off road road repair

[Rexplorer]

we have a trip next weekend that involves a trail that has seen better days. there are some rocky rutty chutes that shouldnt be too bad, but a big washout almost crossing the road will be a bit more ot a challenge. we want to do it saftely and well. any tips or links that you can share? dont think we will be building a bridge or anything, just the washout section. we will have shovels and a chainsaw, but anything else we should consider. really want to keep the rubber side down. thanks.

 

[canadianoverlanders]

I don't want to sound like "doctor obvious" but plz don't go alone.
do you have traction boards like Maxtrax?
Instead of bridging it, what about building a corduroy road through the gap? Basically back filling a little with logs you can cut. Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about.
Your other option is fording across.
Hard to say because I don't know where it is your going.
Too bad we live so far away, it would be awesome to link up and do that. Sound like you'll have fun and a challenge.

 

[000]

We like to travel alone too. I usually just make sure to be very prepared. With a winch, shovel and chainsaw it usually just comes down to time and effort. I've spent an hour getting out of a spot that I anticipated walking right through and walked through spots I thought were pretty sketchy. It's part of the fun, but being prepared makes it not miserable. If you're planning on moving rocks and or really having to dig, a digging bar is a pretty handy and inexpensive thing to have along. They're typically about a 6' long inch or so diameter steel bar with a pointed or chisel end that is great for breaking up tough ground or prying rocks or logs loose, it is a compact though heavy all around useful tool if you need it.


Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk

 

[Rexplorer]

definately not going alone. i do appreciate the concer though. basically 4 feet of the low side is washed out. the high side is intact to half way across. its about 10 feet wide. i guess we are going to dig the highside bank out to widen the road. no bridge building i hope, just make the road into the high bank enough to get around. will check for undercuts of course. not sure if we can brace the hole then fill it, but that would be ideal. put some of the material from digging into the bank into the hole.

its a road weve watched degrade over the past 4 years, and if we want to get to a favourite spot of ours, we're going to need to keep the road drivable.

i tried googling this in many wordings, but get links to trailsude rig repairs.

 

[000]

We like to travel alone too. I usually just make sure to be very prepared. With a winch, shovel and chainsaw it usually just comes down to time and effort. I've spent an hour getting out of a spot that I anticipated walking right through and walked through spots I thought were pretty sketchy. It's part of the fun, but being prepared makes it not miserable. If you're planning on moving rocks and or really having to dig, a digging bar is a pretty handy and inexpensive thing to have along. They're typically about a 6' long inch or so diameter steel bar with a pointed or chisel end that is great for breaking up tough ground or prying rocks or logs loose, it is a compact though heavy all around useful tool if you need it.


Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk

 

[Neil Q Smith]

definately not going alone. i do appreciate the concer though. basically 4 feet of the low side is washed out. the high side is intact to half way across. its about 10 feet wide. i guess we are going to dig the highside bank out to widen the road. no bridge building i hope, just make the road into the high bank enough to get around. will check for undercuts of course. not sure if we can brace the hole then fill it, but that would be ideal. put some of the material from digging into the bank into the hole.

its a road weve watched degrade over the past 4 years, and if we want to get to a favourite spot of ours, we're going to need to keep the road drivable.

i tried googling this in many wordings, but get links to trailsude rig repairs.

Would be interesting to see how you get along - will you take photos / videos during your road repair exercise ?

I have not had the "pleasure" of having to fix a road on this scale (as yet), so it would be interesting to learn form your experience.

Good Luck, and hope you have a successful outcome...

Cheers
Neil .)

 

[Rexplorer]

Would be interesting to see how you get along - will you take photos / videos during your road repair exercise ?

I have not had the "pleasure" of having to fix a road on this scale (as yet), so it would be interesting to learn form your experience.

Good Luck, and hope you have a successful outcome...

Cheers
Neil .)

will take photos of the operation fir sure. leaving extra early for this run to make sure we have time to make it safe.

 

[58-fc170]

Bridge it with some good sized logs then fill it in with gravel/dirt. This should help reduce the erosion in the future and prevent it from crumbling under the weight of a rig.

 

[Chadlyb]

Good luck...safe journey and I'm excited to see the pics of your adventure

 

[Rexplorer]

ok. we are back. the road was not as bad as we thought since it barely rained all summer. 3 times maybe. and 2 of them were small., but still took some repair to get through safely.

exhibit a...

this is the road when we got there. just bellow the yellow bush on the right of the road, you can see the washout. the road bed is about 6 feet wide, but is undercut about 6 inches, maybe a bit more. the bank of the left is where we had to cut out. it is a bit slopy and we could drive up the bank a bit to get past, but not worth the risk. my fju is 6'9" wide across the front tire. you can see the washed out section a bit better here...

there were people coming up after us in the dark, they needed to get by in a fullsize truck too. the bottom of the washout was wide and steep. no way we could shore anything up from the bottom.

we spent about 2 hours taking out the bank on the left. we left as many trees as we could, since they were holding the bank together, but we liberally moved dirt and cut some roots that began to show.

this was near the end..

there was other work to do in some ruts up a bit, so we called this mostly done.
it's about 8" wide almost, minus 6 inches of undercut from the washout.
it's obviously not a permanent fix, and we tried to redirect some of the water off above the work to preserve it as long as possible. we cut as much as we had to out of the bank, but that will erode a bit too, but not as much. hopefully the drainage above this spot will be improved enough to buy us a few more trips up.

the top

have you had to fix a road? lets see some pictures of other road repairs. and here some stories.

 

[HEYElliott]

Wow

ok. we are back. the road was not as bad as we thought since it barely rained all summer. 3 times maybe. and 2 of them were small., but still took some repair to get through safely.

exhibit a...

this is the road when we got there. just bellow the yellow bush on the right of the road, you can see the washout. the road bed is about 6 feet wide, but is undercut about 6 inches, maybe a bit more. the bank of the left is where we had to cut out. it is a bit slopy and we could drive up the bank a bit to get past, but not worth the risk. my fju is 6'9" wide across the front tire. you can see the washed out section a bit better here...

there were people coming up after us in the dark, they needed to get by in a fullsize truck too. the bottom of the washout was wide and steep. no way we could shore anything up from the bottom.

we spent about 2 hours taking out the bank on the left. we left as many trees as we could, since they were holding the bank together, but we liberally moved dirt and cut some roots that began to show.

this was near the end..

there was other work to do in some ruts up a bit, so we called this mostly done.
it's about 8" wide almost, minus 6 inches of undercut from the washout.
it's obviously not a permanent fix, and we tried to redirect some of the water off above the work to preserve it as long as possible. we cut as much as we had to out of the bank, but that will erode a bit too, but not as much. hopefully the drainage above this spot will be improved enough to buy us a few more trips up.

the top

have you had to fix a road? lets see some pictures of other road repairs. and here some stories.

Nice repair! Its awesome seeing people working on the trails they use, hopefully those people that passed by and saw the work you had done will take it on themselves to put in some sweat-equity on the next trail obstruction they come across.

 

[GrayGhost]

Make sure you can communicate with each other, and more importantly, have a way to communictate with others if you really need help.

 

[DividedSky]

Glad to see you brought a Mattock axe. Those are by far the most undervalued pieces of equipment for trail building (road or single track MTB trails). That and a shovel is about all you need! Oh, maybe a hand saw as well. Maybe...