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Re: Rookie scrape blade question
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Posted by Gerald J. on September 08, 1999 at 16:52:49 from (208.142.211.110):
In Reply to: Rookie scrape blade question posted by Rookie on September 07, 1999 at 19:35:47:
To make a smooth gravel surface, you need to cut, not drag (unlike our county maintainers...). That is, you need to put lots of weight on the blade so it doesn't bounce over the hard spots and you need to tilt the blade backwards with a longer top link setting so the blade cuts instead of dragging. Otherwise the blade will ride up over the hard ridges and leave the surface wash boarded like my county roads. Angling the blade, if you can also get a cutting action going should help average out the peaks and valleys. But so long as a road is driven over by vehicles with bouncable wheels, and is gravel, its going to washboard eventually. There was an article in Scientific American about research on the topic some 30 or 40 years ago and even the most perfect gravel surfaces in the laboratory turned to washboard when hit by a bouncable wheel enough times. The best stone mix for a solid foundation is called "road stone". Its essentially the mix that comes out of the rock crusher with sizes from flour to 3" hunks. The flour, some packing and water tends to lock it together to make a solid foundation. With some dirt mixed in, I've not noticed it moving significantly in my driveway, but the drive is too short to get up much speed and now its well anchored by the roots of ragweed. Tractor rear wheel tracks can be enough to start some wash boarding too because they incite the car and truck wheels to bounce. Gerald J.
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