3-Point Hitch Clearing rocks and stumps

   / Clearing rocks and stumps #1  

Jnasystems

Silver Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
125
Location
Waukesha Co, WI
Tractor
1986 Ford/NH 1520, 1950 Allis Chalmers WD, 2001 NH EC35 (track hoe)
Hello, I have about 3.5 or so acres under some power lines and the power company cleared it and left quite a mess. We were thinking about what we could do with the land that would also be productive and thought that planting corn and pumpkins would be nice. The problem is that there is a bunch of "mulch" (sticks about 2ft to 5th in length and shredded), stumps (mostly 3" and smaller) and rocks (up to 2ft in diameter) to remove before I can plow it. I have 2 tractors I could use, a Kubota BX 2360 with a loader and box blade or a 1950 Allis Chalmers WD with a rear blade.

I thought I would need to buy something to do this job, maybe a sub-soiler. My WD doesn't have a 3pt - would the BX be up to this job? A 3pt for the WD is about $350 and would be handy for other implements so I may get one anyway. Is the sub-soiler even the right implement? Everything-attachments had a video of a root grapple that looked to be the best tool, but I would need to rent a skidsteer to use one of those. How long would it take to prepare the area to plow with a skidsteer and root grapple?
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps #2  
I'd rent a good sized skid steer to tackle the job then keep it maintained with your tractors.

I have a little more land then you and powerlines cross my property in the rear. I don't really have the rocks (there are a few see pics) but what I did was use a 100HP RC100 ASV skidsteer to clear the junk and use my Mahindra 2516 to bushhog it a few times a year. I am lucky to have a friend who owns a rental company ;)

Pics...

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I used the skidsteer to clear out some huge pines for the driveway too.... That is me standing on the bucket ;)
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps #3  
That old WD with a subsoiler would dig up the rocks pretty well I think, but if you have big ones like janasystems it isnt going to roll those out and you for sure arent picking them up with a BX. Best thing would be to rent a piece of equipment for a couple of days to do the job. You could use a subsoiler if you had one on the WD to locate and flag the area that it stalls on and do some excavation around it then to expose the large rocks and maybe drag them out with a chain with the WD
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps #4  
Have you consider renting dozer..dozer to rough it out,and your tractor for final touches.
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps #5  
Rent an excavator and knock is all out in a day, use your equipment for final clean up.

Rent with thumb.

Will be money well spent, I've done it a number of times.

Joel
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps #6  
For what it costs to rent equipment around here, I've found it's cheaper to fine a local excavator who has some "spare time" to come in and do it for me. I've had him do a couple things around my place that I could do on my own, with something rented. However, he was able to do it much quicker than I could. I'm sure it was cheaper than renting something for a full day when he was able to knock it out in a couple hours.
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps #8  
My personal experience with rocks is if you have lots of them on the surface you'll have lots of them below the surface. It could take a lot of work to get the land to a point where you can farm it.
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Egon said:
Do you have a plow for WD?:)

Ya, I didn't include it in the list above because I didn't think it would be usable in this situation without wrecking it. It is a 3 bottom.

I didn't think about more rocks below the surface. The idea about ripping it up and marking the tough spots seems appealing. That would help reduce rental time. Hiring it out is one option I probably won't entertain as this is a hobby and I want to do it all with just my family if possible.
 
   / Clearing rocks and stumps #10  
A couple of clydesdales and some chain will pull most of the small stumps. ;)

If it's a hobby thing and time isn't an issue, the rocks can be picked by hand...the ones too heavy to lift will have to be dug up though.

You can build a stoneboat from a telephone pole cut into four foot lengths. Brace between the pole with dimensional lumber (the bigger the better) and top with plywood. Bolt a chain, one end to each piece of telephone pole, so it forms a V that can be attached to the tractor hitch.

Now you have a low platform to throw stones on by hand. This is great, especially if you have kids because you can drive the tractor slowly while the kids pick the stones.

We used to do this when we were kids. The tractor, which was also used to pull small stumps and largish rocks, was a Cockshutt 30.

Odd fact about stoneboat usage...once we grew up and weren't readily available as free labour, my grandfather bought a stone picker. Funny how that worked out.
 
 
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