what do you guys use to work up a stone drive?

[876wheelhorse 46]

I have several ideas on what to drag behind my wheelhorse to work up my stone drive. what do you guys use and do you have any pics?

[jay in nc 209]

this is what ive used for 20 years. its a 40 in long piece of i beam with key holes for a chain to go through. you can shorten the chain on one sid or the other to pull gravel to the side. you can turn it over for more down presure. you can put cement blocks on it for more weight.  & with no weight it bounces enough to loosen the packed gravel. works great & i have built 5 or 6 for other people who are happy with them too ! Jay

[Wheel-N-It 2,967]

Good idea Jay!

[pacer 3,159]

An old 18 wheeler tire/tractor tire or other large tire does a pretty good job...

[KC9KAS 4,741]

I loosen the gravel with a cultivator then use the grader blade to (back) drag it smooth.

Back-drag is using the back side of the grader, NOT the cutting edge side.

[scifi4all 6]

I used the local baseball rec leagues home made angle iron frame with 5/8 rebar welded on every 3 inches at an angle. It also has a hinged angle bar that can be brought down in the back to help level the debris. It has room to add weight/block to it as well.

It worked great and I was going to take a few pics of it, but I must have forgot. To much fun having seat time.

I will have to get pics the next time I am at the field.

[Ed Kennell 35,724]

I use me grass dethacher with 100 lbs of wt.  The springy tines loosen the packed stones on the high spots and they find their way to the low spots.  Then I roll it to help set the stones in place.

[perry 82]

I drag a old 6ft disc up & down the driveway behind my Allis garden tractor then use grader blade to smooth out .

 

[MalMac 1,328]

I use the I Beam too. Plus use the a cultivator type of thing but instead of blades on it I have just iron spikes to act as a scarifier to loosen the packed gravel. I just have to pay attention to how much I loosen the gravel up and don't bring up dirt and loose gravel.

[perry 82]

Here is a grader bade a member of another forum had made . he sold  a few of these and the guy's useing them love'em. I myself have never tryed one .

 

[CTBT&D 77]

   I did use this drag before I paved the drive. It's a 2" screen from a limestone quarry.

The screen measures 4' X 7' and the "wire" is 3/8" diameter. It worked very well, similar

to baseball field drag but much heavier.

 

Craig

 

[can whlvr 991]

all home made and all work great,i also have a couple of harrows too,but mostly i use the ripper on the mid mount grader now

Edited August 5, 2013 by can whlvr

[leeave96 487]

I've thought a great way to deal with a gravel driveway would be to box-in the sides of a 50 inch grader blade.  With that arrangement, you could take off the high spots and with the boxed sides, keep the gravel retained in front of the blades such that it would/could fill-in the low spots.  I would make the box ends bolt on so I could put them on and take them off as needed.

 

Good luck,

Bill

[Wheel-N-It 2,967]

Now we're getting somewhere Gentlemen! I really like the pics you guys are posting!

[Tankman 3,515]

I've seen a steel frame, spring, from a twin bed dragged. User put cinder blocks on the assembly for weight. Looked like it did a decent job although I haven't tried it myself.

 

I'm keeping my eyes open. When I see one trashed, going to try it myself.

 

One of my Grandsons uses a 1 ton tamper walkin' the drive once 'n awhile. Wo....wo.....work!

[Forest Road 594]

I wish I'd seen some of these homemade remedies before I bought this.my favorites are the old spring mattress, tire w/ lots of bolts through and the I beam.

http://drivewaygroomer.com/comments.html

It works well really well. The only complaint I have is that I could've bought a lot of beer and fishing gear with that money.

I'm also a big fan of my 50" WH grader.

[tarcoleo 119]

Hey WH876-

 

Check out this earlier discussion-

 

 

Since this discussion, the "teeth" used on the tire drag are now 1/2" rod couplers capped with

1/2" fender washers and a bolt.  Weeds nicely.

 

Tom in Rhode Island.

[scifi4all 6]

Here is a pic!

[876wheelhorse 46]

ive got a grate that i used as a ramp to get into my shed at one time. its pretty heavy thought about welding some spikes on it. something to dig in the stones and then the back will smooth it out. it may or may not work. ill try

[Red-Bovine 289]

I used our 50" mid mounted grader blade on our 520H to smooth the drive and used it to contour and swail the yard after our new home was finished. Used it to spread topsoil and level out the yard. It was somewhat slow going as I had to scrape and spread the dirt, but we go it done and saved a lot of money over hiring a contractor who wanted to do way more than needed or what we wanted. We could get into smaller areas and saved trees that the contractor wanted to remove because his dozer wouldn't fit between them.

 

Red

[prondzy 3,867]

I use my WH spike tooth harrow

[Don1977 604]

I use my grader blade. The tiller helped as this area had built up 3 or 4" with grass growing over it.

 

[RMCIII 838]

Fooey. 1-800-Blacktop. No more worries about throwing lose gravel in the winter when you snow blow. Pour  a little concrete and it doubles as a launch pad when testing 60 ft. times.