Dust Control on Gravel Farm Road

[Farmall 656]

Past years, we have had dust control applied, some years tree sap product and other years calcium chloride. Just like everything else costs are rising so I checked out YouTube to see what people may have done in DIY projects. There are some interesting ideas but what I can't find is how they make or buy their calcium chloride. So, I thought I would ask this forum, have you made your own calcium chloride for dust control? Where can you buy it? What kind of mixture do you make to put on the road? What other ideas are out there? Spreading used motor oil or hydraulic oil is against the law in my state as I would assume it is in others as well.

 

[NDIHC]

Dust control? I live in the country on a farm on a gravel road. I expect dust from the road. The only time I've ever seen anything applied to a road is when a company is making multiple trips hauling gravel and they put something down on the road to keep the dust down by yards. I imagine it's calcium chloride. Makes for some nice sticky dirt that will stuck to your vehicle and rust like nothing else. I have seen some companies just water the road down with a water truck. They drive the route where they are hauling and water next to farms.

 

[the tractior vet]

Past years, we have had dust control applied, some years tree sap product and other years calcium chloride. Just like everything else costs are rising so I checked out YouTube to see what people may have done in DIY projects. There are some interesting ideas but what I can't find is how they make or buy their calcium chloride. So, I thought I would ask this forum, have you made your own calcium chloride for dust control? Where can you buy it? What kind of mixture do you make to put on the road? What other ideas are out there? Spreading used motor oil or hydraulic oil is against the law in my state as I would assume it is in others as well.

Sorta makes ya long for the 60's thru 80'sback here were strip mining waas on almost every dirt and gravel road and NO dust . This dust control came from all them old 2 stroke Detroits in the trucks hauling the coal as the leaked oil and oiled the roads . I ran one of them in the early 70's , every evening when i came it was a gallon of oil 125 to 135 gallon of fuel and oil dripping off all four corners of the 318 that was the big dog of the day . ya get a hundred truck loads of coal loaded out and 75% was by a Detroit powered straight truck or semi . No dust from the state highway to the mine enterance. When it rained ya had pretty rainbows on the road . Past the mine the county or township sprayed used motor oil till the EPA put a stop to that . Now what use to be dirt and gravel are now chip and seal.

 

[kencombs]

I remember the 'good' old days when the county road maintenance guys would spray the roads in front of houses with a light tar/oil to reduce the dust. Only for a few hundred feet in front of houses. Nobody worried about runoff into creeks or leaching into the water table. Back then the rural homes were some distance apart. That area now has one on every 5 acres or less. But roads are asphalt.

 

[Mule Meat]

Calcium chloride for dust control? You must like watching your vehicles turn to rust.

Calcium chloride can be found in most Snow melting products. Local feed and seed store offers it a couple times a year it in 50 lb bags for $30.00 a bag.

The mine that I worked at used tree sap and vegetable oil for dust control. If you have a few fast food joints around. You may ask about getting some of their used vegetable oil. It's safer than engine or hydraulic oil on roads.

 

[BobnUt]

Our subdivision used Magnesium Chloride for years $$$
Company sprayed it with a water truck
Can't get it off your car fast enough, I hated it
But, it did stop the dust

 

[joeysmith]

Cedar trees

 

[Farmall 656]

Mule Meat, I do live in Minnesota where they used calcium chloride to pretreat roads and bridges prior to snow and ice for 6 months and then use it with sand afterwards for the ice and slippery spots.

Calcium chloride for dust control? You must like watching your vehicles turn to rust.

Calcium chloride can be found in most Snow melting products. Local feed and seed store offers it a couple times a year it in 50 lb bags for $30.00 a bag.

The mine that I worked at used tree sap and vegetable oil for dust control. If you have a few fast food joints around. You may ask about getting some of their used vegetable oil. It's safer than engine or hydraulic oil on roads.

 

[moresmoke]

I stock up on calcium chloride in late winter before the ice melt is out of season. I apply 100 lbs a month to about 100 yds directly in front of my house. Spread it dry with a drop spreader. The blade usually comes by once a month, I try to spread directly after that. Its best after a rain or on a really humid evening. If spread in the evening, it is all dissolved by morning.

At this point I have spread enough that there is a good crust on the gravel that doesn’t move. The last couple times the road was graded the operator just skipped my little section which is even better.

Here in E ND I have not found any retail outlets that reliably have CaCl in the summer.

 

[38 Sears Roebuck]

Around my area where I grew up we just sprayed/dump used motor oil to keep the dust under control. I guess it wasn't a good idea but it worked.

 

[flying belgian]

I think in my township Mn. some company will apply corn syrup. I live on county blacktop but I thought that's what I heard. Does that sound right?

 

[MarkB_MI]

Our county road commission has several brine wells. They use it for deicing in the winter and dust control in the summer. Yep, they salt the roads year-round. Now you know why they call this the Rust Belt.

 

[showcrop]

Calcium chloride for dust control? You must like watching your vehicles turn to rust.

Calcium chloride can be found in most Snow melting products. Local feed and seed store offers it a couple times a year it in 50 lb bags for $30.00 a bag.

The mine that I worked at used tree sap and vegetable oil for dust control. If you have a few fast food joints around. You may ask about getting some of their used vegetable oil. It's safer than engine or hydraulic oil on roads.

Most restaurants get their used cooking oil picked up now by a recycling company. Many have two tanks, one gets new oil delivered into it and the other stores the used oil between pick-ups.

 

[Keith True]

Years ago the town used to hire an oil company to oil the roads.The trucks were lettered up fancy on the tanks,Oil for dusty roads!! Had a picture of a truck with a dust cloud in front of it,and a flat black road behind it.I worked at one of their gas stations they owned back then,and got recruited to drive the dirty oil truck one summer.There was a stretch of dead end dirt road near me,and the neighbors loved me because I could lose 1000 gallons on that one mile stretch.It would almost turn to pavement in the sun.

 

[Texasmark]

Past years, we have had dust control applied, some years tree sap product and other years calcium chloride. Just like everything else costs are rising so I checked out YouTube to see what people may have done in DIY projects. There are some interesting ideas but what I can't find is how they make or buy their calcium chloride. So, I thought I would ask this forum, have you made your own calcium chloride for dust control? Where can you buy it? What kind of mixture do you make to put on the road? What other ideas are out there? Spreading used motor oil or hydraulic oil is against the law in my state as I would assume it is in others as well.

Decades ago roads in E. Tx. were coated with crude oil. Lots of oil well drilling in that sandy loam area and some of it went to control dust and protect the integrity of the road's surface. I guess in recent years, EPA mandates stopped that practice.

My road was a soft based white rock that was graded too frequently to suit me. When graded, the fine dust filled the air. After a rain, the surface would pack down and eliminate the dust.....just as we were enjoying that clean air, the !@##$%^&*() county grader would come by and grade the road. He and I had several exchanges and in one instance I made him so mad that he parked his "maintainer" in my driveway at the end of the work day and he went home. I called him and told him to get that thing out of my driveway or I would have it impounded......he found time that evening to remove it.

 

[showcrop]

Years ago the town used to hire an oil company to oil the roads.The trucks were lettered up fancy on the tanks,Oil for dusty roads!! Had a picture of a truck with a dust cloud in front of it,and a flat black road behind it.I worked at one of their gas stations they owned back then,and got recruited to drive the dirty oil truck one summer.There was a stretch of dead end dirt road near me,and the neighbors loved me because I could lose 1000 gallons on that one mile stretch.It would almost turn to pavement in the sun.

I think that I knew the fellow who owned those trucks. He was picking up the waste oil in Chester. He was a fairly round, jolly, Italian looking, friendly guy. He also had maybe a model 60 JD. Does that sound right? Chester ended up paying into a settlement fund for the closing of a plant that was related.

 

[GChief]

I guess in recent years, EPA mandates stopped that practice.

You say that like its a bad thing, it is the furthest thing from that!

 

[Texasmark]

You say that like its a bad thing, it is the furthest thing from that!

True considering the overall environmental impact. If you wanted to see a disaster, the Creosote plant in Beaumont, Tx. where they treated utility poles and such was certainly needing the EPA, back several, several decades ago.

 

[joeysmith]

Times beach disaster

 

[Texasmark]

Times beach disaster

I plugged that title into my search engine and read the report.....WOW what a mess.