gravel driveway

[robertn]

The best thing that happened on our 600' drive was having a grader go over it while putting extra 3/4-AB down. Then it was rolled with a roller.

There was work going on in the neighborhood, so I had the company add some gravel, which we needed. When they rolled it though, what a difference! IT packed really tight, and is still in really good condition 3 years later!

[egon]

One can play at smoothing out gravel driveways but only the large equipment will provide a suitable job.

Egon

[mikell]

I use a small drag to work it up the made a leveler out of 4x4s.

mikell

[Slyder]

A bobcat with a KNOWLEDGEABLE operator works wonders too.

[theboman]

I bet Slyder has a Bobcat! : )

[chrisjbell]

Egon's right - to really smooth a gravel drive, the bigger the equipment the better. I use a fairly small CUT to maintain my drive - but to get it into decent shape I had to use bigger equipment. A garden tractor isn't going to be able to fix one up, I'm afraid. I suppose it could be done, but would take a heck of a lot of time - I'd recommend renting a larger piece of equipment (maybe a decent sized CUT with a box blade and top-n-tilt?).

Once you do that and get the drive into good shape, you might be able to get away with using your garden tractor with a small blade to keep it up...

[robertn]

I use my CUT too, although there has been little to do since the road company graded and rolled it(the driveway, not the CUT [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img] )

I would like to eventually get a belly blade for my Farmall-A. I think it would do a better job and the scraper or a blade on a CUT. Here is my theory:
A belly blade would be more like the blade on a grader. It is in the middle, where a rise in elevation by the front or rear of the tractor is minimal.

Compare this rise to having the front of a CUT go over a bump; the front rises, and pivots the scraper/blade at the rear tire center point. Since the scraper/blade hangs off the back of the CUT some distance, the overall affect on the height setting of the scraper is greatly affected.
With a belly blade in the center of the tractor, if the front end moves up say four inches, the blade at the center point would only move up 2".

The blade on the back of a CUT would be opposite. If the front tire rises 4", the tractor kinda pivots on the back tire , and the rear blade wants to gouge in 4"(not totally, since most of us do not have down pressure).

Now, it would be hard to put a belly blade on a CUT. My B8200 Kubota sits too low, even with it's 4wd. That's the beauty of the hi-crop/cultivating tractors like a Farmall-A or Allis-B, they sit up enough to get a blade under there.

Of note though, my Farmall-A is one of the 1940's CUT's. It's the same size as my compact Kubota(length/width), hp wise, and was quite the utility tractor in its heyday. Seems many are still used that was still. I guess it's just a tall CUT [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[GaryM]

The amount that the rear blade will drop with a 4" rise of the front wheels depends on the CUTs wheelbase vs. the distance the blade is behind the rear wheels. If there were some way to move the blade closer to the rear wheels the effect is reduced. Or put a set of gauge wheels out behind the blade. The longer the wheelbase the better.