in many parts. It is currently non spec ABC (N rock around here), we had always planned to top it with something a little nicer post construction. All of the contruction traffic did a number on it and we are ready to fix it up and put a few more inches on it. It is about 2' wider on each side than i would prefer, a foot of that is 1-4" and a foot is up to an inch mixed in with the grass. I would like to narrow prior to adding a few inches. The drive a straight with good access on the sides for most of it, just a shallow ditch. What is the best tool(s) for the job? Maybe an angle broom? I have a tracked skid steer and can rent or borrow most attachments. I also have a Stihl Kombi head and have read good things about the rubber paddled sweeper attachment. Any input would be much appreciated.

Those rubber paddle on the Stihl is what my neighbor uses every Spring after he snowplowed his stone driveway all over his lawn. So much faster then the leaf rake he used to use. It works very well for that. Not sure how well it would do with 4" of beat down stone.

 

[Egon]

As much as I can, I try to keep my driveway pitched to one side or the other,,
the direction depends on the spot,, I have 1500 feet of driveway, it varies direction.

Having the driveway sloped to one side shortens the path that water will take to get off the driveway.
The less time on the road, the less damage the water can cause.

Getting the driveway wet, then freezing will cause the worst damage of anything.

So, for the above reason, I agree with taking all of the excess material from one side,
and, then sloping the driveway with that material.

When I redid the culverts under my driveway (they were never big enough),,
I put railroad ballast on those spots, before new gravel.

Those spots became solid,,, instantly, all four of them.
Each crossing got about 4 tons of railroad ballast.

what is the Railway blast you are talking about?