Driving Driveable Waterbars

[slowp]

Here's a video. They don't look nearly as bad going down the road as they do going up. The worst ones were at the bottom--not on video because people spin their tires trying to figure out how to drive them. Waterbars are all over roads here. I scraped bottom on the Subaru driving on this road. Hence the replacement with a higher pickup.

I also used Twinkle to brush out the road a few years ago, since I had a timber sale next door to it. It is needing it again in a few places.

The waterbars seem to be doing their job. But they are a pain to drive on, and loggers have to flatten them out prior to hauling on the road. I had a logger leave them flattened out on a road. He had done a good job and there was still enough of a bump that the road still drained in the spots. That road has survived well also.

Well, I used my old camera, so no sound...

[video=youtube;_FAJ_gzf4lI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FAJ_gzf4lI&feature=share&list=UU9mFXlXjEJvJoCImQvFXVSg[/video]

 

[paccity]

slow down , it's not a rally.:hmm3grin2orange: they don't look that bad. i've seen them so bad you think they tanktraped them. wait, maybe they where tanktraps.:msp_wink:

 

[bert0168]

HOLY COW! The water must come down those roads a hell-thrashin'-rats to need a waterbar that big.

Is it a lot steeper than the video shows?

 

[slowp]

HOLY COW! The water must come down those roads a hell-thrashin'-rats to need a waterbar that big.

Is it a lot steeper than the video shows?

That's an older road. It was built in the day when grades were kept fairly low, and it isn't in a very steep area. Of course, hike up the hill and you'll run into a rock bluff. Now it would be considered to be overbuilt.

On another road, the waterbars that were put in a couple years ago were complained about by somebody who matters, and they were bladed down so Subarus won't drag. That's on a road with some good grades.

Quite a bit of water comes down the roads here. That's why they have so much rock on them. Logging used to have a longer season before the spotted owl judgements.

 

[Gologit]

The best water bars are BIG water bars.

If we finished a sale and knew we wouldn't be back for a couple of years we'd fall a cull across the road, especially near gates that were being driven around, and build the water bar on top of it. It helped to keep the fire wood gatherers, bikers, 4 wheelers, and deer hunters out.

 

[northmanlogging]

seems like they have gotten out of water barring around here. Now they just tear up the whole road and leave a bunch of brush on it can't remember what the call it... Used to be a big'n up Seagulson That connected to another road that a guy could make a big loop on. the four wheel drive guys kept beating it down so now they just leave it open. There two ways to take a water bar: Slow and at a slight angle, or very fast with a Sharif or forest service truck behind you...:msp_scared:

 

[slowp]

The best water bars are BIG water bars.

If we finished a sale and knew we wouldn't be back for a couple of years we'd fall a cull across the road, especially near gates that were being driven around, and build the water bar on top of it. It helped to keep the fire wood gatherers, bikers, 4 wheelers, and deer hunters out.

Typical logger... the best waterbars are ones that actually drain the water...but you should make them extra large in areas that have endurance mule races. When lots of mules get ridden over a recently waterbarred skid trail (not driveable waterbars) a path gets tromped down right in the middle. Conconully Mule Days happened to have a race through a unit.

 

[Gologit]

Hmmppph...typical forester. :msp_biggrin: We always liked the idea of having water bars and traffic control all in one structure.

It didn't always work, though. I got a nasty letter from a deer hunter...he'd driven his 4wd pickup around one of our closed gates and got high centered on one of our end of sale water bars. He'd tried to dig it out but found a large log in the middle. Imagine that.

He had to call a tow truck from town. The tow truck company refused to enter private property. The deer hunter had to have a buddy come in and pull him off the water bar. I guess they were there 'til way after dark.

He wrote the letter to express his displeasure that our gates were so easily driven around. I had a little trouble seeing the logic in that. He was also upset about the "obstacle" as called it, in our road. I guess he was concentrating so hard on driving around the gate that he missed all the No Trespassing and Road Closed and No Hunting and Property Of signs. There were quite a few.

I drove up to look at the scene. There were quite a few gouge marks, some paint transfer, and some slicked down spots where the tires had spun so much they'd cooked the ground.

The water bar was fine, though.

 

[madhatte]

He was also upset about the "obstacle" as called it, in our road. I guess he was concentrating so hard on driving around the gate that he missed all the No Trespassing and Road Closed and No Hunting and Property Of signs. There were quite a few.

THIS

This is the stuff Forum Gold is made of.

I'm gonna pass this on to our guy whose responsibility such things inevitably become. He'll get a kick out of it, I promise.

 

[Oldtimer]

Those are speed bumps. The skidder drivers put the "water bars" in at the end of the job here, and the skidder drivers are all 18-23 year old boys. One loooong skid road (Like 1.2 miles) I maintain for use as a club snowmobile trail has "water bars" so deep that I couldn't get over them on a long-track snowmobile...and there was 4' + feet of snow. No lie, they are at least 6' deep and the berm is at least 4'. They knew it was a trail too. Things look small from the seat of a new 748H Deere.

 

[northmanlogging]

Was about fifth in line behind a crazy guy the locals might know from a saw shop in Trafton... going very fast in deep fresh snow... saw the tail lights in front of me just disappear into one of these big holes. about an hour later Rod came back to laugh at us as we shoveled the guys brand new sled out from under 10' of snow

 

[slowp]

It was the last week of work for my summer job. I was seatbelted in the middle of the seat of a green Dodge pickup. The two guys I was working with had just accepted jobs with a company in Alaska and were never going to work for the FS again. The road we drove in on had waterbars. On the drive back, they look at each other and say, "You know, we won't be working for the FS anymore. LET'S SEE HOW MUCH AIR WE CAN GET!" Amazingly, the Dodge survived the rough ride and so did I.

 

[Joe46]

I was mountain biking in the Little Naches River area. They used mostly fire hose on a lot of the trails. I was going too slow. Front tire hit one the bike stopped, I didn't. Had quite a laugh at myself( so did my son)!

 

[Dalmatian90]

He had to call a tow truck from town. The tow truck company refused to enter private property. The deer hunter had to have a buddy come in and pull him off the water bar. I guess they were there 'til way after dark.

Hope the tow truck driver had the good sense to ask for his credit card to pay for the service call BEFORE he told him about the no private property rule