Wacker Plates/Compactors
 

What does the collective know about these things?

I'm after building MTB trails across my land in Ireland, for which I will be digging down some inches, putting down some bigger limestone gravel, then fine limestone gravel on top to make a trail that can be used all the year around.

One of the things that occurred to me is that I need to compact the gravel to ensure that it all stays together and doesn't wash off down the hill when it rains. Yes, I will be doing proper grading and bench cuts where necessary. There's several Km of trail though.

Access precludes getting a steamroller in but tamping down with a McLeod is a lot of hard work and extremely laborious, so looking at getting a Wacker Plate or similar compactor.

What advice can anyone give? There seem to be some around £350 mark, either new or second hand - are they worth it? Are some better than others? Recommendations? What should I be looking for?

TIA :thumb:

can you not hire one?

if not then this is the beast you want.......................

http://www.kmsdirect.co.uk/magento/c...or-with-wheels

Damn! Out of stock!

I could hire but I'm over so often and there's other people going to be doing stuff when I'm not there...

To do groundworks you need one of the ride on compactors. The ones in the link will be a waste of time as they won't get the hardcore compacted deep enough.

Most important thing is to get the gravel mix right. Just whacking chippings/stones will do nothing as they will not compact. you need a gravel/dust mix so they bind together.

Tell me more... I'm using unwashed limestone in different grades. What mix? Should I just add concrete powder? Or?

Nature of the trail and the terrain will likely preclude the use of ride on stuff.

The mix will differ from area to area depending what is being quarried. You'd be better off ringing your local quarry and asking them as I guess you'll be requiring a few loads.

But basically you need different size aggregate that interlock when whacked so there are no gaps that would weaken the path.

Also when delivered that stone will be damp.Keep it damp and covered, don't let it get too wet or it will be useless.

Just a thought, but have you tried asking people at other bike parks how they build/maintain theirs? The guys at Revolution, Bike Park Wales, or Llandegla for instance seem to know their stuff, their trails have always seemed well constructed and durable :thumb:

Don't know where you are in Ireland, but the guys that built this one;

http://www.derrouramountainbikehire.com/location.htm

Deserve a mention too :thumb:

I used the 1.5 tonne excavator for compacting after I'd finished using it to move the 2inch and 3inch lime. At least you can sit on it and it'll go up inclines if you're not too crazy.

Every quarry will have a type 1, most builders merchants have type 1 in stock, there are plenty of independent suppliers of crush, and all will deliver.
You will need a 40mm to dust at most, ideally a 20mm to dust for a sub-base for your track.
Depending how wet/soft the ground gets will determine your depths of excavation, 100-150mm will generally suffice.
Your not putting foundations in for the Great Wall of china so a small to medium whacker will easily do the job, £25 for half days hire.
If the sub-base is bone dry then a sprinkling of water over will help the compaction go off harder quicker, if no water available then not to worry.
Run the whacker over your area two or three times then job done.
:)
Edit: to work out how much crush required, it's length x width x depth.
So a 5mx5m area at 150mm depth would require approx 3.75tonnes.

You need Tarmac planings, cheap and perfect for the job :thumb:

That's some useful info there guys, thanks very much.

At roughly 2.5km thats nearly some 400 tons needed :freak3:

Getting it at around 11 euro a ton delivered - methinks I should work out some form of sponsorship deal for the quarry :D

(It doesn't all need gravel but then there's some really boggy bits too)

Id use type one and not bother with other aggregate. A whacker plate is only good for finishing fine wearing course and it wont compact it in the manner that you require.

Id be looking at a proper pounder, or a hand controlled or ride on roller if the paths are wide enough.

A pounder will compact the type one (hard core), the sub-base and the 20mm base course sufficiently to satisfy the Highways Agency when used on dual carriage trunk roads (and they take core samples!) so itll definitely do the job for you.

£10 a tonne seems bloody expensive to me. £5-£6 delivered is more like it. How far away is the quarry?

Costs of Aggregates delivered would depend on amounts, more tonnage = less cost.
I pay £20 tonne for 40mm type 1 delivered which is bl00dy cheap,and £15 per tonne picked up on my truck, I don't think anywhere would sell for £5-£6 delivered even for huge amounts.

£4-£5 per ton for Tarmac planings..

You would be misguided then. I have delivered thousands and thousands of tonnes of it and am more than familiar with the price.

You could take delivery 16 tonnes of Type1 from a limestone quarry in Derbyshire, in the Lake District for a shade over £20:00 per tonne!

There is a smaller independent quarry in Cromford which delivers Type1 to Derby, 20 miles away, for £5 per tonne.

£20 per tonne isn't cheap - youre being had.

Am paying £8 tonne delivered at current rates. If I was closer to you GC8, I could get a discount :D

There's a lot of corners, steep gradient and direction changes, bare rock, trees & bog, so not really ride-on friendly. Its for MTBs so doesn't need to be suitable for motorised vehicles in the end.

Where I live in the south £20 per tonne is very cheap, it will stay at that rate for me after April when the government introduces a new tax on quarry and landfill........those costs will be covered by us the consumers,,,skips, aggregates etc so in fact those costs will rise nationwide.
Iv been block paving my own business for nearly 20yrs so aggregates of all types are used by me daily, I know what a good deal is as to maximum my profits, baring in mind I use premium grade type 1 and not broken brick/waste rubble( no good for driveways).
Maybe it's different for you up north but down here I would have more chance of winning tonight's euros that getting a deal on £4-£5 per tonne on type1 hardcore delivered..........5 tons for £25 delivered haha, barely covers the fuel let alone the drivers wage plus the aggregate.

Lots of stone oop north :)

And near me too.

I think you'll find that'll be closer to 8 tonne ;)

Price will vary massively dependant on location and also the type of stone used. Recycled will be a lot cheaper than quarried due to the fact that (at the moment) you don't have to pay quarry tax on recycled.

MOT Type 1 is more expensive than DOT type 1, you can get limestone type 1, granite, crushed brick and crushed concrete. The best type one we've ever used is recycled crushed concrete, weather almost doesn't affect it and it goes very hard.

I wouldn't use type 1 for it, Pflowers made a good call!

9 actually, sorry I worked out m3 and forgot to convert.

Being pedantic 8.25 tonne ;)

Just to bring this one back up...

KMS is out of stock but I've found the below on eBay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/C60HC-6-5h...item54191bc88c

They also do

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/C80HC-6-5H...item418f049ee1

The difference is that one is 70kg & 12NM force, the other is 82kg & 15NM force. The price difference is negligible so not an issue, the quandary I have is over the weight because at the end of the day I work on my own a lot (billy no mates!) so lugging them onto my dumper will be more challenging for the heavier of the 2. But I will likely get a better compaction/base with it.

Don't want to get the light one and find out I should really have got the heavy one and I don't want to get the heavy one only to find out that its slightly overkill and I can't load/unload it on my own (safely).

I have contemplated building an a-frame out of some scaffold poles though...

What do you guys think?

just google "small ride on vib roller", a whacker plate is far too small and as stated only good for finishing

One of them things is not practical for what I need it for. This is not for a nice smooth & FLAT family bike trail, it is meant for challenging MTB trails where gradient and camber changes can be severe and there will be features like drops and berms etc... Plus it costs a lot more.