Gravel. Two tons at a time.

August 22nd, 2007, 6:59 am Josh Houghtelin Home, Automobiles

I’ve never been so happy to see gravel.

Zippy and I have been coping with a clay/dirt based driveway since the construction equipment left after installing our septic, systern, and camper. This means that when the forecast projects rain we have to park our cars out on the dirt road before it turns into our driveway. What’s even worse is when it does in fact rain we end up tracking mud and clay everywhere. If you have never walked in wet clay, imagine this: You take one step and your shoe instantly doubles in size and weighs 10 times more then it did without the clay. You want shake your foot a bit to get the clay off but instead it peels your whole shoe off. Clay is thick and sticks to itself better then anything you can imagine. Needless to say it will make you go insane. After finding out who everyone around me gets their dirt from I started making phone calls. I found an awesome hookup on gravel that’s only 6 miles away from my home.

I’m purchasing course road gravel because it’s cheap ( $10.50/ton ) and is available in unlimited quantities. Now for the best part. Have you ever dropped 2 tons of gravel in a pickup truck? How about this one?

The truck I’m using to haul 2 tons of road gravel per load.

I will see if I can get a short video of this beast being loaded down with 2 tons of gravel. It’s hilarious. I am going to have 10 to 15 tons delivered at once but for right now I’m burying all my drainage pipes and whistles by hand so the big truck can just come in and not worry about how I’ve got all that stuff setup. That means I’ll be bringing in about 10 tons of gravel myself. 5 loads at one load (2 tons) a day isn’t so bad.

NOTE: I was just informed that the pickup I’m hauling this gravel in is only built to carry 1/2 a ton. I may have to cut back to 1 ton loads (as I’m told that would be ok?) and double the runs otherwise I risk folding the leaf springs in half and killing the whole operation.

The Video: The poor old truck looks to be handling it alright.

Click To Play

Although I understand that just because it didn’t pop the tires or fold the leaf springs doesn’t mean the breaks, chassis, axle, and all the other components under that weight can handle it.