Dirt road maintenance

[Trigger Mike]

I live on a red clay with sand mixed dirt road.  The county scrapes it once in a blue moon, often right before it rains.   They do not put a crown in the middle but often put a mound along the edges by the ditch.  This means it is filled with potholes. 

 

My neighbor and I sometimes use our box blade and tractor to smooth it out,  but it is so hard it sometimes wears or breaks the box blade and has minimal affect on the potholes. 

 

If I took a 7ft tiller , how deep should I set it to make a difference or would it cause more damage than good?

[Happy Jack, SASS #20451]

I have 2 miles of dirt/rocks from highway to house.  I use a homemade drag made from scrap 3" pipe and old railroad rail.  About 6' square. Pull with Bobcat or Jeep. Weighs about 500-600#. A couple of passes and it works miracles. If you need to break it up a bit a good heavy harrow helps.

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

I sure think busting up the hard stuff to drag smooth is only inviting more misery.   

[Texas Joker]

You need scarier blades on your box blade like this it makes a smoother grade.

Just came in from raod maintenance had a heavy rain and washout last night

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Titan+6'+Box+Blade+Tractor+Attachment+For+Category+1+3pt&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLVT9c3NMwtzM0qriy0fMRowS3w8sc9YSn9SWtOXmPU5OIKzsgvd80rySypFJLmYoOyBKX4uVB18vxiFAjILyjNSSxSKCjKTylNLinuYGVaxGoRklmSmKdgpq7glF-h4JSTmJKqEFKUmFySX6TgWFKSmJyRm5pXouAG5DonlqSm5xdVKhgqGBeUHGA9uO352pvfP3woP8D6-drUF48-bnhVcYC1-fzGjdt3Pjsie4D11Y2v8_tP3trAfID12ef23gM71jf1MN5ik2RQKvnXu6wsWyVhqvrj9AfxBvKhCnz9oU80AcNb5e_xAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiLnpnj4qTwAhWZJjQIHQ7LC0wQlr4CegQIGRAG&cshid=1619744612705&biw=412&bih=833&dpr=2.63

[Texas Joker]

12 hours ago, Yellowhouse Sam # 25171 said:

I sure think busting up the hard stuff to drag smooth is only inviting more misery.   

It's the only way to get rid of potholes and washouts. If you just fill em in hydraulic action churns the fill out next time it rains and the hole gets bigger.

 

Proper way is break it up, grade and repack and if possible with that red dirt reset.

 

I remember when the county used to oil the dirt roads in summer to keep the dust down.

[Go West]

We had acreage about 20 miles back in on a dirt road with a road association charged with grading at least once per year. Most years they graded before hunting season which often had rain. They did crown the road, but hunters did their best to rough it up. Once rutted, people would drive around the worst parts. If there was no rock, the mud was slick and deep. Only heavy equipment was effective on the majority of it, but if you had your own tractor or truck, you could smooth a portion if the bedrock was not exposed. I used a heavy i-beam behind my 4x4 that worked on the dirt areas, not so much on the embedded rock/bedrock.

[Tequila Shooter]

I used to live in Alabama and had a red clay easement road on one side of the property. Like Texas Joker said I used a box blade with a scarifier. I would first use the scarifier to break into the hard clay, then run the box blade set at an angle to create a crown. Depending on how much it got used, in the rainy season the road would hold up about a month, in the dry season 2-3 months. 

[Grass Range]

We made a drag out of an old large steel wheel (rear) from an old tractor. 3 blades welded underneath. 1 blade or 2 will just go up and down with the terrain. With 3, 2 are riding and 1 does the scraping