How to move boulders?

[studor]

Here is an interesting gadget made up to transport rocks on the three point

Jinma 224

 

[zmoz]

But the hard lesson I learned on my property is that often those rocks are just the "tip of the iceberg"!!!

Hmmm....I have a few pounds of black powder. My uncle used to blow through the rocks with dynomite, back when they let you do that sort of thing without calling you a terrorist. LOL

Another thing I was thinking about is the possibility of drilling some of the rocks out for fountains. I've seen some REALLY absurd prices on those at rock places!

 

[schmism]

rock sled

the redneck version was a car hood upside down with a chain run through some holes punched in the front end.

skid to location and use an A frame to load onto a trailer.

 

[JohninCT]

Here is an interesting gadget made up to transport rocks on the three point

Jinma 224

Hey that is a cool gadget. Thanks for posting the link.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Here is an interesting gadget made up to transport rocks on the three point

Jinma 224

Now I know what to build this winter.

Lloyd

 

[brin]

My (great)uncle owns almost a square mile out in the middle of freakin' nowhere, including like half a mountain. There are nice granite boulders scattered around his property that would be worth tons of $$$$ installed in people's yards back where I live. He's getting very old and is now living in an assisted living facility, so he could use a little extra income. As such an old timer, I think he'd be amazed at the idea that I could actually sell his rocks for top dollar. LOL

Anyway, as a bit of a tractor newbie, what would it take to move say 3-4 foot around boulders, like you'd use for landscaping? What sort of impliment would you use to avoid making scars in the rock?

Landscapers don't necessarily want gigantic boulders...keep it simple and stick to boulders that are a reasonable size..break them on site with a skid steer and you can load them into a dump truck..a used skid steer and dump single axel dump truck is all you would need..My JD 3020 with FEL handled the boulders we used around our house for landscaping just fine..don't try to move mountains..just make big rocks into manageable ones and the equipment would not be that expensive..If you just had a used 60 + hp tractor with a front end loader and loaded the big rocks for the landscapers..most of their trailers would hold what they need..Go for it !

 

[J_J]

Even if you had to split a large boulder, when the boulder is set on the ground, no one knows that it has a flat bottom. Take one large boulder, split , and sell as two.
Same size diameter at base

Someone makes a products that you bore several holes into the stone/boulder, and add some compound, and let it sit, and the chemical action causes the material to expand, and the stone/boulder is split.

 

[brin]

Exactly JJ...I remember seeing that product, plus as I recalll yu can just drill some holes and hammer a wedge and it will split...Big rocks into small ones..easy as that. You nailed it too !

 

[J_J]

Here is the stuff I am talking about.

Western Blasting Technologies

http://www.demolitiontechnologies.com/


Betonamit, or S-Mite, Bristar

 

[GPintheMitten]

I've done a lot of moving heavy stuff with levers and other tools that spread work over longer distances and over time. That's the whole principle behind levers, ramps, screws, chain falls etc.

I like the car hood ideas and have done similar things but not with a car hood. Good idea.

I bet I could place those rocks on a trailer for you safely with a medium sized tractor. Having a loader would be a plus but not necessary.

I loaded 1000 pound steel beams on on a pickup from the ground without any more than hand tools.

 

[Egon]

Dexpan is another product.

I prefer the feathers and wedges. That satisfying clunk when the rock splits instead of the Twang before it splits.

 

[harpoonalt]

A 1000 mile round trip? Might I suggest it would be cheaper to start a "Stone busines" at the location and just have stone for others to come get. You might arrange a deal with a few local landscape companies and you just harvest the product. I don't see you making a profit from just selling the large landscape stone as your only product, especially with the equipment needed.
I understand the wanting a tractor. I built a house where I am mostly to get out of town and be able to work outdoors. My wife claims it was just to have an excuse to get a tractor. Partly true, I guess. It's something I never get sick of.
If money is no object, then by all means, go for it and have fun. If you need this to be a profitable venture then more research into what you'll need and the market for the stone needs to be researched. Others are great at telling you how, (the car hood is priceless), and it can be done, but I like numbers and they don't look favorable for you and a profit.

 

[charlz]

A few years back I saw a thread on a gardening forum about some people making a 'quarry' in their back yard. Here is how they moved a lot of the stones:

From what I recall that is some kind of old car wrecker they found in a junk yard??

For reference and the story here are the links to the threads on that other forum. Quite the story and absolutely beautiful results.

Stone Collecting: Beware! - Gardening with Stone Forum - GardenWeb
Stone Collecting Pt 2: The Quarry Garden - Gardening with Stone Forum - GardenWeb

 

[3RRL]

Even if you had to split a large boulder, when the boulder is set on the ground, no one knows that it has a flat bottom. Take one large boulder, split , and sell as two.
Same size diameter at base

Someone makes a products that you bore several holes into the stone/boulder, and add some compound, and let it sit, and the chemical action causes the material to expand, and the stone/boulder is split.

JJ,
This is an old thread where I used TBN advice to split rocks:
Bustin' Up Boulders
It's got lots of photos and even a crummy video. Egon even commented in that old thread.

 

[GPintheMitten]

I would tend to agree that the market issue is what needs to be explored.

I think the cost of rocks, stones, sand etc., is mostly made up of value added processing, not the actual raw product where found. The cost of extraction and transportation, including machinery, fuel, and labor, is probably the biggest cost in any of these things.

You also need to consider the rarity or not of your product. If you are going to offer it up for sale asis, whereis, then the buyer can supply all the processing but the value is lower. And can they get the same raw product down the road a quarter mile.

Let me give you an example. At a Lake Michigan lake shore community, people get a lot of sand blown up in their yards. You see signs "Free Sand". Down the street, there is a sign that says "Free-er Sand". But if I order a 11 yard truck load of sand delivered to my house, it is probably going to cost at least $110.

 

[deepNdirt]

I know this has not been mention and might not necessarily be worth the time I take to write it down, about 12 years ago I worked for a building company of new homes, They were doing the development of a new subdivision here in Dacula Ga, You may remember hearing of this, one of the equipment operators was digging and dug up some Old Indian artifacts and many boulders with inscriptions carved into them, the development was halted for 4 months while they brought in the Archaeologists to extract all of these things, actually I think the citizen and county had stopped the developers from doing anymore work on that particular faze of the subdivision, and is still been untouched,
I worked in this subdivision for 3 years on many many homes and actually forgotten about all of that until now, funny how a mind will start slipping when you hit 40's and now at 50 I suddenly start remembering things

But really this bit of info was just to let you be aware you might stumble upon something worth more than the value of old boulders

 

[Redneck in training]

Here is the stuff I am talking about.

Western Blasting Technologies

Chemical Demolition Agent: Non-Explosive Concrete Demolition


Betonamit, or S-Mite, Bristar

Drill the holes or cut a slot in the stones when the weather is nice. Wait till winter and pour water in the holes. Let it freeze and it could split the rock. I think that how it was done in the old days. Read it somewhere.

 

[J_J]

Good demo, Thanks to Rob for the pictures and video. I knew the stuff existed, but have never seen it work or had occasion to use it. Someone mentioned the diamond saw, and cutting slits, and chipping the rest. How well did the diamond cut into the stone or was it cement? Rob, I supposed you could have used a shop vacuum to suck out the dust. , since you had the generator.

I believe it was Hannibal , when crossing the Alps, a huge rock was in the way, and some of his engineers came up with the idea of building a fire around the boulder, and after getting it very hot, they poured water on it and it split in several pieces, removed it, and made their way through the pass.