Are rocks heavy or what ?

[Treemonkey1000]

markct,
The car hood seems to be the faster way of getting the job done!
Now the question is Ford or Chevy?

We all know that Ford hoods are the only good thing to use them for..
Before anyone jumps on me I am only teasing...If you want some real metal try a Mercedes or Volvo hood.....

 

[ehchvac]

The easiest, most durable stone boat I ever made, and still have 25 years later, was made from cutting an old home heating type 275 gallon oil tank to the desired shape.
Took about a 1/2 hour to figure out what I wanted and to cut it out with the torches.

 

[markct]

I don't think it would be a good idea to hook to the 3 point! Use the drawbar for safety.


Jack

yea i meant the 3pt drawbar not the toplink! with the 3 pt and a short chain you can get a little lift on the front of the stoneboat to help with traction and keep it from digging in.

 

[Steve_Miller]

Earlier this fall I went down back to get some big rocks out of my blueberry field.I only have my FEL to work with ,but still was very impressed with what I could pry out of the ground.I was dissapointed that I couldn't pick them up though. Most of the rocks where about 2' -3' in size. After cranking up the HP had no problems rolling them over by rolling my FEL , but still would not pick them up. Yesterday I went down [after the ground froze ] and pushed them over to the rock walls that border my field. I guess the weight of rocks can be deceiving. I know that when my flail mower came I picked it up, and that was around 700lbs. It lifted that like nothing. So what was that saying "How much does a hen weigh?"

Just as a rough figure to use, rock weighs somewhere around 180 - 190 lbs per cubic foot. Porous rock such as sandstone will be less and lead/zinc or iron ore will obviously be heavier. Concrete is somewhere in the vicinity of 150 lbs per cubic foot.

Steve

 

[jinman]

The car hood seems to be the faster way of getting the job done!
Now the question is Ford or Chevy?

The best hood is the one you can steal off the pickup in your neighbor's driveway when he's not lookin'.

 

[studor]

If you have a lot of hills or are going over uneven terrain, go for the style with runners instead of the hood or flat sled type. While in most cases the weight of waht you are pulling will make it a non issue, it is better not to have a heavy weight at ninety degrees to the back of your tractor on very slight side hill!
Don't ask me how I know!

 

[First one]

If you have a lot of hills or are going over uneven terrain, go for the style with runners instead of the hood or flat sled type. While in most cases the weight of waht you are pulling will make it a non issue, it is better not to have a heavy weight at ninety degrees to the back of your tractor on very slight side hill!
Don't ask me how I know!

O.K. I've got to ask What happened? It sounds like maybe you might have some good advice on what not to do!

 

[markct]

ok i can understand the warning about sidehills, but wow ya must have a greased lawn or something, i never could get anything to slide that easy! usualy on a sidehill the thing just towed a bit to the side, still plenty of drag. had the rock roll off a few times but never the stone boat take off sideways!

 

[mtg65]

A stone boat sounds like the ticket. Would like to make one out of wood ,but have never seen one . As far as the size and what to use -like 2x10s or what? I'll have to find a pic. of one to see how to do it, thanks!

I used a stone boat before I bought a tractor with FEL. It was very effective in moving large heavy stones. I would roll heavy rocks on to it using a pry bar and would pull the boat with my JD1010 dozer.

I found this book: The Art And Craft of Stonescaping: Setting & Stacking Stone very helpful in explaining technics on moving and setting stones.

 

[mtg65]

My "stoneboat" is very expensive, but effective. Even so, I've sure had some rocks that humiliated me and my tractor. Here are some photos of one of the largest I've moved any great distance, from the woods to my rock garden. It was 6' wide and over a foot thick.

Also, in the last two pictures, I show how I tried to lift one rock with a chain from my rock bucket. In the first picture, I had the chain wrapped around the front of the bucket tines and my loader couldn't lift the stone. In the second picture, I moved the chain back toward my QA adapter and that made the stone managable. My rock bucket and grapple weigh about 750 lb, so I could easily have lifted the rock if I had removed the grapple, but I like a challenge.

Ok..the heck with the stone boat..get what jinman has! That rock bucket is awesome!