How To Save Money When Graveling A Road

How To Save Money When Graveling A Road MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 34-5-27 Darol Dickinson got tired of paying for road gravel that he didn't need. So he came up with a simple idea that lets dump trucks spread gravel only over vehicles' tire tracks. "We operate a large ranch where the soil is prone to get muddy. We often put in new all-weather pasture roads, or resurface old ones," says Dickinson. "Normally, the dump truck will lay an apron of gravel 3 in. thick across the width of the road. It costs about $200 to gravel 200 ft. of road so the cost really adds up in a hurry. We needed a way to reduce the cost." His solution is to lay a 6-in. sq, 4-ft. long wood block in the center of the truck's inside dump gate when the truck is empty. The truck driver opens the gate 1 in. high to let gravel out, but the block limits the release of gravel to two 18-in. wide streams on either side of the gate where the wheels track. The two 18-in. wide streams of gravel are about the width of a set of duallies on a pickup. "The 4-ft. wide section in the middle of the road doesn't get any gravel. As a result, a truck with an 8 1/2-ft. wide bed can go twice as far before it runs out of gravel. It saves a lot of money," says Dickinson. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Darol Dickinson, 35000 Muskrat, Barnesville, Ohio 43713 (ph 740 758-5050; darol@texaslonghorn.com).

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