Idea for gravel road

[scoot98758]

I am leveling out several miles of gravel road and someone told me that you can tow a section of grid rebar behind a truck and it will do a good job of doing the final rake out. Has anyone out there tried this, if so how did it work out? Does anyone have any other inexpensive ideas about how to do the final leveling?
Thanks in advance for the good advice.

 

[rino1494]

A set of bed springs will work too. Throw some cinder blocks on it for some weight.

 

[Dirtman2007]

get a 10' long piece of chain link fence. tie it behind the truck and go. may want to lay a piece of plywood on it and a few blocks for some weight.

 

[Bob Horrell]

The chain link works good, especially if it is framed. Add a railroad tie for weight. If you use a short chain the front end rides light and the unit just smooths out the tops, if using a long chain, the front end carries some material for filling in low spots. Numerous ranches in the So. Cal. desert use this for leveling their mile long entrance roads.

 

[scoot98758]

Does anyone know if grid rebar will work as well as a chainlink fence?
Thanks for the good advice so far.

 

[lowey]

how about get a grader mate thats the best thing

 

[atgreene]

FWIW: You can drag if you want to, and it will smooth the road, but it will take the crown out of the road and push that material into the ditches. The water will sit on the road and make even more potholes.

Get a blade or a rake, you'll do a better job and be able to keep the crown and pull gravel from the ditches up onto the road.

I fix camp roads all the time that the owners insist on grading with a flat drag. Within a year it is bellied out and water sits on it all the time. I rebuild it and make them promise to leave the drag in the woods. They always seem to be suprised at how long a properly graded and shaped road will last without being touched.

Good luck.

 

[Bu1cko]

How well does the Chain link fence work on leveling topsoil

 

[bear]

You can weigh down one side more than the other and help keep the crown intact. This helps push the material toward the center rather than evenly cutting and filling. say 150 punds of stuff toward the center of the road and maybe 300 on the shoulder side. If you can use something to evenly spread the weight across your drag it works best.

 

[bobcatrg]

Atgreene has got it exactly right. If the road does not have a crown it will deteriorate quickly. If it is crowned, I have had luck just dragging down one side then back up the other if the road is wide enough. But the more you drag even with this method the more you take off the crown.

 

[oisinirish]

How well does the Chain link fence work on leveling topsoil

The chainlink will smooth the topsoil very well if the soil is dry and loose enough. But keep in mind if grades are not well defined all the fence is going to accomplish is filling voids...loosely. ie it will probably settle again and the process will have to be repeated.

Take a look at Scotch Harrow drag. This can be flipped over to allow spikes in the drag loesen everything uniformly and the flip the mat and drag 'er smooth. These lare #1 steel "links" that are sort of knitted together and therefore much heavir and last much longer than the ol' chain link fence but of course cost more.

 

[qkoop]

When we would winter log we would tow two big wheel loader tires side by side about 15 feet back when it snowned just got the feller buncher to cut the stumps low ,saved a lot of cat work.Worked slick.

 

[roddyo]

John Deere Drag

Nothing works as good as a cedar tree. It will roll around until it starts getting wore down, Then it works REAL good. A John Deer Drag is what we call them around here.

How well does the Chain link fence work on leveling topsoil

 

[dirtdiggin88]

Hey guys, been looking at this site for a long time just never posted before. At work we have several gravel roadways and acres of gravel parking lot that must be graded. We have a versatech blade that goes behind the tractor but we also built a rebar drag. It's 2 4x4 grids pulled by chain. we pull this behind the blade and it gets rid of any small rows left by the blade and kinda "fluffs" the gravel. I'll try to get some pics

Wes