Seeking Help with moving sandstone blocks

[zzvyb6]

Since you will be moving afew dozen followed by any number of more 'few dozens', why not make a rock tong (like an ice tongs) that clamps squarely onto the stone 'bricks' and then lets you place them perfectly where you want them. You could then enlist your wife to help guide the stones into place without worrying about her safety, fingers, etc. With the right grips, the stones will be secure AND scratch and dent free. From my experience, carrying them is not the problem, final placement is. When I built the pyramids, we lost a lot of slaves not from transporting the large megaliths from the quarrys, it was from the insistance Pharoh put on us that they be very close together, so that even a sheet of paper could not fit between them And thin bond paper hadn't even been invented yet...

Happy Pharoh, Happy life !

 

[lennyzx11]

Another vote for a grapple.

 

[rd_macgregor]

I built some low walls around flower/shrub gardens in the yard a few years back using old foundation stones. I didn't yet have a grapple; the largest stones nearly filled my 6' bucket and, even with filled rears, it was hard to stop going downhill(!).
I moved the stone on the lawn using rollers cut from 3" logs and prying with the back of a shovel. Once positioned at the lip of my foundation trench, I just tipped the stones in and did a little final position adjustment with the shovel, as needed.
If you can figure how to do nearly all this with machinery, it will really be a lot easier and safer.

 

[Grandad4]

I have to transport the blocks only a couple of hundred feet, but the ground slopes about 15 to 20 degrees between the two pads.

Can you go straight up and down the slope? Any side-slope travel can get very dodgy with such a load up front and the backhoe in back. I did work with similar loads in the FEL bucket last fall on a comparable slope, heading forward and straight downhill with each load. The backhoe, being more than double the weight on the front, kept the tractor well planted on the hillside and also helped with traction climbing back up the hill in reverse. Work was only done in dry conditions, again for maximum traction. I concluded this is a job where a hydrostat shines. You do not want to be clutching even momentarily on a 20 deg slope with 5 tons of tractor and payload while you position precisely or go from F to R.

 

[jenkinsph]

After 11 years with a 110tlb I don't see moving the blocks down the hill with forks being a problem.