My driveway doesn't look much different from yours, but mine is only 600 feet long and yours looks much longer. It then connects to a dirt road, but I do almost nothing with that unless it becomes impassable. I can crown a bit with the rake, and I have been toying with the idea of putting a sandbag over the rake to keep it down. The length of the top link may matter as well. If I shorten my top link, the rake digs in more, but if I lengthen it it floats over the surface and only picks up big stuff on the surface. I don't usually crown with the rake; I use the box blade for that, but I find it easier to "sweep" the large rocks off the drive with the rake.I think the different configurations of "driveways" (flat, crowned, wide, narrow) and the size of the gravel might drive the best tool for that job. The videos I've watched for box blades and rakes are always on large flat expanses, not graveled paths cut through the woods as ours is.
Ours is hilly and has a crown on it, and seems to get rutted real easily, so when the tires hit pits and rises, the attachment on the rear raises up and bottoms out. 7-8 years ago we paid to have it reworked. The guy used a skid loader and took it down to the bed, then laid down fresh gravel. It doesn't stay intact for long. Stuff washes away on the steep hills (it's a 75' drop from the top to the bottom.) There are places where the sides drop off so the gravel gets pushed away into the woods. Then others where it just gets pushed off into the grass.
Head of the driveway looking down:
Half way down looking back up the last hill:
The video for the rake I bought shows it pulling up large roots and dragging away sizeable logs. I paid for high quality. But I don't really have that need. It just doesn't seem to do that well on the gravel. My neighbor gets frustrated when he tells me to just back-drag the front end loader, because he's used a skid loader with treads and doesn't grasp how 4 wheels hitting rises and holes cause anything hanging off of the tractor to go up & down 12" at a pop. Maybe I need to reduce all the pressure on the 3 point hitch so the rake just drags on its own weight and does not follow the tractor's ups & downs. I hadn't thought of it before. But it still wouldn't work that well on the many places the road has a crown for the water to run off.
I think the different configurations of "driveways" (flat, crowned, wide, narrow) and the size of the gravel might drive the best tool for that job. The videos I've watched for box blades and rakes are always on large flat expanses, not graveled paths cut through the woods as ours is.
Ours is hilly and has a crown on it, and seems to get rutted real easily, so when the tires hit pits and rises, the attachment on the rear raises up and bottoms out. 7-8 years ago we paid to have it reworked. The guy used a skid loader and took it down to the bed, then laid down fresh gravel. It doesn't stay intact for long. Stuff washes away on the steep hills (it's a 75' drop from the top to the bottom.) There are places where the sides drop off so the gravel gets pushed away into the woods. Then others where it just gets pushed off into the grass.
Head of the driveway looking down:
Half way down looking back up the last hill:
The video for the rake I bought shows it pulling up large roots and dragging away sizeable logs. I paid for high quality. But I don't really have that need. It just doesn't seem to do that well on the gravel. My neighbor gets frustrated when he tells me to just back-drag the front end loader, because he's used a skid loader with treads and doesn't grasp how 4 wheels hitting rises and holes cause anything hanging off of the tractor to go up & down 12" at a pop. Maybe I need to reduce all the pressure on the 3 point hitch so the rake just drags on its own weight and does not follow the tractor's ups & downs. I hadn't thought of it before. But it still wouldn't work that well on the many places the road has a crown for the water to run off.
Yeh, the second pic was taken 7years ago. All the gravel has been either pushed to the side or crushed under the tires.
My daughter even went to one of our technical schools to learn welding but she did not want to invest in the equipment.
Now you need a tiller, @Jake Smith. That would be considerably more expensive than the plow.
Unless they are having a really large garden, a small tiller might work. I used to have a nice little Gilson yard tractor that had the rototiller on it, and I just loved that little tiller. It was one that could be a lawn mower, but I didn’t use it for that, I just used the tiller for my garden.
I still have a tow-behind tiller @Yvonne Smith. It got torn up by the rocky soil here. My PTO-driven tiller is tougher. I hope it lasts.
Chainsaw material. Get a cordless electric chainsaw @Marie Mallory. I bought one and my wife has no trouble using it, but she would never deal with my gasoline saws.
Don it is defiantly chainsaw material. Not sure if I can still use a chainsaw, I had one 10 years ago, but it wasn't a big one.