I've been wondering what folks use to maintain their dirt roads with a utility ATV.....I need to "drag" our road with something other than a section of chain-link fence. What can I use (craft or purchase) to smooth out the beginnings of washboards and small pot holes??

 

The best thing for that is a box cutter....... But they are not cheap.......

 

Here's one from Cabelas. Cabela's -- ATV Harrow I haven't tried the chainlink fence trick. Basically you use a square of the chain link and attach a chain to tow it. I would use some kind of board to keep the front edge straight and try to put a box on the chain link to keep some kind of weight on the fence. The actual drags that have spikes pointing down are a better way to go because the scrape down the high and fill in the low. Might be able to get a bargain on eBay. Haven't needed one yet so haven't tried building one. Let us know what you decide and how it works out, Funride.

 

Funny you should mention that. I just sold a 600lb box scaper that did a fantastic job. However, it went with my Kubota tractor when we moved off the farm to Maine. It pretty much sucks to be tractor-less, but I'll survive.....The XP helped to heal the wound. Looking for some quasi replacement that might do 1/100 of the box scraper, towed behind a freakin' ATV. What am I thinking.......

 

And funny you should mention that....I just looked at those online a couple hours ago We have a new Cabela's in Portland and hope to check that harrow out in person Moose.

The deal with our road is that it's got a lot of crushed rock in the surface and was graded, then compacted with a massive vibratory roller.....so the surface is like one big stone in 98% of the area. It's just those small sections that are starting to get washboards and small holes. Not sure if anything will work aside from a big ol' CAT grader. -My hope was that I could pull some of the fines to fill the lows.

Since I convinced everyone to spend $8,000 on road work this year, and six weeks later it's showing signs of wear, I'd like to do something before I start getting calls about the poor road condition. My neighbors complain to me if there is even one small "pothole" on the '1800 of road without hesitation. In fact they complain about everything......kids speeding, adults speeding.....trash trucks, snow plowing, edge mowing. It's endless.

 

Another way to do it is to make a box of 2x8s and screw a piece of metal to the bottom. Then, bolt in a bunch of bolts and put some weights in the box you've made to get the bolts to scratch deeply. It would take some time to do. I'm not sure if the Cabelas in Scarborough had the harrows or not. You might give them a call first. I've been up there a couple times and haven't seen them.

 

Six weeks with no real washboards or pot holes for a dirt road sounds like a long time. My driveway is 1600 feet long and was dirt. Three years ago I had about 120 yards (6 tri axle loads) of asphalt millings trucked in for about 3k. Then I rented a bobcat and a small compactor / roller. One short day to spread the millings with the bobcat and one long day on the roller. Three years of plowing and a running the tractor up and down it with the double link o ring chains and not a pot hole in sight.

 

We use heavy steel brushes like a push broom but heavy gauge steel bristles. Get a frame about 6'x6' made from 4x4 timber, some 1" flat bar to brace, cross brace and bracket the corners so it doesn't fall apart. Line the front edge with with the brushes and make lines of the brushes spaced about a foot apart all the way to the back end.

It works great for the decomposed granite we use it on. Most is fairly loose with some more solid spots here and there. It doesn't tear up the harder spots but it smoothes out the wash board nicely. Been using this one for about 3 years every other week down 2.5 miles of dirt road. Looks like it will last another year or 2.
It's pretty heavy so we use a truck to pull it, but a big bore quad could probably do it if the road was flat.

Unfortunatly the brushes were given to me so I'm not sure where I could purchase more.

 

Have you checked what is available at your local equipment rental store?

 

I dream of someday owning a DR power grader for an atv.
http://www.drpower.com/Power-Grader.aspx?