Gravel Driveway or Asphalt ? Rust Prevention

Anyone has concrete evidence that using an asphalt driveway prevents rust on cars?

I know this is maybe a loopy question, but I am starting to suspect that my gravel/soil driveway is part of my rust problems over the years as they spend a lot of time in the driveways.

 

Dirt/dust can hold onto moisture and promote rust. It also LOOKS like rust. That’s the only thing I can think of.

 

I've heard of this, not necessarily asphalt vs gravel, but anything that can retain moisture can cause corrosion issues over the long run. So, I would suspect gravel to be worse.


That said, without some careful study, it would be hard to say that gravel was the problem instead of all the other crap your vehicle encounters (salt, for example.)

 

The only reason that I think my gravel driveway is the problem, is that I noticed over 20 years or so, that my neighbour who have asphalt has way less rust problems than me. I treat my Cars better in my opinion. Mine were garage kept, but also spent time on the gravel. Theirs always parked outside on the asphalt. They had in general way less rust problems. I dont drive on dirt roads otherwise.

 

What kinds of vehicles does the neighbor Have and what rust prevention measures have been done to them??

Where does your truck live ??

If you think this is a serious issue make yourself a black Top or concrete parking pad .

Many of my vehicles are parked in Stone parking areas If I have more rust hard to say.

Most of my Rust Problems are from Liquid Brine.

 

My cousin swears his gravel/clay driveway ate his Mercedes, his Chevy Silverado and Honda Civic. I have crushed stone, no problems. It’s worth taking note that all three casualties of his were fairly low to the ground . Rarely do you see a rot box that sits up

 

Gravel refers only to the size of the material. The actual type of rock varies from area to area of the country. Rock yards use local materials, either dug form the ground or seined from local rivers. So, the dust that results from rock yard processing and then from customer driving over the gravel can release differing amounts of iron in it. Dust gets in places and can be hard to get out. Exposed iron plus water = Tacoma nightmares. There's that.

Then, if the driveway, or gravel road if you reg drive them, has curves the stones get thrown at an angle up from the tires and hit the underbody/frame/sides in a bigger area than driving straight. Stones hitting your frame or body, for example, chips away the paint and ED (primer). Since you drive fairly slow on a driveway, this is more about driving gravel roads, but still applicable. Tread type obviously also in play here.

If you look at the sides of many vehicles you will see clear "chip tape" applied at the factory. The placement is determined by studies showing where rocks thrown up by tires (factory spec size tires!) will hit the side of the vehicle. On trucks, you'll often see it on the front lower edge of the bed side.

Do these kind of things result in the correlation you propose,...? I'm not a smart man (best Forrest Gump voice).

 

I believe your cousin is 100% right. This sounds exactly like my situation. I have HEAVY clay on my property. Like you said, one of my Mercedes's got eaten and that car was not treated. That one I finally treated and it is now stable.
My volvo and my E320 I treated, and they have 300,000 miles on them with no problems.
The Volvo is a bit of an unfair test, as Volvo Zinc dipped the bodies before Ford/China bought them out and the Benzes not.
The real joke here is on Mercedes as they used to Zinc dip their bodies way back, and Volvo seemingly copied them, only now to have Mercedes drop that the last two decades as I can remember, and Volvo still using it. GM only started to Zinc dip their frames in 2014 as I can remember.

The cars I did not treat rusted way faster than my neighbours who had asphalt. It was stark. My treating of the underside works by my humble 20 year experience, and there is also something really bad with clay soil and gravel vs asphalt. My Cutlass Sierra e.g. was fine when I got it in 2001 on the underside, but I did not treat it. My neighbors had one too. Mine rusted up within 5 years on the underside to the point that all the hydraulics failed, and the floor pans wanted to fall out. I had to scrap it. My mechanic at that point who inspected the car when I bought it, exclaimed that this kind of rust over such a small time is almost impossible.

It truly looks like it is my extremely heavy clay soil that is the culprit. Looooots of iron in the red clay.

I just hate asphalt, but I maybe have no other option to use it.

 

It takes a smart person to know that he is no smart.
Only fools believe they are clever.

What you say makes a lot of sense.

 

I answered most of this in the immediate responses. Basically same car/year. Neighbour did nothing to the car and neglected it.
As to salt here on the roads. It is not even remotely as heavy as up North so it is not really the dominant force.

I am starting to think from the responses that his asphalt is what is saving his cars and my clay that is destroying the cars I did not give an undercoat.

 

There is a difference between dirt/gravel and paved driveways. Dirt/gravel lets moisture in the ground come up and constantly keeps your under carriage damp. Paved driveways block that moisture from coming up and when it gets sunny out, the pavement dries out along with the moisture. I had a 91 Ford F-150, garage kept, no rust at all. I sold the truck to brother in law in 2002 who has a dirt driveway. Within 2 years the under carriage, frame, brake lines and body were rotting out.

 

Oh dear. Let me see if I can help with this.

First off- iron content in your soil has nothing to do with it. The oxidation state of iron is not contagious - hematite in your soil for example doesn't decide that other forms of iron need to be in Fe2O3 format also. The chemistry just doesn't work that way.

Clay content might have something to do with it, but this is a big conjecture. It really depends on the type of clay. Some clays are known for sponging up water (colloquially known as swelling clays, aka your home foundation's worst nightmare). In turn this would make your driveway slightly more humid than your neighbors as those clays exhale water. Increased humidity plus increased dust to adhere that humidity to your frame, then yes, your corrosion rate would be slightly higher.

So you have 2 issues. A slightly more this environment that's low to the ground, and higher dust. The most effective way to eliminate both is to pave your driveway. If you want to stop your clays from storing/releasing water the cheap way, spread a few bags of quicklime over your gravel and gently water it in.

 

Here’s a thought. Salt residue that rinses off your vehicles builds up in your driveway gravel over time. Then any time you get driveway dirt on your cars it has salt in it. Your neighbor doesn’t because the salt runs off the asphalt and kills the grass instead.

 

I plan on covering my crushed stone w/ reclaimed asphalt gringings and rent a compactor. My neighbors have it and it looks really nice, stays tight and can be snowblown. Cheap too. 4 bucks a yard here...

 

I always wondered who buys contaminated asphalt grindings and what in the world they do with it.
Learned something new.
Thanks

 

Nah, I only purchase organic asphalt from rarely traveled Vermont country rds.... they use the contaminated stuff to eternally refill the potholes on Brambleton Ave in downtown Norfolk.

 

$4 per yard for Extra Virgin Dino droppings is really really really cheap.

 

If any one is interested in flooring for a shelter logics garage floor; Embarased to say I know what doesen't work. flat area with 3/4 crushed stone over black plastic film. With a shelter logics garage over it. The plastic keeps water like a bowl and it wicks up through the rocks and keeps everything in side wet. We screwed up with a capital F. So in the spring I will be covering the crushed stone with plastic (I will punch some major holes in the lower plastic for drainage. ) then plywood sheet over the plastic.

Got another one set up like that and no moisture.

FWIW from my life experience: parking on any thing other then asphalt or concrete is the same - both very bad for corosion.

in all cases though, I strongly recommend fluid film.

 

Like Gyrkin said:
I am pretty convinced it is my driveway causing the discrepancy.
Regarding brine drips as one poster mentioned. That is particularly true.
My garage has white deposits on the cement floor after the water dripping down evaporated.
It is a good point, as the buildup in the gravel would become severe over time I guess.

That point alone make me think that asphalt will help a lot.

Also what Actionjackson said. That confirms mys suspicion, which created this thread. Good info.

Iron stakes just corrodes off on the soil boundary extremely fast in my red clay.
I noticed it over the years. Rebar Stakes I used in my garden would just corrode off about 1/2-1" in below the clay soil line.
We moved to plastic covered rebar now for stakes.
So the iron rich clay soil definitely is part of the problem.


I contacted several suppliers of recovered asphalt and pavers the last few months and for some reason they dont respond. That is responding to their local advertisements. It seems that they all closed down in my area, probably not a necessary business.

So I am seemingly forced to do it myself anyway.

If I do, I want to first lay a brick outline. It makes things way easier to level the asphalt millings before compacting.

 

again this is just my observation. My future son inlaw uses compacted millings in a few places and it holds up good. I wish I used it first in my shelter.

But compacted millings is my choice behind cement and asphalt. If I had it to do over.