Gravel drive for car access

[Glenn]

Hello all,

We have a long term renovation project in the French alps, vehicular access is via a 30 metre long grass covered "drive way" which slopes gently upwards to a height of about 1 metre over the length of the drive. In anything other than dry weather, car access is entertaining to say the least. The local council has a dump of gravel not far from us, and it seems to me that one night we could easily "acquire" enough gravel to lay two lengths of gravel to aid vehicular access. My question is, should we dig out two parallel and shallow "ditches" to take the gravel (and if so, how deep should they be?), or just lay the gravel straight on to the grass and bed it in by driving a car over it?

Many thanks,

Glenn

[Peter Crosland]

Try posting in alt.theft.fr

Peter Crosland

[tarquinlinbin]

It'll last longer if you dig a bit of a "foundation" for it. Having said that,the "local council" or other authority might have some objections? Remove antispam and add 670 after bra to email

Be a good Global citizen-CONSUME>CONFORM>OBEY

Circumcision- A crime and an abuse.

[Glenn]

SNIP

works the council are doing and it seems the local community at large are digging into the diminishing pile of gravel.

Thanks,

Glenn

[Hzatph]

[Peter Crosland]

However, just because everyone else is taking it does not mean that they are authorised to do so!

Peter Crosland

[dennis]

When you say a gravel dump do you mean road salt?

If it is it will kill the grass and other plants and washes away in the rain.

[Glenn]

No, it's not road salt, it's glacial gravel, recovered from road works and left at the side of the road prior to removal, which is now over due by several years...

Many thanks to those that provided constructive comments, and a sharp rap on the knuckles to those that assumed we were up to something naughty.

Glenn

[Andy Hall]

Absolutely, Peter.

The OP should be aware that because of the French culture of the law being more of a guideline or something to be used when Something Bad Happens, that the condition for EU membership of not having the death penalty for gravel theft has not reached the French Alps.

Mme. Guillotine is full operational in the village square and the jobsworths don't have peaked caps and look like Derek Guyler; nor do they have striped Tshirts, ride bicycles and sell onions.

However, I am sure that they work for the local government and park their detector vans behind the Mairie.

[Dave Liquorice]

1 in 30 is pretty flat, even on wet grass or snow. Maybe improve ones driving skills and/or fit tyres better suited to snow than pure tarmac.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Gravel is not te best for this. Best is crushable limetsone which eventually turns the drive into an approximation of a nice well drained chalk upland.

Havingf said that, if its mud you have, get a pile of gravel and just spread it over wehere you drive to about 2" depth.

And simply keep on doing it.

Evenytually you arriove at a matrix of gravel, mud and grass, which is usually better grip than straight mud..

[The Natural Philosopher]

My jag will bog down on wet grass on a totally flat surface...

[Glenn]

SNIP

Many thanks for that.

What we have available is limestone (we are on a limestone plateau). Whenever the council do road works, they have to remove substantial quantities of "gravel" before they start doing whatever the job may be - they are currently replacing water and sewerage pipes). The "gravel" is actually the silt that was created when this area was under a glacier during the last ice age. So it's a mixture of particles from sand up to small rocks. The council dump this stiff in various places, and the locals seem to make use of it as they want...

We'll do as you suggest, it has to be an improvement!

Glenn

[Peter Crosland]

LOL! The problem can be that as the French have an inbred hatred of the British it would not be unheard of for them to use it as an excuse. If the OP ends up in the mire he will know who to blame.

Peter Crosland

[tony sayer]

In article , Peter Crosland writes

Not so.. they hate everyone!....

[Michael Chare]

Just yesterday I parked my car in a grass car park. The space I parked in was sloping and as I was going to have to reverse out uphill I did think I am glad its not wet!

When I left I noticed that there was some green plastic in the grass. Sort of loose mat specially made for allowing light vehicles to be driven over grass.

[mungoh]

I thought reverse gear in vehicles was always a lower gear than first?

My father learned to drive whilst in the army. He's well retired now, but his driving license put me to shame with all the categories of vehicles he was permitted to drive.

One day he was at a friend's house (built on hilly ground) when a delivery lorry arrived. With the weight on the vehicle, the engine wouldn't pull the vehicle up the driveway.

Having watched the driver attempt this a couple of times, my genetically-irate father walked over to the driver's opened window and shouted at him to "put it into the lowest gear". By this point the driver wasn't too endeared with the situation, so he shouted back words to the effect of "If you can do this better pal then you're welcome to try."

So my father took him up on the offer, jumps into the lorry, turns it round then reversed up the hill!

I can just picture his smug satisfaction having taught the driver that reverse is actually lower than first.

Mungo :-)

[Dave Liquorice]

It normally is.

How ever is easier to pull something up than push. On really slippy surfaces it's frequently better to use a high gear and good clutch/throttle control as it's harder to make the wheels spin. Once a wheels is spinning you've lost most of available traction and (for an ordinary vehical) the other "driven" wheel isn't going to do anything.

[Rick]

If this was in N.Wales Brunstrom would have a couple of coppers sat by the pile, charging $$ you not to get nicked.

Rick

[Mike]

Usually exactly the same. Just sounds noisier due to the extra gear in the drive.