I personally would recommend, with that long drive you have, a used compact tractor that is already equipped with a mower deck (belly mower or pull behind). Should be 4WD and preferably hydrostat transmission for ease of use. You can then buy a used blade (front mount, belly or rear mount) for a reasonable price to clear/maintain the road. The JD tractor with turf tires in the link below would fill the bill, although it has a manual trans. They are out there for close to the $5k you want to spend. A friend of mine has this setup (Kubota compact tractor) and he is always using it to maintain his long drive just like yours, works great. I think you would grow weary of trying to do road work with a garden tractor sized setup, not to mention getting stuck.

Here is a link that might be useful: compact tractor with mower

About the driveway and adding more gravel. If you have sandy soil, adding more gravel would be a waste of money as the gravel will disappear into the soil pretty quickly - depending on the amount of traffic. If you have clay soil, the gravel should do you some good. My Dad put down gravel on his clay/hardpan 35 years ago and its still doing its job. For the long haul, you may want to get some estimates from a reputable asphalt contractor to build a permanent road.

I use Case compact GT's used blade, mower my oldest one 1968 155 newest 1990 4016 they are not made any more but parts are available.

Here is a link that might be useful: 4018 ebay long ways from U

This post was edited by gator_rider2 on Thu, Jan 16, 14 at 9:26

Further to the above on road maintenance, relayed from my buddy with the long driveway:

"Have to add gravel every few years. Got no idea how much $$ I have spent but it is a few for sure. I use road base but the best is if you can get them to add some binder like clay, as regular base doesn't stick together too well. Right now you can't get any around here, it is all committed to others for something, not sure what. One of these days I am going to buy a little road plane to maintain it. A back blade takes some real work to make it look good. You need to keep it crowned and the ditches along the sides cleaned up so it drains on those rare occasions when it rains, otherwise it washes out. Also I like to plow it after a good snow so that it dries out fast when the sun comes out. Otherwise it stays muddy for quite a while."

on your drive... see these two youtube videos. These fabrics work like magic, it's a shame your contractor did not put this down to start with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHYt7pZyZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG8iET68Ku8

After 15 years I've learned that you never own gravel... you just rent it. Adding gravel over the years as necessary and rolling it can get you a great road bed but it can take a long time. If you have a blade you get to master grading your road and not screwing it up. I find a metal roller filled with water judiciously applied by my GT to my gravel drive works wonders.

For snow, a blower on a gravel driveway works great if your rig can carry the blower an inch or two above the road otherwise your snow blower becomes a rock thrower.

FWIW, When we built here ended up with about a 1500 foot gravel drive. The ground here is sand. Around here, there's something called "crusher run," which varies from 2" down to pea size. I spread that and then took a 4WD JD farm tractor and just went over and over using the tires as a roller. The big stuff went down and the smaller came up. Evened it up with a dozer blade on a GT. Couple of years later a added about two inches of regular sized gravel. Worked that in as previously described. It's held up fairly well, and yes, you do periodically have to add more gravel. In ten years have added gravel once. I plow snow with the GT and blade. The gravel has packed down and is pretty level and solid.

I'd consider having the driveway graded, add more and larger gravel if what you have is small. To me, gravel driveways and snow throwers go together well. Mowing 3/4 of an acre and hauling and landscaping the balance would work well with a GT or even a hefty LT with cart.

Yes, totally agree that compact 4WD would be the way to go, if price wasn't a consideration. With your budget you're looking at a used machine which could be a steal or you could be robbed. :-)

Good luck,

Ev

Ask your gravel/dirt guy for "crushed concrete". It has jagged edges that interlock somewhat, and it doesn't sink into the ground as readily as gravel.

All your responses are very appreciated! Keep them coming if you have more ideas! I'll start digging into each one and doing a bit of research to see if one of them will work. I've started having everyone who comes to the house say, "Boy, what are you going to do about your driveway?" So... it's time to do something for sure :-) Thanks again to all who provided their input!