So what do you guys do about ruts on your trails from driving the ATV through? My land is heavy clay and it holds water like crazy. I know the answer is to stay off of them while wet but if I waited until the trails dried out it would be literally mid to late July and anytime it rains it will be soft and moist again. That would not allow much work to be done and I need the UTV for a lot of the stuff I do. Some of my main trail is "ditched". Other parts are not. And once it is rutted it holds water literally forever. I stay off my side trails and just drive when I have to. For example last weekend when I planted apple trees I need the UTV to get trees, fencing, stakes, etc in to my spot. What can be done both temporary and permanently to fix this? I've considered trying to fill up some of the large ruts with small straight trees and get them to sink into the ground so they don't tip up but yet fill in some of the rut and then spread the weight of the UTV along the tree. So you would be driving on the tree in the rut which would be recessed in the rut. I have no idea if that will work or not. My clay is real sticky so I thought it might work. I have a logging scheduled in 2016 where I don't want to stick a ton of money into the trails at this point but I am starting to bottom out in places and need some help. Plus I know it would be expensive to fix it right with gravel or to ditch the entire thing. . This is how it begins (which I can handle): Then it turns into this: My worst part of the trail looks like this. [video=youtube_share;X6cqCyO8VHg]http://youtu.be/X6cqCyO8VHg[/video] I understand this is a problem with not a lot of good answers. I am just looking to start a discussion on things I may not be thinking of to help this out. Thanks.
About the only thing that would help solve it would be fill. Either gravel or perhaps you could try mulch too. Just try to not drive through the same spot and spread out your tracks, easier said than done. Any thoughts of a ditch to the sides??
Can you figure out where the water is coming from and going to and do some tiling? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have a disc that works well for my plots. You think it will help more than hurt to disc it to smooth it out? I just wonder if it will be softer than ever if you disc it and then rut it worse, twice as fast instead of going through compacted soils at least. Could be wrong though. The main trail is 1/2 mile long. That is a long ways to put gravel or mulch. As I said before some of my road is ditched and it holds up better. But not great. I would have to have a dozer come in to ditch and put some grade on the spots that don't have it. I love working but Yikes!!!!! Stupid question but what do I do with the tractor? I can not imagine hauling all that crap around I do by hand. That is my idea as well. Have you ever done this succesfully?
The land is flat as a pancake. So it really doesn't go anywhere. Unless you ditch it and grade it with equipment.
Years ago we had a trail out behind the house that my dad laid logs in and it seemed we always got hung up on them. His fix was to throw bricks, plaster and broken concrete into them. Wasn't nearly as long as the stretch you have to deal with though.
The solution here is a corduroy road. Loggers used to do it on roads like this using cut logs that wouldn't be taken to the timber mill. It's a long term solution because eventually even once the logs decay it will fill in the holes and you can plant grass over it. You won't have to worry about gravel being flung around and eventually sinking into the mud. A corduroy road works well.
The camp I belong to up north in NY is waaaay worse than that. Everyone just decided to buy a set of ITP Mud Lite tires and deal with getting dirty on the way in and out. That was the easiest fix.......
Don't you eventually bottom out? I am touching on my skid plate in some spots. And it is only going to get worse.
Correct me if I'm wrong but that essentially is laying logs cross ways across the road correct? Am I crazy to think about how much work that would be. How do the loggers put those roads in efficiently?
I had the same problem at my place but I was smart enough to rent a mini' excavator dig a ditch on both sides of the trail and put all of the soil on the trail. 1 weekend and it was done except for culverts I had to put 2 in after I seen how the water flowed. Putting logs on it is a lot of work and will not always work.
