My concern with dealing with it is that I'm starting to bottom out in places. And that real bad place with the video above I have to get an ATV disc through there to get to my back plot. Otherwise I probably can deal with it. If I start getting stuck I can't deal with that. :
Oh and as far as gravel. Yes, it is fairly cheap and abundant. I figure I can have 300 yards of matieral trucked my land for ~$3000. Then I just get to get it spreaded with something. 300 yards would cover my entire main trail (1/2 mile) at 6" deep.
Will you put down fabric/stabilization cloth or whatever they call it? Your ground looks so mushy that I think 6" of gravel alone won't cut it. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
Yeah that's not bad pricing at all. They practically give away the material, it's the haul bill where they get you. We were getting 20 tons delivered and semi spread (not just dumped in one pile) for just over $300... but if we bought in bigger quantities the price would have went down substantially. $3000 is steep though, you could just fix the rough spots only with 1/10 of that material if you have access to a front end loader on a tractor or bobcat or the likes...
Yeah that would be to do the whole thing. I prob don't need to do that in the near future. And I prob won't do much, if anything, till after the logging. I am going to try and drop those trees into the ruts to use them as fill and to help with ruts getting deeper. But I have to do something to get me to 2016. Not sure what that "something" is yet.
Yeah that would be to do the whole thing. I prob don't need to do that at this point. And I prob won't do much, if anything, till after the logging. I am going to try and drop those trees into the ruts to use them as fill and to help with ruts getting deeper. But I have to do something to get me to 2016. Not sure what that "something" is yet.
I am wondering why you are waiting til 2016 to log it I guess... Either way you can have it put into contract that the logger returns the road to condition previous to cutting. Have a good job done on your crowning and ditching this summer, widen the road openings where shaded(can plant clover etc on the sides then), and a light layer of gravel for traction. IF you have a good enough timber stand that the logger really wants to cut, then he will agree to the terms(also they often have their own dozer and dump truck to fix the roads, or a partner/friend lined up just for that - at least round here they do) without a second thought and you will have your roads in the shape you want....one more thing though is put a time frame(as 1-2 months) into the contract since there are guys that will sometimes put the roadwork off for a year or more(for when it is convenient to them). It is going to be expensive to fix up those roads no matter when you do it, and likely be more expensive after the logging...have the pre-existing road conditions in writing and take lots of pictures(or video) to document the previoius condition. If you have a forester working with you on the timber sale set-up he should have told you about this and should make it happen(don't take this on a handshake, it's sorry to say...need to GET IT IN WRITING).
One thing about the logs in the road(corduroy or cribbing)...you need to put them in perpendicular to direction of travel...unless they are buried a couple feet deep when parallel in the ruts you will teeter-totter them up into your undercarriage and struts etc at some time...nothing like a 6-8 inch spear into the oil pan
Pay attention to this. Otherwise, if you only put a couple of logs into the ruts, they will get wet and slippery and your mule will slip off of them and get stuck. What you really need is fill, ditches and culverts. That's what the tractor is used for. I don't have it as bad as you but I grade my trails when they get bad and fill in the ruts. Then I drive on them with the tractor and pack them down. What would work best is to build up a road bed with breaker rock and then cover with a layer of 3/4 plus fines. You would only have to do this in the low spots. the rest you could do with dirt.
Is your mud clay? If so you could mix with some concrete. Would take a lot of hours and probably not cost effective. But yes using rocks and compacting it down would get you some years though drainage wouldn't hurt either
Actually if it's only till 2016 I would think some gravel where your bottoming out should last you the next 2 years. Or tons of kitty litter. That could be free if you walk from house to house.
I'll keep my eyes open for when kitty litter goes on sale. I'm going to need a whole bunch of it so I better get a good deal on it.
We don't use the corduroy method. We lay two cedar logs side by side in the rut to form a track you can keep your tires in. No oil pans have been harmed while using this method. Sent from my iPhone
